Using Proxy Servers

[Fawie]

Get an office in DIC or DMC and explore ISG at your leisure!

Regards to Dubai!

Fawie

[Wicked Roger]

Rog - try jap.exe again. After a couple weeks of instability and only one or two servers, it now has multiple servers again and is fast and reliable. I use "testbed for new technology" from the list of about 6 proxies.

cheers

Piper

Thanks Piper

Will try as is very slow last time and I could not be that patient. The ultrasurf seems OK at certain times of the day only still. I also have a number of proxy/ports that I use as well but think will try your suggestion as I need a more permanent fix (something akin to me and Miss N at the moment, she is becoming a permanent fix - well until the GF arrives!).

Cheers

WR

[Piper1]

Rog - try jap.exe again. After a couple weeks of instability and only one or two servers, it now has multiple servers again and is fast and reliable. I use "testbed for new technology" from the list of about 6 proxies.

cheers

Piper

[Wicked Roger]

Hello Piper! I'm using it now, very fast - better than cutting and pasting proxies. I'm not a geek but I use win rar as opposed to win zip. This may be why? Anyone with greater computer skills please comment.

Mk and Piper

Now that www.nntime.com has been blocked am also using it. It is good but last night it was connecting according to the pop up but I got nowhere in trying open any page. Tonight I am in and its OK and fast. Not a techie either so hope it lasts! Need to download stuff overseas onto CD and install here at home methinks.

WR

[White Wolf]

Anonymizers work great for client side anonymous surfing.

But what Jackson is after is server side control so that anyone can get to the forum even in countries where it is restricted.

I believe in a country like Dubai (or China, etc.) which wants to restrict a website, it is difficult to give people access from the server side.

This is because those countries which restricts sites will normally have control over the ISP routing and also the DNS servers.

So it is relatively straightforward for them to block access to those IP addresses and domain names which they don't like.

They simply filter it at the ISP side. There isn't must you can do about it because the traffic must pass through the ISP DNS resolve and also routing system.

Anonymizers only make it invisible as to what site you are going to. But it does defeat an ISP blocking access to a site because the DNS simply won't resolve to the site and instead will be redirected to some "site blocked" page.

A web based proxy is simply another website which will act as a name proxy for the forum and will make requests to the forum on behalf of a user. Since the web-based proxy does not live inside the ISP network, it will not be recognized as accessing the forum site by the ISP.

So forum members will need to know the web or IP address of the proxy to access in order to get to the forum.

Of course this becomes a cat and mouse game because the authorities will eventually discover this IP address and block it and you will have to create a new one.

Essentially, some of these anonymizers operate there own web-based proxies so they do the job which Jackson is looking for. But it is up to the individual member to know to access the forum when he is in one of the countries where access to the forum site is restricted.

I agree. The only way to defeat a good filter on ISP level is to make sure you have encrypted communication between yourself and the service you’re using to browse the web. Simplest solution are either VPN, encrypted proxies or encrypted anonymizers.

The main problem is that its very simple for an ISP to block access to those proxies which in effect renders them useless. But they are the most simplest way to use, as you don’t need to download any additional software.

Other solutions work mostly on basis of some kind of distributed network. Requests you do are encrypted and send from user to user until it reaches its destination. The information is encrypted again and only decrypted when it reaches you. Tor is one example of such an approach. For this you need to download additional software.

[White Wolf]

I am also interested in finding some way to plocl my IP address in order to keep Big Brother from seeing my emails, chat room conversations, webpages visited, and from giving out my personal data. Do proxy servers allow this to happen and if so which one would be site best to use?

The main use of proxies is that the website your browsing to doesn't see you as their user but sees only the proxy. As long as the comunication between you and the proxy is encrypted your completely in the clear.

This doesn’t mean that anything you do can’t be logged or monitored as the comunication between proxy and website will not be encrypted most of the time. So if you give out any personal data there you can still be traced. The same goes for your email, you have to be very consistent with using a proxy to read your webmail . Don’t give out any data and make sure you never read your mail any other way.

[Moody]

You can also try Tor. Tor can be downloaded at:

http://tor.eff.org/download.html

In conjunction with Tor, you need something to watch the proxy changes like Privoxy which can be downloaded at:

http://www.privoxy.org/

If you use Firefox, there is an extention which makes it simple to switch from using the Proxy to not using it. The extention is called Switchproxy and can be found at mozilla.org.

I think the idea behind Tor is to use multiple proxies to create completely anonymous connections. It also has the added benefit of enabling one to access any website. When in China, I have no problems accessing any site when using Tor.

[James D 2004]

The program is attached. Need to unzip, the most often recommended program is 7zip.

When started, double clicked on the file, there are 3 options to choose from. For a typical ISP, direction connection should be used. Auto detect will look at the setting on your IE regarding proxy settings and copy that. You can also copy that manually. The IE will be opened, and the browser automatically being set to 127.0.0.1:9666, that is the ultrasurf port 9666 at your own local machine.

The page shown in IE will be in chinese. You can then surf normally by typing in the address bar - it's a proxy based software. When you close ultrasuft, the IE proxy will be reset to the original value.

So if you can use jap and other proxies, I don't think the problem is obvious if you can't use ultrasurf.

If you use other browsers, just set the browser proxy to 127.0.0.1:9666 manually. If you are in a company LAN, the firewall may restrict outgoing addresses and ports, and you may also need to use a proxy to connect to outside, which should be set automatically or manually as above.

[Jungle_Bunny]

In Kuwait. Having similar problems with ISP blocking the site. (what Piper1 is experiencing in Dubai)

Basically, if you can manage to encrypt your communication beyond the ISP via Proxy or Firewalled VPN, then they cannot block what they cannot see.

FWIW:
www.findnot.com offers a paid service for about $90 per year. www.anonymouse.org is a free service, but a little inconvenient as it does not save passwords or cookies and to view pictures, one must log in each time.

Best to all!

[Piper1]

Managed to download and run the program - doesn't work for me - yet. Will keep trying.

Interesting that it has exactly the same proxy address as jap, but a different port.

[My Kapitan]

Opps misread the message. I downloaded from the link on the FR without any problem.

[My Kapitan]

Hello Piper! I'm using it now, very fast - better than cutting and pasting proxies. I'm not a geek but I use win rar as opposed to win zip. This may be why? Anyone with greater computer skills please comment.

[Piper1]

Brilliant - James D 2004. It works!

I can open the site, but canot download the software - I get the message "invalid menu handle". Any tips?

[My Kapitan]

Brilliant - James D 2004. It works!

[James D 2004]

for logging in and posting problems in big brother countries, we are talking about circumvention, or breaking out. software for circumvention often come with content encryption, so nobody knows where you visited and what you saw, which is sometimes life and death matters. these software may also clean up some of the trace you left on the computer, so public computers can be used. all these aims are very different from remaining anonymous to the site you are visiting. some circumvention delibrately forward your ip to the destination site. otherwise, the circumvention system becomes ideal platform for all sort of attacks.

the simple way for circumvention is to use proxies. but proxies are unreliable as discussed previously. you need a large list of them. also, a new proxy has an average life of 30 min in china, i heard. the irony is, if you can read the proxy list posted here, then you don't need proxy. and if the proxies are on some list on the internet, most likely they are already blocked by some smart big brothers.

cgi proxies are more convenient as you don't need to change the setting of the browser, nor download software. however, the funtionality is limited because the software have to modify a lot of things in the webpage you are surfing. there may be log in and posting problems when today's websites are sophisicated and security concerned. some proxies delibrately limit the ability to post, as that's the liscense to mount attacks.

the best circumvention software seem to be ultrasurf http://www.ultrareach.com/company/download.htm that is developed for circumvention in china (of course you can use it anywhere). it's seems to be quite fast, and don't have a single point of failure - a proxy. the software file is smaller than the list of proxy you are carrying around! you can carry it in a floppy, a keychain usb drive, or hide it in any websites that you can upload a file.

the software don't need to be installed. double click the file and ie is opened for you without any settings. but use it to surf trusted sites only, your ip is not hidden. but all content are encrypted from big brother. as with non open source software, you trust it at your own risk. but if lots of chinese are actually using it, that can't be bad.

it's free, no ads, and i can log in and post. actually i can't log in for long and hence i can't post. and now i can't logout. i guess isg is too much protected from mass download of pictures and hot links. that's something to do with server settings.

tor and jap are like having a lot of proxies working together forming large systems. but they are still fairly slow.

your best bet, if you are traveling, is having a home computer with cable or dsl which is outside of cencorship region. you can install proxy software, cgi proxy, or secure tunnels on it. so you can do whatever you like with little speed difference. the slower speed is only noticable when you download large files.