4.7.2.1. Transparent and non-transparent modes

HttpProxy is able to operate both in transparent and non-transparent mode. In transparent mode, the client does not notice (or even know) that it is communicating through a proxy. The client communicates using normal server-style requests.

In non-transparent mode, the address and the port of the proxy server must be set on the client. In this case the client sends proxy-style requests to the proxy.

Example 4.6. Proxy style HTTP query
GET http://www.example.com/index.html HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com
Connection: keep-alive
User-Agent: My-Browser-Type 6.0

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Connection: close
Content-Length: 14

<html>
</html>

In non-transparent mode it is possible to request the use of the SSL protocol through the proxy, which means the client communicates with the proxy using the HTTP protocol, but the proxy uses HTTPS to communicate with the server. This technique is called data tunneling.

Example 4.7. Data tunneling with connect method
CONNECT www.example.com:443 HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com
User-agent: My-Browser-Type 6.0

HTTP/1.0 200 Connection established
Proxy-agent: My-Proxy/1.1
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