4 ms·

I would pay for a safe proxy. Why are there no proxy-as-a-service companies?

by read 12y ago

higherpurpose 12y ago
Does ZenMate qualify? https://zenmate.com/ https://zenmate.com/
shocks 12y ago
Why a proxy over a VPN?
- merqurio 12y ago
  Easier to configure some times ? dunno
- yc1010 12y ago
  One reason would be if you have coded a robot to scrape http(s) content of other sites, its easier to configure wget/curl/own_code to use your proxy (or even a list of own proxies) than seting up vpn, see my post above in this thread about setting up tinyproxy can also use haproxy if its only one specific site you are scraping
gog 12y ago
What are the benefits (or use cases) over the classic VPN service?
yc1010 12y ago
1. Buy/spinup a cheap vps (aws or digitalocean) 2. Install tinyproxy (apt-get install tinyproxy) 3. Configure it to bind to the vps public ip, set a high port, limit access to your home/work ip address or range(s) 4. Set your browser proxy to vps.ip.add.res:12345 The above is simple and effective, only downside anyone else on your ip or range you specified can use that proxy too (if they find out the ip:port and if they done steps 3 and 4 above). You can switch off the vps when not using it (saving you money)
- chmars 12y ago
  What's the advantage of a proxy server with such limits in comparison to a VPN server?
  - yc1010 12y ago
    See my reply here in same thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8834476 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8834476 Basically having a http proxy (im not talking about web proxies but forward and reverse ones such as tinyproxy & haproxy) has its uses for example if you have a robot scraping via multiple addresses (to bypass limits for example or scrape different content dependant on location) and well they are simpler to setup and use that vpns both on client on and server end a vpn is fine in most cases but there are usecases where a quick and dirty http proxy helps save alot of headaches.
- bnegreve 12y ago
  > only downside anyone else on your ip or range you specified can use that proxy too. If you have ssh access, you can set up a proxy on the remote server, and use ssh dynamic port forwarding (-D) to forward the proxy connections on your local machine. Using this trick you can safely use any ssh capable machine as a proxy. It works like a charm.
  - kijin 12y ago
    And if your 'ssh capable machine' runs Linux, OSX, or any other *nix, you can use sshuttle [1]. It's a layer on top of SSH dynamic port forwarding that allows you to proxy any application, even those that don't support proxies out of the box. [1] https://github.com/apenwarr/sshuttle https://github.com/apenwarr/sshuttle
  - yc1010 12y ago
    Yes that too :) I remember doing this more than a dozen years ago in university to a local research unix machine we could make accounts on in order to bypass the stupid firewall. In hindsight i think the network admins knew about our trick but put blind eye to it since it required people to muck around with command line and learn stuff :D
Spooky23 12y ago
It is pretty trivial to do with SSH. https://www.linode.com/docs/networking/ssh/setting-up-an-ssh-tunnel-with-your-linode-for-safe-browsing https://www.linode.com/docs/networking/ssh/setting-up-an-ssh...
ptman 12y ago
https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/home_global/freedome https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/home_global/freedome

I would pay for a safe proxy. Why are there no proxy-as-a-service companies?

by read 12y ago

I would pay for a safe proxy. Why are there no proxy-as-a-service companies?

higherpurpose 12y ago

Does ZenMate qualify? https://zenmate.com/ https://zenmate.com/

shocks 12y ago

Why a proxy over a VPN?

merqurio 12y ago
Easier to configure some times ? dunno
yc1010 12y ago
One reason would be if you have coded a robot to scrape http(s) content of other sites, its easier to configure wget/curl/own_code to use your proxy (or even a list of own proxies) than seting up vpn, see my post above in this thread about setting up tinyproxy can also use haproxy if its only one specific site you are scraping

gog 12y ago

What are the benefits (or use cases) over the classic VPN service?

yc1010 12y ago

1. Buy/spinup a cheap vps (aws or digitalocean) 2. Install tinyproxy (apt-get install tinyproxy) 3. Configure it to bind to the vps public ip, set a high port, limit access to your home/work ip address or range(s) 4. Set your browser proxy to vps.ip.add.res:12345 The above is simple and effective, only downside anyone else on your ip or range you specified can use that proxy too (if they find out the ip:port and if they done steps 3 and 4 above). You can switch off the vps when not using it (saving you money)

chmars 12y ago
What's the advantage of a proxy server with such limits in comparison to a VPN server?
- yc1010 12y ago
  See my reply here in same thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8834476 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8834476 Basically having a http proxy (im not talking about web proxies but forward and reverse ones such as tinyproxy & haproxy) has its uses for example if you have a robot scraping via multiple addresses (to bypass limits for example or scrape different content dependant on location) and well they are simpler to setup and use that vpns both on client on and server end a vpn is fine in most cases but there are usecases where a quick and dirty http proxy helps save alot of headaches.
bnegreve 12y ago
> only downside anyone else on your ip or range you specified can use that proxy too. If you have ssh access, you can set up a proxy on the remote server, and use ssh dynamic port forwarding (-D) to forward the proxy connections on your local machine. Using this trick you can safely use any ssh capable machine as a proxy. It works like a charm.
- kijin 12y ago
  And if your 'ssh capable machine' runs Linux, OSX, or any other *nix, you can use sshuttle [1]. It's a layer on top of SSH dynamic port forwarding that allows you to proxy any application, even those that don't support proxies out of the box. [1] https://github.com/apenwarr/sshuttle https://github.com/apenwarr/sshuttle
- yc1010 12y ago
  Yes that too :) I remember doing this more than a dozen years ago in university to a local research unix machine we could make accounts on in order to bypass the stupid firewall. In hindsight i think the network admins knew about our trick but put blind eye to it since it required people to muck around with command line and learn stuff :D

Spooky23 12y ago

It is pretty trivial to do with SSH. https://www.linode.com/docs/networking/ssh/setting-up-an-ssh-tunnel-with-your-linode-for-safe-browsing https://www.linode.com/docs/networking/ssh/setting-up-an-ssh...

ptman 12y ago

https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/home_global/freedome https://www.f-secure.com/en/web/home_global/freedome