Topic: Limiting # of different clients at a time through a proxy

[Mark M. Miller]

Hello,

I've been searching for several hours and have not been able to find a post addressing my questions.

Scenario: We will be using Apache 2.2 to setup reverse proxy URL mapping and control access to the mapped endpoint via a font end application that enables the reverse proxy connection by writing a username/password to the connection's username/password file with a username and password that matches the username/password of the endpoint. By inserting and removing the username and password we can control when the connection is enabled (it works but I'm wide open to better suggestions).

Question #1: Is there any way to enable additional logins beyond the proxy server if the usernames/passwords do not match (I don't think so but I thought it was worth asking)? For instance, what if one proxy server maps to another one but both servers have different usernames and passwords.

Question #2: I would like to limit the number of external clients using each proxy mapping to one at a time. The fear is that when we enable the proxy connection (by writing a username and password to the username/password file) someone else who may have had access to the enpoint but no longer should might ping the proxy connection from time to time to see if they can get through to it. If we can limit the number of clients using a particular mapping then a second client/person can't resuse the mapping we just enabled. Of course we will disable the mapping as soon as the first client/person logs off.

Regards,

Mark