Proxy
A proxy is a server that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers.
As an intermediary between different network segments, the proxy facilitates the communications between parties that normally cannot or are not allowed to communicate directly.
ETH Zurich offers a local proxy (proxy.ethz.ch) for network segments that cannot communicate directly with the Internet.
The proxy allows computers that are not directly connected to the Internet to make use of internet services. An example of such computers, are the computers in a private IP-address range.
To allow broader access to scientific publications for ETH employees, the IP-address of the proxy server is registered with several publishers of academic publications. By connecting via the proxy, the ETH employees have access to these publications.