A reverse proxy is a single front door for many web apps. Instead of exposing dozens of ports to the internet, traffic arrives on HTTPS (port 443) and the proxy routes by hostname.

Example: photos.example.com and music.example.com share one public IP. The proxy sends each hostname to the correct internal server.

Why homelabbers use one

1. One place to manage TLS certificates (padlock icon)
2. Hide internal IPs and ports
3. Add access rules, rate limits, or SSO in one layer

Not the same as: a VPN, or a corporate forward proxy (which filters outbound web traffic from users).

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