Reverse proxy--the concept and difference between forward proxy and reverse proxy

The concept of a forward proxy

The forward agent, the legendary agent, works like a springboard,

To put it simply,

I am a user, I cannot access a website, but I can access a proxy server

This proxy server, he can access the site that I can't access

So I first connected to the proxy server and told him that I needed the content that I could not access the site

Proxy server go fetch it back and then return it to me

From the point of view of the website, there is only one record when the proxy server is fetching the content.

Sometimes not know is the user's request, also hides the user's information, depending on the agent does not tell the website

The conclusion is that the forward proxy is a server between the client and the origin server, in order to get the content from the original server, the client sends a request to the agent and specifies the target (the original server), and then the proxy to the original server

Transfer the request and return the acquired content to the client. The client must make some special settings to use the forward proxy.

The concept of reverse proxy

Continue with examples:

Example user Access Http://ooxx.me/readme

But there's no Readme page on ooxx.me.

He was secretly taken back from another server and then spit it out to the user as his own content.

But the user does not know

This is normal, the user is generally very stupid

The ooxx.me mentioned here has the reverse proxy function set by the server that corresponds to the domain name.

The conclusion is that the reverse proxy is just the opposite, for the client it is like the original server, and the client does not need to make any special settings. The client sends a normal request to the content in the reverse proxy's namespace (name-space), and then reverses the

The manager will determine where to forward the request and return the obtained content to the client, as if it were the original content itself.

Difference between the two

From the use to say:

A typical use of a forward proxy is to provide access to the Internet for LAN clients within the firewall. Forward proxies can also use buffering features to reduce network usage. A typical use of a reverse proxy is to provide the server behind the firewall to Internet users for access. The reverse proxy can also provide load balancing for multiple servers in the backend, or provide buffering services for servers with slower back-end.

In addition, the reverse proxy can enable advanced URL policies and management techniques so that Web pages that are in different Web server systems exist simultaneously in the same URL space.

From a security standpoint:

A forward proxy allows a client to access any Web site through it and hides the client itself, so you must take security measures to ensure that only authorized clients are serviced.

The reverse proxy is transparent to the outside, and the visitor does not know that he is visiting an agent.

Reverse proxy--the concept and difference between forward proxy and reverse proxy