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By PC Plus (/author?searchTerm=PC Plus)from PC Plus Issue 296 July 24th 2010 1 COMMENT

S H A R E TW E E T 7 S H A R E S H A R E 0

FreeProxy is a simple way of creating a proxy server to protect your home network

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Corporate networks always have proxy servers, while on

home networks they're often an overlooked form of defence.

But maybe they shouldn't be.

A local proxy server can help to improve the throughput of

your broadband connection, restore order to a troubled

network and add another line of defence against malware

infections.

What are proxies?

'Proxy' means substitute. To the computers on the local

network, a proxy server is a substitute for connecting

directly to the web. There are several different types of

proxy server. For example, a web proxy server keeps copies

of recently accessed web pages on your hard disk.

When you access a page, the proxy serves the cached

version if it's up to date. This is faster than downloading

static files from the site. All internal computers must use the

local web proxy server for it to be effective.

In the settings for your web browser, there's a page to point

it at a proxy server rather than the network's default

gateway. This gateway is usually a router or the computer

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attached to your broadband modem. Some proxy servers

also block content, especially on corporate networks.

You may be tempted to disable the proxy settings in your

browser to view sites your boss would rather you didn't during work hours.

However, to ensure that everyone on the network uses the proxy to access

the internet, system administrators block all access to the internet at their

firewall, except traffic coming from or going to the proxy. So to access

anything outside the local network, you must use the proxy.

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Forcing everyone to use the proxy gives system administrators great control

over what their users can access. The same principle can be used at home

by parents and those simply keen to bolster security.

If you find unexpected access attempts in a firewall's log file from inside a

proxy-protected network, they're probably coming from malware that doesn't

know how to test for a local proxy and has tried to go directly online.

Installing FreeProxy

FreeProxy (or FreeProxy Internet Suite) is a free Windows-based proxy

server that can provide web caching for faster access and is able to block

banned web domains. It works on Windows 7 and should ideally run on its

own computer. The app is available for free from here

(http://www.handcraftedsoftware.org/index.php?

page=4&action=file&file_id=5).

Once downloaded, unzip the file and double-click on the setup application.

When the installation wizard appears, click 'Next' to accept the licence

agreement, the default the destination folder and Start menu folder, then

click 'Install'. When the release notes pop up, click 'Next', then 'Finish'. Click

Start and select 'FreeProxy Control Centre'.

Let's begin by configuring and testing FreeProxy for basic use. Open a

command line and enter ipconfig. Press [Enter] and one or more blocks of

information will appear.

Find the one about the server's Ethernet connection (usually the first one

that appears) and note the IP addresses of the default gateway and DNS

server. First, we need to stop relying on DHCP to provide IP addresses on

demand and use a fixed address instead. This is so other computers on the

network can find the proxy server via its address.

In Windows 7 or Vista, open the Control Panel and click 'Network and

Internet | Network and Sharing Centre'. In Windows 7, click 'Change Adaptor

Settings' in the left-hand pane and double-click the 'Local Area Connection'.

In Vista, click on 'Manage network connections' and double-click on the

'Local Area Connection'.

In XP's Control Panel, double-click 'Network Connections' and then

doubleclick the 'Local Area Connection'. Click 'Properties' and a window will

appear showing the underlying configuration. Double-click the entry in the

protocol list called 'Internet Protocol Version 4 (TVP/Ipv4)'. In XP this is just

called 'Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)'.

Another subwindow will appear, giving details on how the computer gets its

IP address. Click the radio button marked 'Use the following IP address'.

Your default internet gateway (your router) will usually have the address

192.168.0.1, so enter a different number in the fourth position (192.168.0.2,

for example).

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If you're not sure if this address is already in use, open a command line and

enter ping 192.168.0.2. If the command hangs and then returns a set of

timeouts, the address isn't in use. Next, enter a subnet mask of

255.255.255.0 and the IP address of your default gateway in the

appropriate input boxes.

Select the 'Use the following DNS server addresses' radio button and enter

the IP address of the DNS server you noted down earlier. This is probably

the same device as the default gateway. Click 'OK' and dismiss the parent

windows.

Now we need to make a web browser use the proxy server to access the

internet. On a different networked machine, open Internet Explorer 8 and

click 'Tools | Internet Options'. Click 'LAN settings' in the Connections tab.

In the subwindow, select the tickbox labelled 'Use a proxy server for your

LAN'. Enter the address 192.168.0.2 and change the port number to 8080.

Now click 'OK' and dismiss the parent window, then try to surf to a page. The

proxy isn't running, so the browser will eventually time out.

In the FreeProxy Control Centre, click the 'Start/Stop' button and a window

will appear. To start the proxy server, click the 'Start' button in the Console

Mode pane at the bottom.

Windows Firewall may pop up to tell you that it's blocked the program.

Ensure that the option to allow FreeProxy to communicate on your home

network is selected and click 'Allow Access'. Refresh the page in the

browser by pressing [F5]. It should now load properly.

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Blocking websites

Proxy servers are often used to block content, and FreeProxy does this

admirably via ban lists. Click 'Ban Lists' on the FreeProxy Control Centre

and the Ban List Manager will appear. Click 'New'.

Ban lists are split into several categories. Click 'Add' to add a category and

a window will appear. Enter a name like Do Not Access. You can define an

action the proxy must take when a user tries to access one of the URLs in

the category, such as redirecting the user to an external URL or showing a

custom error page. Select the 'Standard Response' option and click 'Done'.

To add a URL or IP address to the category, click 'Manage Category

Details'. Click 'Add URL/IP' and enter the destination in the input box. If

you're entering a URL, omit the 'http://www' prefix.

When you've finished, press 'Done'. Confirm that you want to save your

changes and enter a filename for the ban list. So that FreeProxy

understands the type of traffic to ban (in this case HTTP), double-click the

default Proxy entry on the main pane of the user interface. Select your LAN

card in the dropdown Local Binding list and then press 'Permissions'. A

subwindow will appear.

Click 'Add Resource' , change the type to 'Ban List URL of IP address' and

press 'Done' on each subwindow to dismiss it.

On the main interface, click 'Options', then click the 'Activate the Ban List?'

tickbox and select the ban list using the file browser below it. Restart the

proxy server and try surfing to a banned site. The browser should load

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nothing, but allow you to surf elsewhere.

Creating error pages

To link an error page you've made to a category in your ban list, open the

list again, click the relevant category and change the redirect response to

'Error Page'.

Click the folder icon and select the error page. Click 'Open' to select it and

'Done' to finish. Click 'Done' in the Ban List window and agree to save the

list if required. Click 'Done' and restart the proxy.

Now try to access the banned web page. Your custom error page should

appear.

To log the domains and IP addresses that any person or program tries to

access from your network, click 'Options'. Click 'Log access data' and the

relevant options will become active. Enter a path and filename for the log file

and leave the report content on 'Forbidden'. This means you'll only record

attempts to access banned content.

Select 'Show full URL' to record the full path to the banned page. Click

'Done', try surfing to a banned URL and inspect the content of the log file.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------

Liked this? Then check out Upgrading to a Wireless N router: what to

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S H A R E TW E E T 7 S H A R E S H A R E 0

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• Reply •

muzammil • 5 days ago

The proxy server worked like the middle man and they pick the data to the client and

then back to the server so the proxy server make a bridge means relationshipProxy

Server List

• Reply •

oody • 7 months ago

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• Reply •

Mesapotamian • 2 years ago

Thanks a lot for this article!

• Reply •

anteaus • 4 years ago

The issue with proxies is that not all websites will work through them. This is especially

true for sites that use 'trick' javascript to link to subpages, etc.

It is also possible for a webserver to tell when proxy lies between the source and the

client, and some will refuse to serve content if that appears to be the case. This is

ostensibly to prevent anonymizing proxies being used to post in forums, etc, but it also

blocks legitimate filtering proxies.

This situation is unfortunate as proxies are a useful form of protection, but it is

increasingly an issue as webdesigners start to use more and more complex code.

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