Proxy host... what is it

I have a server running Win2K (server). I know it is behind a firewall and I have asked my provider to open up certain ports but how do I know if I have a proxy host and what it is?
Thanks
Michael

What do you mean by proxy host? An HTTP proxy server (forward or reverse) or a NAT router, etc.

To be honest I haven't a clue... I'm just a programmer that now runs the IT dept so I get lost sometimes :) My server is hosted by Rackspace if anyone is familiar w/how they work.

Michael

They are more than likely asking so they can determine what IP address you will be coming from. You asked them to open some ports and, depending on the ports you asked them to open, they probably want to open it just for you.

A Proxy server is like a middle man for Network to Internet communications. All your network traffic will go to the proxy server and it will actually be the computer going out and getting your web pages. In english: It's a way for all your computers on the network to access the Internet while only using 1 Internet IP address.

Most routers today have NAT and PAT built-in that will accomplish this much more efficiently than a proxy server.

As far as what to tell the company hosting your server, just give them the External block of addresses your Internet Service Provider gave you. They can open the ports for that block.

Thanks for the info. The reason I am asking is cos I am dealing with a second company that will have a piece of software (batch files basicly) that transfers xml files to a directory from their server to a directory on my server and I am having a hard time getting it to work. In their documentation they say if I am behind a firewall or proxy server to set three settings and one of wich is "proxy server name" so thats why I was confused.
Michael

The IP address you are giving them must be a public IP. You also must have the ports open on your side that the software requires.

Since you don't have an IT department I will assume you are a small company with a business DSL (or similiar) line. It is likely that your DSL router is NAT'ing the server's address. You will need to assign a static public address so that your other company can send the files to you.

From what I can tell we arn't giving them an IP address but rather the batch file is calling their server from my server and then comming back.
Yes we have a NAT router here at the office but our server is hosted elsewhere.
(just noticed you're a fellow Houstonian... howdy :) )
Michael