Reverse proxy

Okay kiddo, imagine you go to a restaurant and there's someone at the front who takes your order and then gets the food for you. That's kind of like a reverse proxy!

A reverse proxy is like a middleman between you (the client) and a server (where the website or web application is hosted). When you type in a website's address on your computer, a request is sent to the server where the website lives.

But with a reverse proxy, the request first goes to the middleman (the reverse proxy) and then the reverse proxy sends the request to the server.

The reverse proxy can do some helpful things like:

1. **Speed up the website.** If the server is really busy, the reverse proxy can keep a copy of the website in memory so it can quickly give you a copy of the website instead of waiting for the server to respond.

2. **Hide the server's location.** The reverse proxy can make it so that you don't know where the website is actually hosted. This is useful if the server is on a private network and shouldn't be exposed to the public.

3. **Provide security.** The reverse proxy can act as a gatekeeper, checking each request to make sure it's valid and not trying to do anything bad (like hack the server or steal information).

So basically a reverse proxy is a helpful in-between person who can speed up the website, protect the server, and keep the server's location hidden.