Proxy vs Reverse Proxy
Hello guys, I was just reading a bit about proxy and reverse proxy. Can someone confirm whether my understand is correct please:
1. In proxy (forward proxy), the proxy hides the ip of the clients, so we don't know who request what.
2. In contrast, for reverse proxy, the ip of the servers are hidden. We don't know how sent what.
Can someone explain why proxy and reverse proxy are important please. I read that reverse proxy is used for load balancing because when we send a request, the reverse proxy can decide which server to use in contrast with forward proxy (does forward proxy only has one server?).
9 Replies
If the role of a proxy is just to "hide" IP addresses, then how is it different from a VPN?
Proxies do more than hide an IP though, and less than a VPN too. They're fundamentally different tools that operate on a different network layer in the OSI model iirc
a forward proxy lets the proxy server control the traffic for the client, for example, and modify HTTP requests as necessary, where a VPN is just a virtual network cable that doesn't change the traffic at all
reverse proxies also have additional functions, like HTTPS offloading or exposing services that aren't otherwise open to the internet for security or ease of configuration reasons
forward proxies also let you connect to the internet for certain protocols without the client otherwise having access outside of the local network, and the proxy can monitor the traffic going out so it can filter it for security reasons
hmm the role of a VPN, was never to hide our ip address? it's just a tunnel to communicate over a network ?
A VPN hides your IP address by being a tunnel to communicate over a network
Proxies can do that, sure. But they do a lot more besides
For example, NGINX and Caddy are both reverse proxies that are used to, well, proxy HTTP requests coming into a server to the right port, while also being an HTTPS terminus: they handle all the TLS stuff needed for HTTPS to work and your web server only needs to worry about HTTP, since the only way it communicates to the outside world is through the reverse proxy.
yeah I see, in real world, for real applications, the back-end server ports are never revealed to the public world? We always use a proxy for security reasons ?
correct, "it hides your IP", while true, is also NordVPN Marketing BS, and a side effect of what it really is
yeah I see, I think there's a huge miss-conception (well where I'm from), people say vpn "hides your ip" yes but that's never it's primary role, it's just a consequence of what it does... maybe due to vpn description being wrongly stated for marketing stuff like you said :c
the thing I've used VPNs for the most is to connect to datacenter networks remotely
it's a security / networking tool misused for """privacy"""
yep I see
Thanks !