What's the difference between forward proxy vs reverse proxy? Which one should I use? Alternatively:

Great question! Forward proxy vs reverse proxy can be confusing at first. Think of a forward proxy like a middleman for your employees—it hides their IPs and can block sketchy sites. A reverse proxy is like a bouncer for your servers, handling traffic and load balancing.

Real-world example: Companies use forward proxies to monitor employee internet use. Reverse proxies? Think Cloudflare—it protects websites and spreads traffic.

For setup, Nginx is killer for reverse proxies. Squid works well for forward proxies.