Networking: Proxy Vocabulary

Forward Proxy = Tunneling Proxy = Gateway

• Meaning: A server that forward the request to the destination server
• Use case: logging, content filtering, caching, access some banned web
• Risk: password or credential stolen e.g. cookies and token, eavesdropping

Reverse Proxy = Surrogate

• Meaning: Proxy on the server side in front of many internal server, i.e. the true server that the content is stored.
• Use case: protect server, load balancer, compression, caching
• Note: The word ‘reverse’ is in the sense of backward direction from server to the user

Open Proxy

Proxy that is accessible by the internet

Anonymous Proxy

Proxy that hide request ip

Transparent Proxy

Proxy that pass anything unmodified including your ip.
Note (1): knowing ip makes server able to cache content for the same user
Note (2): This term can have negative meaning. In a sense that a user don’t know there is a proxy in between because the proxy is ‘transparent’ passing anything as if it’s not here, and the proxy is trying to steal something from the user.

In this case, such proxy is called
Inline proxy=Intercepting proxy=Forced proxy

CGI Proxy

Meaning: A template Web page for access proxy
Note: Totally different level with the proxy server mentioned above.

The term is not very standardized. That’s why it is so confusing when you search across the website and each website explain the term differently.