A Reverse Proxy Is A Proxy By Any Other Name

This paper will cover the concept of a Reverse Proxy by defining what it is and how it differs from a forward proxy. We will cover the benefits and drawbacks of using this technology as a part of our network infrastructure, along with the security advantages and possible risks. This paper will follow the flow of an HTTP request through the firewall, to the Reverse Proxy, to our backend HTTP servers and then back to the requestor. We will also discuss two different Reverse Proxy infrastructure designs and the pros and cons of each of design. And finally we will cover setting up a working Reverse Proxy using the Apache, showing how the concepts of a Reverse Proxy are implemented. Apache is used in this paper for our Reverse Proxy since there is an implementation available for most platforms and it is free. In the end, assuming you already know how to install Apache, you should be able to implement a working Reverse Proxy on an Apache Web Server.