From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Feb 22 08:12:21 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 56EDA16A4CE for ; Sun, 22 Feb 2004 08:12:21 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.2.69.218]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9981B43D1D for ; Sun, 22 Feb 2004 08:12:20 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk (localhost [IPv6:::1]) i1MGCFuV001485 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Sun, 22 Feb 2004 16:12:15 GMT (envelope-from matthew@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: (from matthew@localhost)id i1MGCFQ7001484; Sun, 22 Feb 2004 16:12:15 GMT (envelope-from matthew) Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 16:12:15 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman To: Rob Message-ID: <20040222161215.GA1165@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> Mail-Followup-To: Matthew Seaman , Rob , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <4038C549.1020702@users.sourceforge.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="PEIAKu/WMn1b1Hv9" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4038C549.1020702@users.sourceforge.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-4.9 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=2.63 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Is inetd a proxy server? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 16:12:21 -0000 --PEIAKu/WMn1b1Hv9 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Mon, Feb 23, 2004 at 12:05:45AM +0900, Rob wrote: > I don't know much about proxy servers, so I read the handbook on this iss= ue. > When reading the proxy server paragraph in the firewalls section, I=20 > concluded > that my inetd superserver is a kind of proxy server. Is that right? Not really. Inetd is a program for marshalling other servers. It accepts an incoming connection, works out what service it's for, fires up the appropriate server to deal with it, and substitutes that server for itself on the end of the connection in order to receive the request. So with inetd, you end up dealing with the real server that can handle your request. A proxy listens to all of your request, and then opens up a second connection to the real server (or another proxy) for you and replays your request to it -- so all of the traffic is relayed through the proxy. The point of having inetd(8) is that it provides is a mechanism so that you don't have to have umpty-dozen different small servers running all of the time and taking up your process space. It's less important nowadays than it used to be, considering how the price of memory and CPU has fallen, so running loads of different things isn't so problematic anymore, and how the emphasis now is on security -- which means not running those services you don't have an immediate use for -- and speed -- where it's better not to have a process do all of it's initialization stuff on each connection. Cheers, Matthew --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK --PEIAKu/WMn1b1Hv9 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFAONTfdtESqEQa7a0RAkwGAKCFVtNIdDs4TRRCMa9a6sbdf/c6CgCeMxBL 9yEPcR8FMKUiaTJMbWVykE8= =tC6E -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --PEIAKu/WMn1b1Hv9--