Proxy Service Home Page

Proxy Server Setup Instructions

Frequently Asked Questions

Known Service Problems
(Macintosh users, IE 4 or IE 5 users please read)

Troubleshooting Checklist

Resources that are unavailable through the Proxy Server

Proxy Server Problem Report Form



How the Proxy Service Works

The proxy server acts as an intermediary between your computer and the Library's licensed electronic resources by virtually providing your machine with a UC Berkeley IP address.

Our vendors generally serve their content freely to any computer on the UC Berkeley campus network, viz., any computer connecting to the internet from the ".berkeley.edu" domain, or any computer connecting with an IP address that is within the range of addresses known to belong to the UC Berkeley campus network. They typically refuse connections from machines outside the ".berkeley.edu" domain.

So if your computer is connecting to the internet from outside the ".berkeley.edu" domain, the Library's licensed resources will refuse your requests for data. Either they will reject your connection outright, or they may present you a logon screen where one would enter a subscriber's username and password.

However, if you configure your browser to use the Library's proxy service, your browser sends requests for the Library's licensed electronic resources to the proxy server, and the proxy server requests those resources for you. Since the proxy server is a computer in the ".berkeley.edu" domain, the vendor serves the data and the proxy server forwards it to your browser.


Copyright (C) 1999-2001 by The Library, University of California, Berkeley. All rights reserved.
Document maintained on server: http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu/
Last update 11/05/2003. webmaster@proxy.lib.berkeley.edu