A proxy server is a dedicated or can be called as the proxy computer or a software running on the computers that act as an intermediate between the endpoint devices, such as a computer or may be another computer which act as a requesting client whereas a free proxy server acts as the same as the proxy server but it is free to install. The proxy server may exist on the same machine as firewall server or can also be installed on the different device, through which requests can easily be forwarded to the firewall.
Number of free proxy servers can be installed which can act as the intermediate device between the computer and the server and its cache can easily aid all the users. If one or more internet sites are frequently requested, these are likely to get collected in the proxy’s cache which indirectly helps the user to improve the retrieval time for the particular query. A proxy can also log its interactions, which can be helpful for the troubleshooting.
When a proxy server receives a request from the internet source, it looks the requested content in the cache and if it is not available, then it requests the same content out from the internet. But if the requested content is available in the local cache, the proxy server loads the page from the local cache which is more efficient and less time taking process for the user. When the new page is returned, then cache saves the new retrieved page and when user will demand the same page in the future the cache will load the page.