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A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

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Help understanding Reverse Proxies (infosec.pub)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/selfhosted

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I have a noob question but seem overwhelmed with all the information I get about it. Basically, why do I need a reverse proxy if all my services are not public? Every guide or video for self hosting there’s always talk of a reverse proxy, have been doing it wrong?

Here’s my setup: I have proxmox running with LXC containers and VM’s for different services some have docker. I have HAProxy on PfSense with a wildcard cert. and the built-in dns resolver, and I vpn home every time I need something.

Have I be going about this the wrong way? Would I benefit from Nginx or traefik? Or is HAProxy enough? Sorry for the stupid question, I’m like a kid with a new toy and overwhelming myself.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

So reverse proxies are often used in self-hosted and home lab environments to keep things simple.

Most self hosted apps end up with something like http://someip:1234 and http://someotherip:8372. With a reverse proxy you can setup and internal/private domain and have http(s)://app1.myinternaldomain.com or http(s);//myinternaldomain/app2 depending on which way you want to do it.

Reverse proxies are NOT required usually for self hosted apps on your internal network. they just help with organization, because remembering port numbers is stupid. Frankly you could also use one of those dashboard apps with links, or even just old school bookmarks. But some of us set up all these apps for the of it and to learn how all this stuff works, getting a reverse proxy into the mix is just one more step in that.