[plug] multiple web clients accessing a single site via proxy

[Sol Hanna]

hi all,

This isn't strictly a Linux question, but after googling for info on network 
proxies, I've drawn a blank and am not sure where to turn. The problem is 
next week I'm back at work (as a high school teacher) and I want to take 
advantage of some web 2.0 kinda sites (eg: wordpress) to make my classes my 
engaging and relevant. But I had a bad experience in a yr8 media class last 
year when I was trying to get the class to sign up for some free web space 
(on geocities if I remember right) to post some static pages they'd designed.

They all applied for registration, but when they tried to log on, all hell 
broke loose. Some students found that they were logged in under the user 
names of other students. Many students found themselves blocked by the site. 
I deduced that this was because there were 22 students trying to log onto the 
same site at the same time, and cookies were getting routed to the wrong 
browsers. 

The school runs a network proxy through which all web traffic runs. I know 
enough about proxies to know that all traffic emanating from behind the proxy 
appears to the web servers as if coming from a single host. So matching the 
cookie authenticated requests from each browser  is a very difficult task for 
the web server if the browser requests are occurring near-to simultaneously.

Are my conclusions about the problem correct? And if so, is there anything I 
can do if I want a class of students to register and use a site during a 
session without these nasty consequences?

TIA; sol
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Sol Hanna
sol.hanna at three.com.au