What is the basic idea behind 305 Use Proxy?

Dear All,

Please, ignore this mail if this is a FAQ.

I wonder what the basic idea of the Use Proxy status code is.

The spec says:
"The requested resource MUST be accessed through the proxy given by the
Location field. The Location field gives the URL of the proxy. The
recipient is expected to repeat the request via the proxy."

Does it mean that HTTP/1.1 would encourage the use of 'downstream'
caches?
How can one make difference between a proxy and a browser in a *reliable* 
way?

Thanks in advance.

Bertold

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 Kolics, Bertold                             E-Mail: bertold@tohotom.vein.hu
 University of Veszprem, Hungary        W3: http://tohotom.vein.hu/~bertold/
 Information Engineering Course
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Received on Monday, 24 February 1997 06:35:00 UTC