Proxy Servers
The main advantage of proxying seems to be that decisions to allow or
disallow connections can be made based on more extensive
information. Not only the headers of packets, but also the content gets
examined. Specific commands can be filtered out, content can be
screened and monitored, and so on. Inevitably, quite considerable
performance degradation will occur.
Conclusion
In short, packet filtering and proxying represent two extremes of a
spectrum: the former takes place at the lowest possible layer to make
security-relevant decisions (the Internet layer), whilst the latter works
at the highest possible layer (the application layer). Therefore, both
have their merits, and the best results seem to be obtained when they
are combined.
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