What is the difference between the UW Libraries Proxy server and an Open Proxy?
The UW Libraries spends significant time and money in negotiating and signing contracts for UW-only access (faculty, staff, students, walk-ins) to expensive online resources, such as eJournals. These contracts often state that the UW must make reasonable efforts to restrict access to only UW users; therefore the UW Libraries makes available an authenticated proxy service to allow only UW users remote access to these restricted resources. For information about the UW Libraries' proxy service, check out the "Getting Connected Page"
An Open Proxy server is an unauthenticated proxy server that opens a door that allows anyone access to these same expensive restricted resources, regardless of their affiliation. An open proxy server is either accidentally, unknowingly, or deliberately misconfigured to provide anyone free access to expensive UW-restricted resources.
Recently vendors discovered a couple of Open Proxies at the UW, which severely jeopardize the licensing agreements that the Libraries holds with the vendors. Fortunately, the vendors allowed us time to shut down the offending unauthenticated proxy servers. Vendors normally respond to Open Proxies by shutting off the offending UW computer's access to their resources, but in a more serious case, the vendor might shut off access to the whole UW.
More information about "Open Proxies" is available from JSTOR at:
http://www.jstor.org/about/openproxies.html
and
http://www.jstor.org/about/open_proxy_faqs.html
If you run a proxy server at the UW, you can check that your server isn't acting as an "Open Proxy", by using this tool.
If you are running a proxy server and have any doubts or questions about it, then please contact one of the following:
Until July 16, 2004, the UW is participating in a beta test of the new interface for Books@Ovid. If you are a current UW student, staff or faculty member only and would like to try it out, go to the user authenticated "Get Password" link shown above to get connection information.
The Wellcome Trust, the Joint Information Systems Committee and NLM are joining forces to digitize the complete backfiles of a several medical journals, some dating back more than 125 years. The digitized content will be placed in PubMed Central, NLM's free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences literature. For more information see the Wellcome Trust page.