It's also known as a proxy or proxy server. It is a software program for servers which serves as an intermediary between a the server and the client on the internet. With no intermediaries, a customer could make a request for every resource straight to the server and the server will serve the requested resource directly to the user. While this procedure is easy to comprehend and implement with proxies, it can provide advantages in the form of higher performance as well as privacy, security and more. As a layer of pass-through, the proxy functions as a security guardian of the internet between the servers and clients.

In general, the system of hardware for servers as well as software for proxy installation is usually referred to in the context of proxy servers. In this article, we'll focus on proxies typically understood as software, as well as the ones used to complement web servers. You will get a breakdown of the two major kinds of proxies: a forward proxy and a reverse proxy. reverse proxy. Each kind of proxy has its own specific usage scenario, which is often misunderstood due to the similar naming convention.

This article will give you an understanding of what proxies and their subtypes are and what they can do for common setups. Through this article, you will be able to identify the scenarios in which an effective proxy can be advantageous, and then choose the right solution between forward and reverse proxy for any particular scenario.

Understanding Forward Proxies

In other words forward proxy, is also known as the open proxy is a representative of the client who is trying to transmit requests via the internet to the server from which it originated. In this case, the entire request to send it by the client will be handled by the forward proxy. In this case, this forward-proxy acting place of the client will review the request. The first step is to establish whether the client is authorized to send requests via this particular forward proxy. The forward proxy will then deny this request as well as forward it to the server that originally sent it. The client is not able to connect directly to the internet. It is only able to access what forward proxy grants it access to.

The most popular uses for forward proxies is to provide greater privacy or security on the internet. A forward proxy is able to connect to the internet in lieu of a client, and, in doing so, can use an alternative IP address in place of the original IP address of the client.

Based on the way it was set up in the past forward proxy servers are able to provide a variety of functions and allow you to:

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  Avoid ad tracking.
  
  
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  Circumvent surveillance.
  
  
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  You can identify limitations based on your geographic location.
  
  

Forward proxies are also used for security systems that are centralized and permission based access, such as at work. If all internet traffic flows through an open forward proxy, administrators can restrict access to certain individuals to access the web, and this is filtered by an common firewall. Instead of putting firewalls in place to protect the client layer which could comprise a range of machines that have different user and environment and environment, a firewall may be placed on an intermediate layer.

Be aware that forward proxies must be manually set up to function, but reverse proxies are not noticed by the client. Based on whether the IP address of a client is passed to the original server through the forward proxy, privacy and security could be granted or left unnoticed.

There are a variety of options to investigate to find forward-looking proxy services:

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  Apache is an well-known open-source web server that provides forward proxy capabilities.
  
  
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  Nginx: Another well-known open-source server used for web hosting with forward proxy functions.
  
  
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  Squid is an open-source forward proxy which utilizes the HTTP protocol. This does not include an entire web server. We have a tutorial on how to configure Squid proxy to allow private connections to Ubuntu 20.04.
  
  
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  Dante Forward Proxy that utilizes the SOCKS protocol instead of HTTP, making it more suited to cases like peer-to-peer connections. You can also examine how you can configure a Dante proxy for private connections using Ubuntu 20.04
  
  

Understanding Reverse Proxies

Reverse proxy functions as an agent for a web server, handling incoming requests by clients on its behalf. This server can comprise a single server, or multiple servers. It could also serve in the role of an application server, such as Gunicorn. In any of these situations it is possible to get a request from a client on the internet. In the majority of cases, this request will go straight to the web server that hosts the services the customer needs. Reverse proxy is an intermediary, separating Web servers from direct communication with the internet.

From a user's perspective, which is the user's perspective using reverse proxy isn't different from connecting directly to your website server. It's the same thing, however the client isn't able to tell the difference. The customer makes a request for an item and receives it with no additional configurations that need to be completed by the customer.

Reverse proxy proxies can provide some features, including:

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  A central layer of security to protect the server.
  
  
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  Controlling traffic that is inbound on rules that you can establish.
  
  
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  A new feature to cache has been added.
  
  

Central security is an advantage of both reverse and forward proxy services, reverse proxy providers provide this benefit to the layer of the internet server, rather than that layer of the internet server, which is called client. Instead of focusing on the maintenance of firewalls in the layer of web servers, which might contain several servers that have different configurations, the majority of firewall security is targeted at this layer. Additionally, getting rid of the necessity of interfacing with firewalls and also interacting with the requests of clients from web servers enables them to concentrate solely on meeting the needs of their customers.

If there are several servers using a reverse proxy the reverse proxy takes care of the way requests are routed to which server. A number of web servers could be providing the same content but they may offer different kinds of content or a mix of them. They may be using the HTTP protocol just like a standard web server, however they might also use applications server protocols such as FastCGI. You can also configure reverse proxy in order to redirect the clients towards specific servers in accordance with the service requested, or to observe certain guidelines for traffic load.

Reverse proxies may also make use of their position in front of web servers by providing the ability to cache data. Large static files may be managed by using caching rules that prevent the web server from being hit on each request Certain solutions offer the possibility of providing static files directly without touching the web server at all. Furthermore, the reverse proxy could manage the compression of these assets.

The well-known Nginx web server is a well-known reverse proxy solution. However, the Apache website server equipped with reverse proxy functionality and is an alternative choice for Apache as opposed to Nginx was initially designed for and focused on reverse proxy functionality.

Distinguishing Forward Proxy from reverse Proxy Use Examples

Since "forward" in addition to "reverse" are both associated with a sense of directionality, and false comparisons between "incoming" as well as "outgoing" traffic. These labels can confuse because both types of proxies handle requests and responses. Instead, a better way to differentiate between forward and reverse proxy services is to consider the requirements of the application you're creating.

Reverse proxy can be useful in designing a solution that can provide web-based applications on the internet. They are your web servers in all interactions on the internet.

Forward proxy can be useful when used on the internet in front of traffic from clients to your personal use, or for work. They represent the traffic of your clients every time you connect to the internet.

Differentiating by use case rather than focusing solely on the common naming conventions will help in avoiding confusion.

Conclusion

This article will explain what a proxy is with the two main types, namely the reverse and forward proxy. Examples of practical applications as well as an examination of important characteristics were used to determine forward proxies and reverse proxies. If you're interested in learning more about the process of implementing proxy servers, check out our tutorial on how you can configure Nginx as a reverse and web server proxy on Apache on one Ubuntu 20.04 server.

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