Using multiple proxies (clever networking people only please

I was thinking about this subject a few days ago and knowing that there are one or two clever people here I shall relay my thoughts.

I run my Internet connection through a proxy IP address which I change from around every hour to once a day depending on the throughput I am receiving, ie. fast throughput then I don't switch.

What I would like to know is, is it possible to run your connection through more than one proxy server without using specialist software. I could for example set up a proxy on my browser then surf to an anonymous surfing website and use that to surf to another website and then use the final one to surf to the destination, but I want it all done with more fluidity.

Now I am aware of setups such as TOR, but I would like to go directly through my built in connection settings. You can be as technical as you want as long as it works.

1. XP pro SP3
2. I'm fine with any registry edits and CLI work etc.
3. I wont be bying any new hardware. my connection is Cmodem - router - pc (cat6)

Non-clever networker thinks it all sounds dodgy to me

I don't really see what the user achieves extra over simply using Tor and encryption.

Edited by deleted (Thu 18-Mar-10 12:43:41)

Sorry,

There is no secret hidden agenda. I am curious as to whether or not it is possible. It was an idea playing on my mind. Nothing more, nothnig less

No need to apologise to anyone. I'm one of your non-expert network users, I only use Tor when I want to be fairly sure that my traffic is anonymised. I'm sure lots of people will be exploring such techniques as the snooping by Governments/Councils/any semi-official busy body intrudes more into our web usage.

It's not going to be possible to control from the connection settings directly on your own computer. If you think about it you need control of each computer in the chain.

E.g. if you are talking about a chain of proxies you can only effectively specify one proxy (the next one along) either for the OS as a whole or a specific application (which can use a different proxy).

You would need access to the network settings of the computer hosting the next proxy in the chain which would no longer be on your local network (otherwise there would be no point).

So for example if you lease a virtual server on the internet, running SSH you can use that as a SOCKS proxy, but you would need to change the network settings on that server to use another proxy in turn.

Similarly you could in theory setup a chain of VPN connections if you control each VPN server or VPN gateway in the chain.

The IP you were browsing from would generally appear to be the public IP of the last (remote) computer in the chain away from you. There is no built-in setting on your own machine which changes how that last computer connects so you would have to remote access into it.

With some extra work (say a cron job) you could script your leased server to switch randomly between public proxies (if you can find a list of reliable ones) or public VPN relays (if you can find any non dodgy ones).

Otherwise you can combine using a SOCKS proxy and visiting an anonymous surfing website as you said.

However it seems like alot of trouble for a theoretical privacy benefit.
The simpler options would be things like:

1. the private browsing modes in modern browers

2. using a liveCD ISO run as a virtual machine (e.g. in VirtualBox).

There are a few cut down distributions or VM appliances with just a browser or browser plus simple apps that could run from a ISO with no data persisting between sessions,

For example download a Puppy ISO and create a VM in virtualbox using the ISO file as its CD.
Boot up Puppy and get it online.
When the browser is online take a snapshot.

You can restore to this snapshot at anytime with no browsing history persisting locally, leaving only sites logging the IP your are visiting from, which may be dynamic.

3. How about surfing from a PAYG 3G dongle. Some of these assign you a private IP behind NAT plus use a proxy server to save bandwidth by re-compressing images so unless the mobile operator requires registration details and keeps DHCP logs, web sites are only getting the public IP of the mobile provider's proxy server,

4. Very similarly on a mobile phone you could use Opera Mini as pages are delivered their proxy which reprocesses pages to a mobile-sized version.

But to echo another comment TOR seems to be designed to be closest to what you are trying to do.

In reply to a post by prlzx:

It's not going to be possible to control from the connection settings directly on your own computer. If you think about it you need control of each computer in the chain.

E.g. if you are talking about a chain of proxies you can only effectively specify one proxy (the next one along) either for the OS as a whole or a specific application (which can use a different proxy).

You would need access to the network settings of the computer hosting the next proxy in the chain which would no longer be on your local network (otherwise there would be no point).

Nope. Proxyway and sockschain will chain socks proxies.

OK interesting

Although the OP wanted to do it just using built in networking settings and without additional software which I didn't think was possible.

I'll admit I did not know you could force one proxy to connect via another proxy and so forth unless you had control of each node in the chain.

But then thinking about what SOCKS does, if you can ask it to create arbitrary TCP connections I should have realised that could include putting another SOCKS connection request inside that, providing the software has enough information about lists of open proxies which it seems the quoted software handles for you.

I stand corrected

The only other open question I would add to the OP - if you are interested in privacy, do you trust all the proxies not to be setup to gather information or modify the responses? Not that you are likely to do your home banking via an open proxy...

You are both very clever and have my respect.

Thank you very much

In reply to a post by prlzx:

The only other open question I would add to the OP - if you are interested in privacy, do you trust all the proxies not to be setup to gather information or modify the responses? Not that you are likely to do your home banking via an open proxy...

That is precisely what most of them do. They are mitm attacks waiting to happen. Even tor isn't immune to it, but luckily there's this onion site that helps; http://xqz3u5drneuzhaeo.onion/users/badtornodes/ though tor will often ignore excludenode settings.