Real-world example:
- Forward proxy: Your company uses it to monitor your web browsing.
- Reverse proxy: Cloudflare sits in front of websites to protect them.
For a home lab, a reverse proxy (like Nginx or Apache) lets you run multiple services on port 443 without conflicts. Plus, it adds SSL and can block sketchy traffic.
Forward proxy? Only if you're trying to mask your home lab's outbound connections (which is rare).
- Forward proxy: Your company uses it to monitor your web browsing.
- Reverse proxy: Cloudflare sits in front of websites to protect them.
For a home lab, a reverse proxy (like Nginx or Apache) lets you run multiple services on port 443 without conflicts. Plus, it adds SSL and can block sketchy traffic.
Forward proxy? Only if you're trying to mask your home lab's outbound connections (which is rare).