Re^2: Inconsistent errors when trying to establish SSL-connection

[noxxi]

It is perfectly normal to proxy HTTPS with a a HTTP proxy. Proxying HTTPS is done by making a CONNECT request to establish a tunnel and the speak the normal TLS inside the tunnel. Thus you have still all the protections offered by TLS. See RFC 2817 section 5 for more details.

[hippo]

Thanks for the pointer to RFC 2817, which explains a lot. It does still leave me wondering quite what the purpose is of using a proxy in such a situation. It can't be caching because the proxy cannot read the content and it can't be monitoring for the same reason. Any thoughts?

[noxxi]

A proxy is not necessarily a caching proxy. Often proxies are employed at firewalls or similar to enforce policies which sites can be visited and to filter traffic. In these cases use of a proxy is mandatory, i.e. there is no direct way to the internet.