The difference between a forward proxy and a reverse proxy

The forward proxy, the legendary agent, works like a springboard. Simply put, I am a user, I can not access a website, but I have access to a proxy server, this proxy server, he can access the site I can not access, so I first connected to the proxy server, told him I need the content of the site can not access, proxy server to fetch back, and then return to me. From the point of view of the website, there is only one record when the proxy server is fetching the content. The conclusion is that the forward proxy is a server that is located between the client and the original server (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 the agent forwards the request to the original server and returns the obtained content to the client. The client must make some special settings to use the forward proxy.

Reverse proxy. For example:

Example user access Http://ooxx/readme but there is no Readme page on Ooxx He is secretly taken back from another server, and then spit it out to the user as his content, but the user does not know it is normal, the user is generally very stupid, mentioned here Ooxx This domain corresponds to the server set up the reverse proxy function, the conclusion is 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 the reverse proxy determines where (the originating server) forwards the request and returns the obtained content to the client, as if the content had been its own.

The difference between a forward proxy and a reverse proxy, from a usage perspective:

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.

Open Reverse proxy applications: Nginx and nat123. Nginx is a simple reverse proxy, you need to set up a reverse proxy service to use, high efficiency. Nat123 is a combination of NAT and reverse proxy applications, can be used directly, to solve 80 port problems, such as fast.

The difference between a forward proxy and a reverse proxy