A rchive Date
[ 13-06-2000 ]
Category
[ Information Technologies ]
sub-Categoy
[ Microsoft ]

http://www.zdjournals.com/ewn/9909/ewn9991.htm

Installing and configuring Microsoft Proxy Server 2.0

Microsoft Proxy Server enables you to configure a server to both provide firewall security when connecting your network to the Internet, as well as to enable users to share a connection to the Internet. In this article, we're going to look at some of the features of Microsoft Proxy Server and show you how to install and configure it.

September 1999

Features of Proxy Server

Microsoft Proxy Server includes features that enhance its security, performance, and ease of management. For example, Proxy Server enables you to configure many security features in order to protect your network from unwanted inbound connections (user connections to your network from the Internet) and to control users' outbound connections to the Internet. Some of the security features in Proxy Server include the ability to dynamically filter both inbound and outbound packets (based on protocol or IP addresses) and the ability to notify you by email if a protocol violation occurs. Proxy Server's performance enhancements include the ability to cache the Web pages most frequently requested by your users on your Proxy server. Because these Web pages are stored locally on the Proxy server, users can access Web pages by downloading a local copy rather than downloading the same pages from the Internet. Thus, the Web cache reduces the numbers of pages your users must download across the Internet.

Finally, Proxy Server has several features that make it easy to manage, such as its tight integration with Windows NT Server. Proxy Server's integration with Windows NT means that you don't have to create user accounts in both places (Windows NT and Proxy Server). Instead, users can access the Proxy Server by using their regular old Windows NT accounts. Proxy Server also includes the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). Thus, you can manage multiple Proxy servers from within a single instance of the MMC.

Requirements for installing Proxy Server

Table A describes the hardware and software requirements for installing Proxy Server 2.0.

Table A: Hardware and software requirements

Hardware/Software component	Minimum configuration
Processor	Intel 486/33 MHz or faster RISC-based
RAM	24 MB for the Intel platform; 32 MB for the RISC-based platform
Partitions	NTFS (if you want to enable Web caching)
Available hard disk space (to install Proxy Server)	125 MB for the Intel platform; 160 MB for the RISC-based platform
Available hard disk space (for Web caching)	100 MB, plus 0.5 MB per user
Connectivity	Modem, ISDN, ADSL, or dedicated leased line connection to the Internet
Operating system	Windows NT Server 4.0 with Service Pack 3 or later
Other software	Microsoft Internet Information Server 3.0 or later Microsoft TCP/IP

Installing Proxy Server 2.0

Once you've got the prerequisites installed on your server, you can install Proxy Server. Start the installation from your CD-ROM by running the Setup utility in the Proxy server folder. After agreeing to Microsoft's license agreement, you'll be prompted to enter your CD Key next. Type your CD Key in the text boxes, and then click OK. Next, verify the folder in which you want to install Proxy Server. If necessary, change the folder, and then click Installation Options. As shown in Figure A, you can choose whether you want to install all or only some of the available options, including Proxy Server, the Administration Tool, and the Proxy Server Documentation.

Figure A: You can choose to install some or all of the Proxy Server components.
[ Figure A ]

When you're ready, click Continue. At this point, Setup must stop your Internet Information Services (such as the WWW Service) before it can install Proxy Server.

Next you'll be prompted to configure your server's cache settings, as shown in Figure B.

Figure B: You can enable or disable caching on your Proxy server; if you enable caching,
you can control how much disk space is reserved for caching.
[ Figure B ]

By default, Setup enables caching on your server and reserves 100 MB of disk space on your server's NTFS partition. Microsoft recommends that you set your server's cache to 100 MB, plus 0.5 MB for each user who will access your server.

For example, if you have 50 clients who will access the Proxy server, you should enable a cache of 125 MB. When you've configured your server's cache, click OK.

Next, Setup prompts you to specify the range of IP addresses on your internal network you want to permit to use your Proxy server. In our example, we're using IP addresses from 100.100.1.1 to 100.100.1.254 on our internal network, as shown in Figure C.

Figure C: You must specify the range of IP addresses you want to permit to use your Proxy server.
[ Figure C ]

Once you've entered your internal IP addresses, click OK to continue.

You'll now see the Client Installation/Configuration dialog box shown in Figure D.

Figure D: Proxy Server Setup uses the information you enter in the Client Installation/
Configuration dialog box to configure your Proxy server clients.

[ Figure D ]

Proxy Server uses the information you define in this dialog box (such as your server name) to create a setup script for installing the Proxy Client software on your clients. By default, Setup configures the setup script to identify your server by its name (in our example, SERVER) rather than its IP address. Click OK to accept the default client configuration options.

Next, Setup prompts you to specify whether you want to enable access control for the WinSock Proxy and Web Proxy Services, as shown in Figure E.

Figure E: You must enable access control for the WinSock Proxy and Web Proxy Services
if you want to control users' access to your Proxy server through permissions.
[ Figure E ]

If you don't enable access control, you won't be able to restrict users' access to the Proxy server via permissions. Click OK to accept the default access control settings.

At this point, Setup installs Proxy Server on your server. You'll now see a message reminding you that Proxy Server includes options for configuring packet filtering to secure your server. Click OK to close this message box. When the installation is complete, click OK to close the message box stating that the installation successfully completed.

What's changed on your server?

The Proxy Server installation makes several changes to your computer, including installing the Web Proxy, WinSock Proxy, and Socks Proxy Services. Proxy Server includes all three services because different applications use different services to connect through a Proxy server. For example, Internet Explorer uses the Web Proxy Service to connect through a Proxy server. In contrast, an application such as RealAudio uses the WinSock Proxy Service to connect. In addition to the Proxy Server Services, Setup copies the HTML-based documentation for Proxy Server to your computer. Setup creates a cache drive on your NTFS partition, and configures the client installation software. Setup copies the client installation software into the folder \msp\Clients on your server's hard drive; Setup shares this folder as

mspclnt

. When you're ready, you'll connect to this share to install the client software on your clients' computers.

Configuring Proxy Server

Now that you've installed Proxy Server, you can go in and configure its services. Specifically, you'll want to specify which protocols you want to enable through the Proxy server and configure users' permissions. You configure Proxy Server by opening the MMC utility from the Microsoft Proxy Server program group. As shown in Figure F, you configure the proxy services by expanding your server's container below Internet Information Server. (Depending on which components you've installed of Internet Information Server, you might not see all of the components in this figure on our server.)

Figure F: The MMC displays the Socks Proxy, Web Proxy, and WinSock Proxy Services
below your server within the Internet Information Server folder.

[ Figure F ]

Configuring the Web Proxy Service

At a minimum, you need to configure your server's Web Proxy and WinSock Proxy Services to specify clients' permissions and the protocols you want them to be able to use across the Proxy server. Begin by configuring the Web Proxy Service. In the left pane of the MMC, right-click on the Web Proxy Service; from the shortcut menu, choose Properties. To configure clients' permissions, select the Permissions tab. Because you enabled access control during the installation of Proxy Server, you should see that Enable Access Control is already checked on your server. However, none of your users have been given permissions to use the ftp, gopher, secure, or www protocols on your server.

To configure users' permissions, begin by selecting the protocol you want to enable users to use on your server from the Protocol dropdown list. (You can configure users' permissions for the ftp, gopher, secure, and www protocols; users use these protocols whenever they use applications that connect through the Web Proxy Service.) Next, click Edit to display the Permissions dialog box; you can use this dialog box to add users whom you want to enable the protocol.

Click Add to display a list of groups and users from your server's domain. In our example, we wanted to enable all of our users to use the Proxy server. Thus, we chose the group Everyone from the list of Windows NT groups, as shown in Figure G.

Figure G: You can configure which of your domain's users can access the Proxy server.
[ Figure G ]

Note that although you see a dropdown list for specifying the type of access users can have to your server, your only available option is Full Access. Click OK to save the permissions assignment. Repeat these steps for each of the protocols you want to enable users to use through the Web Proxy Service on your Proxy server.

Configuring the WinSock Proxy Service

To configure the WinSock Proxy Service, display its Properties dialog box by right-clicking on the WinSock Proxy Service in the left pane of the MMC. Now, select the Permissions tab. Similar to the Web Proxy Service, you should see that access control is enabled on the WinSock Proxy Service. You can choose to assign permissions to users for each of the protocols, or you can choose the Unlimited Access option, as shown in Figure H.

Figure H: Use the Unlimited Access Protocol option to assign permissions
to an individual user or a group for all of the WinSock Proxy Service protocols.
[ Figure H ]

For example, if you wanted to give all of your users access to all of the available protocols that use the WinSock Proxy Service, you should choose the Unlimited Access protocol and grant permissions to the group Everyone, as shown in Figure I.

Figure I: Granting access to the group Everyone for the Unlimited Access Protocol
enables all of your users to use any protocol through your Proxy server.
[ Figure I ]

Alternatively, if you don't want all users to have access to all protocols, choose the individual protocols you do want them to use from the Protocol dropdown list. Then, grant access to the Windows NT user or group that you want to use these specific protocols.

The next step

Once you've finished configuring your Proxy server, you'll need to configure your clients. You configure a Proxy Server client by first logging on at the client's computer. Next, connect to the Mspclnt share on the Proxy server. Double-click on Setup.exe to start the client software installation on your computer.

Conclusion

In this article, we looked at the features of Microsoft Proxy Server. We also provided you with a list of the hardware and software requirements for installing Proxy Server, and then walked you through a basic installation of a Proxy server. Finally, we showed you how to configure the Proxy Server Services.

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