What is the Proxy Server?
Because our electronic resources are subscription products (we pay money for them), for legal reasons we must limit access to current Temple students, staff, and faculty. This is done by limiting access to certain ranges of computer IP addresses. Every computer connected to the Internet has an IP address (in some ways similar to a telephone number) that is provided by the computer's Internet provider (a home service like Comcast, a company in which the computer is located, or an institution like Temple).
IP addresses that are allowed access to our resources are based on computers in Temple's network (which is why you don't have to login to resources when you are on campus).
When you are off campus your computer will not have a Temple IP address, but by connecting to the proxy server before accessing restricted resources, those resources will view your IP address as that of the proxy server itself. You therefore appear to the resources as part of Temple's network and are allowed access.
In practical terms, this is done with a prefix added to the URLs that are restricted. While the normal URL for the database Academic Search Complete is:
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=a9h
When the proxy prefix is added it is:
http://libproxy.temple.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=a9h
The added prefix is the way the computer knows to go through the proxy before getting to the database. It is also what will cause you to have to login with your AccessNet account before accessing the resource. The library has already added this prefix to all links on our website going into restricted resources.
