Great question! The proxy vs reverse proxy thing can be confusing at first. Think of a regular proxy like a middleman for *you*—like when you use a VPN to hide your IP. A reverse proxy is a middleman for the *server*, like when Cloudflare sits in front of a website to protect it.
For tools, check out NGINX for reverse proxy setups or Squid for forward proxies.
Overlap? Rarely, but some setups use both—like a company might use a proxy for employee browsing *and* a reverse proxy for their web servers.
For tools, check out NGINX for reverse proxy setups or Squid for forward proxies.
Overlap? Rarely, but some setups use both—like a company might use a proxy for employee browsing *and* a reverse proxy for their web servers.