Online databases and electronic journals subscribed by the William and Mary Libraries are restricted, by the vendors, for use by William and Mary students, faculty, and staff.
Most online resources the library subscribes to control access by computer Internet protocol (IP) addresses. These resources are set up to allow access from anyone coming from a campus IP address, and to refuse access to those coming from elsewhere.
To provide access to these subscribed resources for William and Mary students, faculty, and staff when they are off-campus, a proxy server is needed. A proxy server is a on-campus computer that serves as an intermediary between off-campus users and restricted online resources.
Off-campus users connect to the proxy server, login to verify they are affiliated with William and Mary, then the proxy server connects to the resource for them and passes information back and forth. Since the proxy server is coming from on-campus, its IP address is accepted by the online resources.
Most proxy servers in use today require users to set up their browsers to connect to the proxy server being used, and may also need users to turn on the proxy connection when they need it and turn it off when they do not.
The library's proxy server requires no configuration on the user's part. The connection to the server is encoded into the hyperlinks to databases and other resources on the library's web pages. When you click on a link to an online library resource, the proxy server checks whether your computer is on-campus or off.
In reality, the library's proxy server is not actually a proxy server, it's a URL rewriter. It rewrites the URLs of restricted sites so users appear to be coming through the proxy server's IP address.
While it achieves the same effect, this way of proxying reduces (though does not totally eliminate) the problems encountered by users who may be utilizing another proxy server - from a corporate computer or a proprietary service like AOL or Prodigy.
Many remote users have experienced frustrations when the proxy server used as part of their service could not communicate through another proxy server. The library's proxy server's method of proxying cannot eliminate all problems, but should reduce them, and provide more options if certain corporate or dial-up connections still have difficulties.
