What Is a Reverse Proxy Server?

What Is a Reverse Proxy?

Reverse proxies are servers which sit in front of a web server, and are tasked with intercepting requests from the web server, and doing something with them before forwarding them to the web server. Common reverse proxy tasks include the following: Reverse proxy authentication. Reverse proxy SSL termination. Reverse proxy caching. Reverse proxy request rate limiting. Reverse proxy handling. Automation of reverse proxy tasks. In this post, we'll take a look at how a reverse proxy works, what it does, and how to set one up. Why Use a Reverse Proxy? This question is one of the most common ones that we get asked, so let's look at the why's: Reduce latency. A web server is only so fast; it's a lot easier and more efficient to have a server sit in front of the server and reduce the number of requests it needs to handle. Reverse proxies are great at this, as you can add them in front of your web server and do all the heavy lifting of processing requests before forwarding them to there, so you can get the benefits of a web server without needing to worry about its limitations. Improve Performance Scalability. As an example, you have a web site that receives over 80,000 hits a day. If your web server is the only thing processing those requests, then you're going to run into problems pretty quickly.

Having a reverse proxy in front of your web server can help to dramatically improve performance and scalability. Think of it like that web application firewall (WAF) in the cloud, except without the cloud.

Improve Security. Web servers are great at keeping everyone secure, but they're not designed to be secure. There are a lot of open security flaws within them, they're very poorly managed, and as a result there's a whole industry dedicated to finding, exploiting, and exploiting these vulnerabilities for money.

What Is a Reverse Proxy Server?

We've all seen it in our web browsers. It's the little padlock that appears on a site's address. It's what makes sure that no one can access that site without a password, or even worse, without the right to surf.

But what is it, exactly? A reverse proxy server is simply a server that acts as a gateway between a website and the rest of the internet. It watches incoming requests on a domain, and changes where they go, and where the data is sent.

As it's name suggests, in a reverse proxy, the website is seen as the domain, whereas the greater internet is the proxy. Last time we looked at a reverse proxy, it was a little over a year ago - Back when we watched the Raspberry Pi 2 launch, and wrote about how to use it as a reverse proxy to your home network. No time like the present to learn how to use it as a reverse proxy for your own network and for access to larger networks, like the internet. How Do I Use a Reverse Proxy? So, why would you use a reverse proxy? If you're using a Raspberry Pi 2 as a reverse proxy, it's because you: Have a local network with a firewall. Want to be able to access your local network from the internet. Want to keep your internal network more secure. Want to control what you can access on the internet, without getting your hands dirty with the details of your own network. If you're using your Raspberry Pi as a reverse proxy for a larger network, it's because you: Want to be able to access a greater network from your own home. Want to control what you can access on the internet from your own home. Want to prevent your home network from leaking out to the internet. Get a Squid Proxy Server Setup on Your Raspberry Pi 2. Next, we got on to the initial setup you need to get your Raspberry Pi up and running to serve as a reverse proxy. With all that done, we can now install Squid as a reverse proxy.