Hi All
Just to let you know that I've just completed the first release of my DDProxy proxy server application. Like other proxies it makes it easy to share an internet connection but also contains some features that make it very useful for capped South African users who have to use proxies to access international sites.
I wrote the program to solve the following problems that I was having:
I have an openweb account with the openbrowse 192Kbps proxy feature. After I'd get capped I'd have to set up proxy settings in many different apps in order to access international sites which was quite annoying. Another problem is that all traffic (including local) would now route through the proxy which would slow down access to local sites tremendously (I have a 512 Kbps line while the proxy is only 192KBps).
That's when I decided to write my own proxy app that would let me control proxy usage for all my programs from a single location and also automatically route only international traffic via the proxies that were in use. This would greatly speed up access to local sites.
The idea is that you configure all of your internet apps to connect "via proxy" to the PC running DDProxy. DDProxy then becomes the central control point for proxy control -i.e. you can quickly enable or disable the proxy for local/international use without having to reconfigure each and every one of your apps.
After getting the basic proxy functionality to work I added in a bunch of other features such as ad blocking and tunneling (port redirection).
To give you an idea of how to use DDProxy let me explain how I'm using it:
I have access to 2 openbrowse proxies, one for http traffic only and one for SSL (secure) traffic. The http proxy only allows connections to remote sites on port 80 while the ssl proxy allows connections to any port. (For the more technical types here the SSL proxy supports the "CONNECT" function while the http one doesn't).
So I add these 2 proxy definitions in DDProxy on the proxy config screen, filling in the proxy addresses and user names. I then check the "International next hop proxies" checkboxes for HTTP, SSL and Other. I select the Openbrowse http proxy for the HTTP proxy, and the Openbrowse SSL proxy for the SSL and "All Others" proxies. I leave the "Local Internet Next Hop Proxies" checkboxes empty as I don't want local traffic to be sent via these proxies.
Now I also want to collect and send mail via my internationally hosted mail server, but I want to do this through the openbrowse proxy otherwise it's very slow. To do this I need to define 2 tunnels, one for each remote host : port that I want to connect to. On the Tunnels tab of the Configuration tab I add 2 tunnels with the following details:
tunnel name: pop3
local port no: 110
remote host: mail.mywebsite.com
remote port no: 110
Tunnel Enabled: Checked
tunnel name: smtp
local port no: 25
remote host: mail.mywebsite.com
remote port no: 25
Tunnel Enabled: Checked
I now configure my email program to collect mail from localhost, port 110 and send mail via localhost port 25. Note that I use localhost as I'm running DDProxy on the same PC that my email program is. If DDProxy was running elsewhere you'd use the IP address of that particular PC.
Note that you can redirect any local port to any remote host : remote port.
I hope this made some sort of sense to you all. If anything's unclear please let me know and I'll try to help you.
If you make use of the program please let me have some feedback regarding any possible bugs or suggestions you might have.
Please note that this beta version will expire on 1 July 2006. Once I'm happy there aren't any major issues with it I'll release a non expiring version.
You can download it here:
http://antibody.za.net/extras/ddproxy.php
Just to let you know that I've just completed the first release of my DDProxy proxy server application. Like other proxies it makes it easy to share an internet connection but also contains some features that make it very useful for capped South African users who have to use proxies to access international sites.
I wrote the program to solve the following problems that I was having:
I have an openweb account with the openbrowse 192Kbps proxy feature. After I'd get capped I'd have to set up proxy settings in many different apps in order to access international sites which was quite annoying. Another problem is that all traffic (including local) would now route through the proxy which would slow down access to local sites tremendously (I have a 512 Kbps line while the proxy is only 192KBps).
That's when I decided to write my own proxy app that would let me control proxy usage for all my programs from a single location and also automatically route only international traffic via the proxies that were in use. This would greatly speed up access to local sites.
The idea is that you configure all of your internet apps to connect "via proxy" to the PC running DDProxy. DDProxy then becomes the central control point for proxy control -i.e. you can quickly enable or disable the proxy for local/international use without having to reconfigure each and every one of your apps.
After getting the basic proxy functionality to work I added in a bunch of other features such as ad blocking and tunneling (port redirection).
To give you an idea of how to use DDProxy let me explain how I'm using it:
I have access to 2 openbrowse proxies, one for http traffic only and one for SSL (secure) traffic. The http proxy only allows connections to remote sites on port 80 while the ssl proxy allows connections to any port. (For the more technical types here the SSL proxy supports the "CONNECT" function while the http one doesn't).
So I add these 2 proxy definitions in DDProxy on the proxy config screen, filling in the proxy addresses and user names. I then check the "International next hop proxies" checkboxes for HTTP, SSL and Other. I select the Openbrowse http proxy for the HTTP proxy, and the Openbrowse SSL proxy for the SSL and "All Others" proxies. I leave the "Local Internet Next Hop Proxies" checkboxes empty as I don't want local traffic to be sent via these proxies.
Now I also want to collect and send mail via my internationally hosted mail server, but I want to do this through the openbrowse proxy otherwise it's very slow. To do this I need to define 2 tunnels, one for each remote host : port that I want to connect to. On the Tunnels tab of the Configuration tab I add 2 tunnels with the following details:
tunnel name: pop3
local port no: 110
remote host: mail.mywebsite.com
remote port no: 110
Tunnel Enabled: Checked
tunnel name: smtp
local port no: 25
remote host: mail.mywebsite.com
remote port no: 25
Tunnel Enabled: Checked
I now configure my email program to collect mail from localhost, port 110 and send mail via localhost port 25. Note that I use localhost as I'm running DDProxy on the same PC that my email program is. If DDProxy was running elsewhere you'd use the IP address of that particular PC.
Note that you can redirect any local port to any remote host : remote port.
I hope this made some sort of sense to you all. If anything's unclear please let me know and I'll try to help you.
If you make use of the program please let me have some feedback regarding any possible bugs or suggestions you might have.
Please note that this beta version will expire on 1 July 2006. Once I'm happy there aren't any major issues with it I'll release a non expiring version.
You can download it here:
http://antibody.za.net/extras/ddproxy.php
