Help me understand the legal implications of local-international proxies?

[Recourse]

Alright, I have an uncapped ADSL connection at my place in Pta.

My Parents and Grandparents both have ADSL connection in randburg and middelburg respectively.

I only got my connection recently and noticed I'm using allot less bandwidth than I thought I would - a classic what does the dog do when it catches the car scenario.

Now I figured I want to setup my device as a proxy and have the folks buy only local bandwidth and proxy through my device to give them access to international bandwidth which would save them a bundle.

Could you guys lay out the law regarding this kind of a setup? Is it legal etc etc.
What I find interesting is, if it is not legal how can OpenWeb provide this service (http://www.openweb.co.za/openbrowse.php) but not only provide it, but charge for it?

 

[Luf]

mmm interesting OP. also interested to hear what the rest have to say on this.

 

[Nerhzelok]

Hahaha @ tag.

 

[Recourse]

Hahaha @ tag.

Good Eye

 

[Shayd]

There are no legal ramifications to running a paid proxy, the reason people don't do it is it usually isn't profitable.

 

[froot]

There is nothing wrong with doing this. The reason as to why very little people do this, is because as mentioned, it's not profitable- local bandwidth for hosting is expensive.
It will be fine for you to host a proxy for your parents. Just take note however that it will be travelling through your adsl line, so your upload speed will be slower if they are browsing.
Also, your upload speed is their maximum download speed.

 

[Pada]

You should rather run a PPTP VPN server on your side then setup your parents' router to connect to that VPN server. Then also configure their router to ONLY use the VPN for international traffic, with the use of a simple traffic splitting script.
Unfortunately not all ADSL routers/modem supports this linux type scripting or PPTP VPN's.

A HTTP/Socks5 proxy would also work, but then your parents have to configure the applications to make use of the proxy server, otherwise they won't have international internet at all.
The other issue with the proxy server would be that all their internet traffic would then pass through your proxy, which is not what you want for local traffic too.

 

[hoegh]

i have seen this done and it does work, but as people have said, the reason it isn't popular is because it doesn't make money

 

[hoegh]

The other issue with the proxy server would be that all their internet traffic would then pass through your proxy, which is not what you want for local traffic too.

why? you have uncapped, who cares if the local trafic passes through the proxy

 

[milomak]

any dodgy stuff the old folks are into could see what is in your tag becoming a reality as your ip address will be the one visible

 

[Pada]

why? you have uncapped, who cares if the local trafic passes through the proxy

Its not an issue of cap here...

When they browse local sites via your connection, they would slow down your connection which is unnecessary since they can use their own cap & bandwidth for that without using yours.

Like I'm currently sharing a friend's ADSL line, but we are blocking local traffic for my IP, since I can get to local sites without his ADSL. Of course we could allow me to use his ADSL for local traffic too, but thats just silly to waste 2x the cap.

Just note that their download speed would be limited to your connection's maximum upload speed, unless their download rate is lower than your connection's upload rate.

 

[hoegh]

Its not an issue of cap here...

When they browse local sites via your connection, they would slow down your connection which is unnecessary since they can use their own cap & bandwidth for that without using yours.

Like I'm currently sharing a friend's ADSL line, but we are blocking local traffic for my IP, since I can get to local sites without his ADSL. Of course we could allow me to use his ADSL for local traffic too, but thats just silly to waste 2x the cap.

Just note that their download speed would be limited to your connection's maximum upload speed, unless their download rate is lower than your connection's upload rate.

you are correct with respect to speed limitations but i doubt the parents and grandparents would really notice it. and I have got uncapped, believe me you don't care about wasting bandwidth

 

[burn]

Who cares if it is legal just do it Who will complain? Things are basically legal if there is no one to complain or enforce. Just look at the US's last 2 wars for a large scale example. But it is legal anyway, so a rather redundant rant