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securityproxygateway

What's the difference between a reverse proxy and a gateway?

I know the difference between a forward and reverse proxy, but am not clear on how a reverse proxy is different from a gateway.

Solution

  • A gateway is about routing.
    When a computer wants to communicate with another computer in a different network, it usually uses the gateway to get out of its own network. Gateways take care of routing data packets between separate networks.

    A proxy is about representing another computer(s)/server(s) in a network.
    Usually it is done for different purposes like load balancing, caching, access blocking, etc. The client is unaware that it talks to proxy instead of to the actual server (reverse proxy).