In the previous two blog posts, we discussed about forward and reverse proxies. In this post, we will look at a real example and see how we differentiate between the two. The word proxy describes someone acting on behalf of anyone else. In the world of computers, we are talking about one machine acting on the behalf of another machine. Students do this in real life because they don’t want to attend all the classes, but they want the attendance. Well, machines don’t want to attend all the classes either! So let’s go ahead and see what those differences are and how we can understand them.   Continue reading “Forward Proxy vs Reverse Proxy” →

In the previous blog post, we discussed about proxy servers. Proxy servers basically act like buffers that monitor everything that comes into the user’s machine. We talked about why we need them and how they are used in real life scenarios. We used the analogy of what a person aims to achieve when he proxies for another person. He basically acts on behalf of that other person. Now how would we extend that analogy to explain reverse proxy? Just like how students proxy for fellow students, reverse proxy can mean professors proxying for each other. Does that sound right? What exactly is a reverse proxy and why do we need it?   Continue reading “What Is A Reverse Proxy?” →

If you are a techie, regardless of the field you are in, you must have heard the term “proxy server”. If you are a web developer, you would hear that term a lot! Off the top of your head, what do you think a proxy server is? It’s basically very similar to what a person aims to achieve when he proxies for another person. That is, to act on behalf of that other person. Remember the good old college days when this used to happen a lot? It was frowned upon by the professors back then. But now, it makes up for a good analogy to discuss an important concept. Now why would we need a proxy server? Why can’t we just talk directly to the actual server and leave this whole proxy thing aside?   Continue reading “What Is A Proxy Server?” →