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Demystifying Forward and Reverse Proxies
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Today we are going to discuss web proxies. Most of us have worked with proxy servers. We at DLT Labs work with both forward, and reverse proxies.
But, before we dive into proxy servers, we must first understand: what is a proxy/proxy server?
A proxy server is a server that acts as a middleman in the flow of your internet traffic so that your internet activities appear to come from somewhere else.
Now that you know what a proxy is, let us return to our topic of discussion: web proxies.
Proxies are of two types: Forward proxy and Reverse proxy.
Forward Proxy
Whenever we talk about proxies or proxy servers, we are often referring to a forward proxy. Let me explain what a forward proxy server actually does.
A forward proxy provides proxy services to a client or a group of clients. Moreover, these clients belong to a common internal network. In other words, it retrieves data from another website on behalf of the original requestee.
We can understand this better with an illustration: