Need Advice on Setting Up Nginx Reverse Proxy with Residential IP VPS to Mask Server IP

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to set up a reverse proxy with Nginx in front of an Apache server to mask the IP of my server. I’ve been facing issues with site suspensions almost every month, so I want to hide the IP of my main server.

I’m planning to subscribe to two VPS plans:

1. A VPS to host my files and Apache (VPS 1).
2. Another VPS with a residential IP (VPS 2) that will act as the reverse proxy.

However, I’m not sure what exactly I should purchase. Should I buy a residential IP for my VPS 2, or a VPS that already has a residential IP?

Any advice or recommendations on configuration and VPS selection would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help!

If I replace the IP address of my VPS with a Residential IP by configuring it in sudo nano /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml, and then set up an Nginx reverse proxy in front of Apache while carefully masking headers(), can my hosting provider still be identified?

I don’t have any DNS records configured for emails. Is this approach sufficient, or are there additional steps I should take to improve anonymity?

That's a pretty intriguing objective you have there! If I understand correctly, you're looking to mask the IP address of VPS1. Essentially, you want all server calls and page requests to be directed to VPS2, which will then forward those requests to VPS1 and relay the responses back to the original requester. Is that accurate?

If anyone has experience with this setup, your insights would be interesting to read.

Apparently, it is impossible to do this with a residential IP. I managed to do it using three separate VPS, registered with different hosts: one VPS for my backend (file hosting), for which I took a one-year subscription, and two other VPS for the reverse proxy, with a monthly subscription, because I know that they can be suspended at any time. In case of suspension of VPS2, I switch to VPS3 while configuring a VPS4 to act as a relay in case of VPS 3 being blocked. This way, my site always remains online.

boobaa833 said:

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to set up a reverse proxy with Nginx in front of an Apache server to mask the IP of my server. I’ve been facing issues with site suspensions almost every month, so I want to hide the IP of my main server.

I’m planning to subscribe to two VPS plans:

1. A VPS to host my files and Apache (VPS 1).
2. Another VPS with a residential IP (VPS 2) that will act as the reverse proxy.

However, I’m not sure what exactly I should purchase. Should I buy a residential IP for my VPS 2, or a VPS that already has a residential IP?

Any advice or recommendations on configuration and VPS selection would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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If your goal is to truly mask the IP, getting a VPS that already comes with a residential IP would be ideal, as many providers don’t allow routing traffic through residential proxies. Otherwise, you could purchase a residential proxy separately and configure Nginx to route traffic through it. Just make sure to properly configure firewall rules and SSL to avoid leaks that could expose your main server’s IP.