How to configure a socks proxy using every day tools – part 1

Introduction

It is very easy to bypass the firewall at work to allow private browsing.
I will explain how to setup a socks proxy and how to use it, it’s not difficult at all.

Basically this socks proxy will create a tunnel which you can choose to use for certain applications (like a browser).
This way you can funnel your web traffic and bypass certain proxy based monitoring from employers.

In this example you will need Firefox.
Also for this method you will need SSH access to a server and that server in turn needs the unlimited and unmonitored access to the internet, since is that the goal.

First of all you might need some software.

• Windows Download putty
• Linux No additional software needed. This method uses on-board tools.
• Mac Unkown

Configuring putty (Windows)

1. Configure a server connection or “Session”. In the putty main window put a hostname or ip address and give this “session” or connection a name.
2. On the left side open the “connections” tab, then open the “SSH” tab and lastly click and highlight the “Tunnels” category.
   
3. Now enter a port that needs to be forwarded. For this example I picked port 50500, you may choose another port. But we will need it again later.
4. Leave the “destination” field blank, but you must select dynamic and auto underneath.
5. Click on “add” to add the port. Your screen should look like this now
6. Next we need to change the keep alive setting so the connection will be more stable. It should work without though, so if you are in a hurry you can skip this step.Click on the “connections” category on the left and enter “5″ into the keep alive field.
7. Now we are almost finished configuring putty. All you need to do now is to save the settings.
   Click on the “Session” tab at the top left and make sure the session has a name and a server address.
   Finally click on “save” to save all the settings.

   
   Putty is now ready to go. Please note that this configuration is not needed under linux.

Next week

Next week we will look at FoxyProxy. It allows us to freely switch between using a proxy, or not using a proxy or maybe even using a 2nd proxy. It is very versatile and flexible.