The usual proxy server, which is the forward proxy, is used only for proxy connection requests from the internal network to the Internet, and the client must specify a proxy server and send HTTP requests that would otherwise be sent directly to the Web server to the proxy server. Because the host on the external network does not configure and use this proxy server, the normal proxy server is also designed to search the internet for multiple, uncertain servers instead of accessing a fixed server for requests from multiple clients on the Internet. Therefore, the normal Web proxy server does not support external access requests to the internal network. When a proxy server is able to proxy hosts on an external network, this proxy service is called a reverse proxy service when it accesses the internal network. At this point the proxy server is represented as a Web server, and the external network can simply treat it as a standard Web server without the need for a specific configuration. The difference is that the server does not save the real data of any Web page, all static Web pages or CGI programs are stored on the internal Web server. Therefore, the attack on the reverse proxy server does not cause the Web page information to be destroyed, which enhances the security of the Web server. There is no conflict between the reverse proxy mode and the packet filtering method or the normal proxy mode, so both methods can be used in the firewall device, where the reverse proxy is used for external network access to the internal network, and the forward proxy or packet filtering method is used to deny other external access and provide internal network access to the external network. This way, you can combine these approaches to provide the best secure access. Reference: Reverse Proxy
Reverse proxy | Differentiate from forward proxy
