Q:

Does all traffic pass through a proxy server?

I'm a fuddling level computer user (do everything myself for friends and family)
I'm thinking about setting up an old Mac Mini to act as a distant proxy/vpn server.
What I'm not clear about is; does all traffic pass through a proxy server? In other words, if I connect to my proxy server then browse the internet via a wifi hotspot somewhere, is all the traffic passing through the proxy server, prior to being passed on to me? So would the speed of the connection be dependant on the upload speed of the proxy server?
Thanks for any help anyone can give.
Grant

A:

A proxy server is essentially the middle man. You request data, that goes through the proxy server to your isp. Your isp sends that data back to your proxy server then your proxy server sends it to you. 
So yes, all data will go through the proxy. 

