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Networking Intermediate

What is Reverse Proxy?

A server that sits between clients and backend servers, forwarding client requests and returning server responses on their behalf.

A reverse proxy accepts requests from the internet and forwards them to backend servers. Unlike a forward proxy (which serves clients), a reverse proxy serves the backend infrastructure. Clients interact with the proxy, unaware of the actual servers.

Benefits include load balancing, SSL termination, caching, compression, and security (hiding backend server details). Nginx and Apache are popular reverse proxy solutions. CDNs like Cloudflare act as global reverse proxies.

Related Terms

Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A geographically distributed network of servers that caches and delivers web content from locations closest to users for faster load times.
Network Monitoring
The practice of continuously observing network infrastructure to detect failures, performance degradation, and security threats.
Network Bridge
A device or software that connects two or more network segments at the data link layer, forwarding traffic based on MAC addresses.
Overlay Network
A virtual network built on top of an existing physical network, enabling features like container networking and VPNs.
HTTP/HTTPS
The protocol used for transferring web pages and data between browsers and servers, with HTTPS adding encryption.
DNS (Domain Name System)
A hierarchical naming system that translates human-readable domain names into IP addresses.
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