The internet protocol (ip) allows computers on different networks to connect to each other using a world-wide addressing scheme.
Clients often borrow addresses from whatever network they have connected to at the moment.
Servers tend to stay put longer and keep ip addresses for months or years. Even so, the Domain Name system (dns) allows servers to move or networks to be reorganized while preserving a published name.
Network address translation (nat) has preserved the limited capacity of ip4 addresses for unexpected decades by requiring all computers on a local area network (lan) to share one public address. A router manages this translation and can be configured to send inbound traffic to specific computers based on port addresses.
Carefully configured routers are sometimes called firewalls because they limit what connections can get into a lan from the public internet.
Some routers are configured to run web traffic through relay programs called proxies. These provide the network engineer increased control over communications through a firewall.
Traditionally a proxy controls how a lan user accesses the public internet and a reverse-proxy controls how users on the public internet access resources behind the firewall.
Poorly configured proxies can prevent the wiki client from operating correctly in highly controlled environments.
Properly configured reverse-proxies can help a simple program like the wiki server meet the the networking requirements of large institutions.