masqerading vs. application proxy

From: Waldemar Brodkorb (waldemar@thinknow.de)
Date: 09/27/01 

Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 20:47:32 +0200
From: Waldemar Brodkorb <waldemar@thinknow.de>
To: focus-linux@securityfocus.com
Subject: masqerading vs. application proxy
Message-ID: <20010927204731.G5527@thinknow.de>

Hello *,

I have a question about firewall's and security on linux.

Is there an advantage to use application proxy's instead of a
masqerading box to secure a LAN with private IP addresses from
the dangerous internet.

I don't mean danger from inside the LAN (which could be solved
through user authentication, IP-based ACL's ...).

When I have to allow users inside my network the use of IRC, ICQ,
RealAudio/RealVideo or FTP (with a real FTP client), is then an
application proxy more secure than masqerading?

Under application proxy's I understand the use of squid
(for http/ftp/https) or dante (for socks5 aware applications).

thanks for any comments.

    bye
        Waldemar