Re: Reverse proxy ??

Eric,

Your definition of reverse proxy is NOT correct. What you refer to as reverse proxy below is, in fact, a caching
proxy which pre-fetches the data to cache. From the MS Q196312 KB article (for want of a better source):

"Reverse proxying is a feature ... that enables clients to send requests to a Web publishing server
connected behind the Proxy Server computer. You can place your Web server behind the Proxy Server
computer to publish to the World Wide Web without compromising the security of the Web server or its
data. [The] Proxy Server "impersonates" a Web server to the outside world, while your Web server maintains access
to internal network services."

This is the 'reverse' of a caching proxy, where the Proxy Server would cache data from the Internet on behalf of
users on an Intranet. With a reverse proxy, you hide access to an internal web server behind the proxy server.
Users on the Internet would use the proxy server URL to access data on the internal web server via the proxy. They
would not, however, know the actual location of the data. As far as they know, the data is being served by the
proxy server.

Regards

Eric Toll wrote:

> I feel no one has clearly said what a Reverse Proxy is.
>
> Proxy: is a entity which takes client requests,
> goes and gets it on the net and saves it to its disk, (in case anyone else wants the same item - caching)
> then serves it up to the client. (FTP, WWW, etc)
>
> Reverse Proxy: Gee wilickers I've got 200+ users going out to a large web site all the time. I know
> what to do, I'll cache the whole site and I'll tell the proxy server (on my users behalf) to
> go out and start copying the whole entire site at midnight, tell it not to expire for 4 days, and save all this
> info to the proxy servers disk array. Now when everyone starts hitting this particular site, the content
> is served up via high speed local net, instead of going out across the internet connection.
>
> Walter is right, I just thought I'd provide a real world example.
>
> >>> "Joe Ippolito" <joe_at_joesnet.com> 10/31/99 09:33PM >>>
> which may actually be more than one web server behind your firewall acting
> in a round-robin mode?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-firewall-wizards_at_lists.nfr.net
> [mailto:owner-firewall-wizards_at_lists.nfr.net]On Behalf Of Walter Boyd
> Sent: Saturday, October 30, 1999 3:02 AM
> To: firewall-wizards_at_nfr.net
> Subject: Re: Reverse proxy ??
>
> Reverse Proxy, sometimes referred to as Web Acceleration, is the capability
> of taking an address outside your firewall, mapping it to a web server
> inside the firewall, and performing transparent caching of the web servers'
> static content in the process. The DNS address for the web server is the
> proxy address outside the firewall.
>
> Walter Boyd
> http://www.certifiednets.com/
>
> >>> Sandy Green <sand232_at_yahoo.com> 10/28/99 05:27PM >>>
> There was a quetion here in this list about MS Proxy
> server with one or two NIC cards. In that context it
> was highlighted that with one NIC card "reverse
> proxy" will not be possible.
>
> But can someone explain as to what is reverse proxy ?
>
> =====
>
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--
Rui Pereira, CISSP, I.S.P.  - ruiper_at_wave.home.com
IBM Certified -  AIX | ADSM | Firewall
WaveFront Consulting Group Ltd
Systems Management, Integration and Security Specialists