EASY Connect with a SOCKS/SSH Proxy Tunnel – VPS Bible #15 – GUVNR

Take maximum benefit from your VPS or dedicated server, setting it up to double up as your personal online privacy & web access tool, in seconds!

Use your virtual private or dedicated server to protect data, accessing sites like Facebook or Twitter, else FTP, POP email and IM clients.

There are a variety of proxy options available to VPS or dedicated server owners. This one takes seconds to set up.

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Remote (VPS) SOCKS Configuration

There is none, because openSSH is setup as a default component of Linux distributions and, as it supports the SOCKS protocol, it’s all you need.

Socks Proxy Setup for Linux (Locally)

Login to your VPS from the terminal:-

[text]ssh -p 54321 -D 1234 username@hostname[/text]

• ssh or openSSH is the programme we want to use to enable proxying via SOCKS
• -p 54321 is only necessary if you changed the default port (from 22) in the SSH config file. Not sure? Run sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config and take a look at the port. If it’s “22″, omit this bit (but read this too – Harden the Secure Shell (SSH) & Create a Firewall – because it should not be “22″)
• -D 1234 is the dynamic bind address, where the number (port assigned for SOCKS proxying) can be pretty much any number you want
• username@hostname is whatever username and hostname or IP address you use to log in to your VPS

Now, stay logged in with that criteria until you want to end your proxy session.

Easy Proxy Login Using bashrc

For regular SOCKS proxy sessions, set up an alias shortcut in your bashrc file. Then, to initialise a proxy session, you can type anything you like into the terminal, for instance:-

[text]socks[/text]

To find out how to set that up, read Edit bashrc for User-Friendly Linux, plus System Updates.

Configure Your Browser or Web Client

Maybe you want to use SOCKS for regular web surfing, else to POP your email or access a server vis FTP. The method varies from client to client but the logic is the same: to specify you want to use SOCKS and to add your dynamic port number.

I’ll example the web browser Firefox, the email client Thunderbird and the FTP client FileZilla .. but like I say it’s a real similar deal with Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, Chrome, Outlook, Evolution, etc.

Configure Firefox for SOCKS Proxying

Open the browser and navigate the menu:-

Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Network > Connection Settings > check Manual proxy settings

Next to SOCKS Host type localhost and in the Port box write the number of the dynamic port you assigned when logging into your remote VPS.

Click OK.

That’s it. Goto http://whatismyip.com to check that it has changed to that of your VPS or dedicated server.

Configure Thunderbird for SOCKS Proxying

Very similar to Firefox:-

Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Network & Disc Space > Connection Settings > check Manual proxy settings

The rest of the procedure is identical.

Configure FileZilla for SOCKS Proxying

Open it up and:-

Edit > Settings > Connection > FTP > Generic proxy > check SOCKS 5

Add the following details (changing your info for the detail in the example ssh -p 54321 -D 1234 username@hostname):-

• Proxy host hostname
• Proxy port 1234
• Proxy user username
• Proxy password your VPS user password

Now you can connect to whatever server, via your proxy.

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Related posts:

1. How to Surf Anonymously & Hide Your PC: Part 5 – Video How to: Set Up a Proxy
2. Preview: How to Surf Anonymously & Hide Your PC
3. Set Up Unmanaged VPS (4 Newbies) – Part 5: Encrypt Data with OpenSSH & Auto-Login with PuTTY
4. How to Surf Anonymously & Hide Your PC: Part 1 – Anonymising Your PC
5. How to Surf Anonymously & Hide Your PC: Part 3 – How to Set Cookies