Forward proxy
A proxy that acts for the client. It sits between you and the internet and hides your address from destinations.
A forward proxy acts on behalf of the client. It sits between a user and the wider internet, receives outbound requests, and reissues them from its own address. This is what people normally mean by “a proxy”.
#The direction that defines it
The distinction is whose side the intermediary is on. A forward proxy is deployed by, or for, the party making the request. The destination server usually has no relationship with it and often cannot tell it is there.
#Typical uses
- Concealing the client’s address from the destination.
- Enforcing an outbound policy on a corporate network.
- Distributing requests across many addresses in a pool so that no single address is used enough to be blocked.
- Reaching content that is restricted by region, via geo-targeting.
#Commonly confused with
A reverse proxy faces the opposite way: it is deployed by the owner of a server, and clients connect to it believing it is the origin. If you are hiding the client, it is forward. If you are fronting the server, it is reverse.