How to setup SOCKS proxy

Question

I’ve squid-proxy installed on my droplet and HTTP proxy works just fine. However there are some apps that ask for SOCKS proxy. Is there any standard SOCKS server that’s easy to setup (really easy)? Or sth that I can install just with an apt-get?

I have seen many blog posts using this “ssh -D 8080 root@<DO Droplet IP>” and then a “curl --socks5-hostname 127.0.0.1:8080 http://wtfismyip.com/json” actually shows that the network is using this proxy.

So, does a DO droplet come pre-installed with a SOCKS server? Or is it OpenSSH?

If the answer to above is “yes” then can I use it in my applications? If yes, running the "ssh -D … " in a terminal and then using it doesn’t seem to be comfy. So, how can I use a SOCKS server that is running on my droplet all the time and I can use with various applications - just like my squid HTTP proxy works?

tl;dr: I need to have a SOCKS proxy server on my droplet running all the time so that I can use it some applications (e.g. LimeChat) and I want simple setup and non-complex configuration (great if I can get sth Zero Config).

PaulElliot · Answer

How to install 3proxy (small proxy) on ubuntu: https://teamhelps.pp.ua/top/ustanovka-3proxy-na-digital-ocean-ubuntu-debian/ 3Proxy tiny free proxy server is really tiny cross-platform (Win32/Win64&Unix) freeware proxy servers set. It includes HTTP proxy with HTTPS and FTP support, SOCKSv4/SOCKSv4.5/SOCKSv5 proxy (socks/socks.exe), POP3 proxy, SMTP proxy, AIM/ICQ proxy (icqpr/icqpr.exe), MSN messenger / Live messenger proxy (msnpr/msnpr.exe), FTP proxy, caching DNS proxy, TCP and UDP portmappers.You can use every proxy as a standalone program (socks, proxy, tcppm, udppm, pop3p) or use combined program (3proxy). Combined proxy additionally supports features like access control, bandwidth limiting, limiting daily/weekly/monthly traffic amount, proxy chaining, log rotation, syslog and ODBC logging, etc.

mattcheramie · Answer

SOCKS is an internet protocol and you don’t need to install anything on the server other than an, of course, an ssh server which is a given since this is a cloud server. The more pressing issue is usually client-side software since you need to be able to open an ssh connection as well as open a local port on the device you want to use the SOCKS proxy on. If your on a computer its simple, on a phone or tablet its a bit more difficult, and on an embedded device it can get complicated really quick. On a computer you can just use Putty on Windows or the Terminal on a MAC or LINUX machine. Its just basically just an SSH tunnel to the server and on the client side a “SOCKS Proxy” is just the application (i.e. Firefox web browser) port forwarding all traffic through the ssh tunnel. The trick is finding a client side application that can both open a remote ssh connection, open a local port, then forward network traffic through it, and of course the application your using needs to support SOCKS proxies as well but it sounds like allready have that… In the end the difficulty all depends on the what you need to do and as a pice of further advice just google “SSH Tunnel” there are a lot of things you can do with it. As a side note the last part of the comand you posted above is just an example of how to manually route the network traffic form a LINUX terminal command through a SOCKS Proxy "(n this case curl) “curl --socks5-hostname 127.0.0.1:8080 http://wtfismyip.com/json ”

Sharon Campbell · Answer

We just published an article on setting up your own SOCKS proxy! https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-route-web-traffic-securely-without-a-vpn-using-a-socks-tunnel

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How to setup SOCKS proxy

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How to setup SOCKS proxy