Information on the use of proxies


1. Introduction
2. Just a number?
3. What is a proxy server?
4. Why use one?
5. Proxy Types
6. Steps for Finding an Anonymous Proxy
7. Where to find a Proxy List
8. Where To Test Your Proxy for Anonymity
9. Where to Check The Proxy Server's Country
10. How to configure one in your browser
11. Obscuring a Proxy URL
12. Additional Security
13. Resources

1. Introduction:-
This is intended as a summary of proxy basics. A reminder as to why its required. Anonymity is needed because there are people who surf the net looking for other people's ip address or url name so they can then publicly malign them by finding their "true" identity and telling the world this person eats spam or likes to watch the grass grow, or in the case of an Advertising Corporation which will sell your identity to some retailer like WalMart. So some basic precautions that you need to take to avoid this are: using a proxy, disabling all cookie options, java, active-x, and all scripting options in your internet browser, print and file sharing in NetBios, and also installing a firewall. The following text attempts to be a summary of those basic methods by which you can anonymously communicate with other like minded persons.

2. Just a number? :-
Before you can understand how best to protect your privacy, it's helpful to know just what information you're generating when you connect to the net, and how easy this is to trace.

At the very lowest level, when you connect to a website it will receive a record of your IP address - the unique number that indicates which computer you're using. If you use an ISP like Demon, that gives you a fixed address, that's enough to pinpoint your account. With a dynamic address, it'll pinpoint the modem line you connected to. Finding out which customer was using that line means matching up a time with the records from the computers that handle your login. On a busy system, that could mean finding one from tens of thousands of entries, but it can be done. This is how the police were able to track the source of the Love Bug virus to a dialup account used by a group of students in the Philippines. Some systems, such as AOL, might share an IP address between more than one user. The same is true of some corporate gateways to the net; but even so, there will usually be a way to work back to a specific system, even if it involves trawling through pages of log files. One way of hiding these sites is to go via a proxy, making the address that appears in the web server's logs that of the proxy server. Of course, all that's really doing is adding another link to the chain, since the proxy server will have a record of what you're asking it to do. But with the Proxy Server resident in a foreign country this is time consuming, probably not practible and faced with proxy chaining most will just give up. This is also what makes proxy servers a useful tool for those who want to see what you're up to. Even though you may not think your web requests are going through one, many internet service providers (ISPs) use so-called 'forced proxying'. This means that all web requests are routed via a transparent proxy. You don't need to change any settings in your browser, but the effect is the same. For an organization or country that wants to control and monitor what people are seeing on the web, it's ideal.

Thoughts regarding the use of system logs as evidence: Log files make crap evidence, for a start they're easily forged, and you're reliant upon computer generated evidence. What jury will believe a computer over a human? At best log files are supporting evidence, in most cases they only show logins, connections and other impersonal evidence, no log can say BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT that someone did something, they only say this machine number connected at this time, it don't say anything about the identity of the person. If in doubt deny everything, after all its the job of the prosecution to prove you are guilty of some misdemeanor.

3. What is a proxy server:-
A Proxy Server is a firewall and cache server. It can allow an entire network of computers to access the internet(http or ftp) with a single IP. it can act as a kind of filter for that network. Let's say you have 3 computers in some small network in japan going through a proxy server, schematically it looks like this.

------->|
------->|Proxy Server ----> The Web Site
------->|

If you are at home with internet access through your ISP, this is what your connection looks like :

(PC)------>Your ISP ----> The Web Site

If the proxy server in the network above allows other users to use it we can do this :
(PC)------->Your ISP ---->Proxy Server ----> The Web Site

From the above diagram we can go through the proxy server and hide our real ip address or url name! The Web Site will only see the ip address or url name of the proxy server and NOT that of your isp, thereby making you anonymous!

4. Why Use One:-
To act as a security firewall or ip filter.
To reduce the network load by caching commonly requested pages.
To translate the material into another language.
To improve access speed for users, achieved by caching.

Our interest lies in the first option i.e. becoming anonymous and Surfing Safe It isn't guaranteed that simply by using a proxy you will be anonymous. Some proxy servers will forward your real ip at random intervals others do it by default, others do by request from the web site that you visit. This makes it necessary to test your proxy for nym status at an Proxy Checking site. These sites will allow you to test the information or headers that are passed from the proxy server to the web site, careful inspection of these will allow you to decide just how anonymous you really are. An example header is:
HTTP_USER_AGENT: IE5 WIN2000
which tells the site your browser and operating system type. So once you enter a website, and click any one of the files on the webserver, the website owners can find out these items of information about you, and much more:
Your IP Address.
Your hostname.
Your continent.
Your country.
Your city.
Your web browser.
Your Operating System.
Your screen resolution.
Your screen colors.
The previous URL you visited.
Your ISP.

5. Proxy Types:-
The two most commonly used proxy types are http and socks each uses the common ports 8080, 1080 respectively. http proxies are for use with your browser. Socks which is a valid proxy alternative allows you sockisfy http, ftp, telnet, nntp, and common chat protocols similar to icq.

6. Steps for Finding an Anonymous Proxy:-

Step 1.
Find a List of Proxies
Step 2.
Check the Proxies for Anonymity
Step 3.
Check the Proxy Server's Country
Change your proxy regularly, else you leave yourself open to relationship analysis. Accomplished by comparing Referer, Site Location, and your current proxy, along with all the other visitors. If you keep your proxy long enough the logs may be hacked or made available to some interested 3rd party!

7. Where to find a Proxy List:-
Visit the various proxy sites that offer 8080 or 1080 proxies.

Proxy Lists:

Code:

Code:

http://www.alkaiser.com/    http://proxy.nikto.net/    http://poisk.hypermart.net/c gi-bin/proxies.cgi#    http://proxyworld.hypermart.net/    http://tools.rosinstrument.co m/cgi-bin/fp.pl    http://proxys4all.cgi.net/    http://www8.big.or .jp/~000/CyberSyndrome/pl1a.html    http://www.cyberarmy.com/lists/ proxy/    http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_lis t.htm

Also you can use Proxy Hunter to search for proxies in given domain ranges.


8. Where To Test Your Proxy for Anonymity:-
Go to one of these sites, even more than one to double check, read the environment variables, look for the ip address or url name. If you see your ip number then you are not anonymous!
Code:

Code:

http://www.tamos.com/bin/proxy.cg i    http://checkpoint1.hypermart.n et/index.htmll    http://allfree.webprovider.c om/proxychk.html    http://www.all-nettools.com/tool s1.htm    http://mizuno-la bo.cs.inf.shizuoka.ac.jp/~s5087/proxy.html    http://www.tamos.com/netres/pr.cg i    http://tools.rosinstrument.co m/cgi-bin/fp.pl    http://www.deny.de/cgi-bin/prxjdg.c gi    http://www.dawgssecurity.com/    http://thor.prohosting. com/~tcpip/cgi-bin/env.cgi    http://allfree.webprovider.com/ proxychk.html

Anonymity 4 Proxy
allows the importing and testing of lists of proxies

9. Where to Check The Proxy Server's Country :-
Avoid US/UK/Canada/Australia/NZ and most western European countries!
Code:

Code:

http://www.arin.net/whois/    http://www.all-nettools.com/tool s1.htm    http://www.samspade.org/

10. How to configure one in your browser:-

To enable a proxy server in IE
Go to: Tools... Internet Options... Connections... Settings

If you use a dialup connection, click the "Settings" button next to the dialup properties box. If you have a broadband connection, click the "LAN Settings" button instead. Check the "Use a proxy" option, then enter the proxy's hostname into the "Address" Editbox and port number into the "Port" Editbox normally 8080.

Tip: In the "General" tab make your Proxy Checking Url your chosen "Home Page" this allows you to check each time you log on.
To enable a proxy server in Netscape:
Go To: Preferences... Network... Proxy tab

Same as Internet Explorer

11. Obscuring a Proxy URL:-
An additional method is to obscure your url using hex codes so it turns out like looking like this
Code:

Code:

http://3513587746@3466536962/~anyname/homepage.htm

For a complete explanation of how to visit

12. Additional Security:-
Your security can be further advanced by chaining proxies whether they be http based or socks proxies. And schematically might look like this:
client ---> proxy1 ---> proxy2 ---> Web Site.
Each proxy server type has its own chaining syntax.

HTTP/FTP
The most common syntax is of the form proxy1.jp:8080//proxy2.kr:8080. This is added direct to your address editbox. Other proxy servers like the Japanese DeleGate servers use -_- to prefix the proxy and this can be typed straight into the url address bar i.e. type

Code:

http://needmore.cs.utexas.edu:10080/-_-http://www.yahoo.com

, note the "-_-", similar syntax applies to ftp sites since DeleGate Proxy Servers offer a ftp proxy service. The majority of proxy servers will use the http transport to convey the ftp information, and in doing so may or may not adhere to the connection conventions laid out in the ftp protocol. So to avoid revealing your ip address via an ftp connection its best to use a socks proxy for the purpose of anonymity, probably combined with some ftp client program. Proxy Hunter can be used to find the fastest proxies.

SHTTP/HTTPS
SHTTP aka Secure Hypertext Transport Protocol is a modified version of the Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) that includes security features. implementations include Digital Signitures, MAC aunthentication, Public/Private Key Encryption.
HTTPS aka SSL (S)ecure (S)ocket (L)ayer is similary a secure messaging protocol but it differs from SHHTP in that supports a variety of protocols such as FTP/HTTP etc. SSL is compatible with firewalls and tunneling connections. Other protocols have their own secure versions such as FTPS for ftp and NNTPS for NNTP or Network News where some news servers allow upload via a secure connection.

WARNING: Since both these protocols allow connections on arbitrary or secure ports 443 in the case of SSL. These connection requests, unless blocked by a firewall or handled via a secure proxy specific to the protocol, will reveal your ip address in the connection process!

SOCKS:
Socks Proxies which are the most flexible covering many protocols can be successfully chained using a program called SocksChain which chains 2 or more socks proxies. If you use say 4 socks proxies chained together because you want to post on some Russian news server. Then this will make you anonymous. Similar applies to ftp http mail icq etc.

Proxy Chaining:
The basic idea is this: although not all chainable proxies have web interfaces (a web page with a form where you can enter the URL you want to surf to using the proxy), several do have such interfaces. Three that are well known are MagusNet, the Anonymizer, and the Anonymicer.

Before starting, go to
Code:

Code:

http://www.tamos.com/bin/proxy.cgi

and write down the set of four decimal digits that make up your current IP address. Now, here's how to figure out how to learn to chain proxies with web form interfaces: Also try ports 8088 and 8090 for some additional interesting results. MagusNet uses a DeleGate proxy server; many other DeleGate proxy servers also have web interfaces and are chainable; to find several, notice the title of the MagusNet page: 'DeleGate for Non-CERN-Proxy clients'. Searching for that phrase on the standard US and Japanese search engines will turn up several other DeleGate proxy servers you can easily find the prefixes for using the exact same technique outlined above.

Many other DeleGates have no web interfaces, but they are chainable, too. Any time you are testing proxies you have found by scanning with ProxyHunter, searching on Search Engines, or filtered out of lists like the ones at Proxys4All or out of guestbooks or Boards at sites dealing with proxies etc., just test them to see if they can be chained. For example, if the _fictional_ proxy my_url.jp:80 is identified as a DeleGate on the Tamos page (or any of the other ENV testers listed on the Proxys4All Tools page), try
Code:

Code:

http://www.my_url.jp:80 /-_-http://www.tamos.com/bin/proxy.cgi

and see if it works. If it does (and many times it will), you've got another chainable proxy to add to your list.

13. Resources


Proxy Hunter: This is a good freeware proxy scanner

Anonymity 4 Proxy
. This program can inform if a proxy allows connection for HTTP, SSL and

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HTTPort
Is freeware and it can use a SSL proxy to tunnel requests to a wide variety of net services.

Socks2HTTP
Socks2HTTP is an agent converting SOCKS v.5 requests into HTTP requests and tunneling them through HTTP proxy.

Newsgroups dealing with Anonymity

alt.anonymous
alt.anonymous.email
alt.anonymous.messages
alt.hackers
alt.security.keydist
alt.security.pgp
comp.security.pgp
comp.security.pgp.announce
comp.security.pgp.discuss
comp.security.pgp.resources
comp.security.pgp.tech
misc.security
sci.crypt
sci.crypt.research

Free and Strange Proxies

For anonymous browsing, most people use a proxy. A proxy is nothing more than another computer which intercepts your requests and replaces your identifiers with its own. Thus the web site which holds the page you are looking for is fooled into thinking that the request came from the proxy and not from you. This page describes unusual proxies that are free to use and often faster than traditional anonymous ones. NOTE: the tricks described here will not create truly anonymous proxies, but they would be enough to protect your privacy for casual browsing.


For a start, you could use a web-based translations service to fetch the page for you. A very fast and efficient one is the Google Translation System.


Another way to create "pseudo-anonymous" proxies is to call pages thru one of the larger networks such as akamai.net in Taiwan. There are thousands of Akamai servers, all of which can be addressed using a simple formula. This is how it works

The formula for using an Akamai proxy is:
Code:

Code:

http://a$$$$.g.akamai.net/X/£££/@@@@/message/http://www.targetsite.com/

These are the rules for using it:

$$$$ is any 3- or 4-digit number calling one of Akamai's thousands of servers. Some numbers don't work (no server!) but most do.
X is any number between 1 and 9. Again not all numbers work, but 2 and 7 usually will.
£££ is any 3-digit number. Again some are valid. Try 111, 284 or 868 if you can't find that works.
@@@@ is any 4-digit number. Try 2278 if you can't find one that works.
message is any message you want to leave on the Akamai log. hello, windows_sucks - use your imagination!
NOTE: You MUST remember the trailing slash AFTER the site you want to visit.

This might seem a strange way to create a proxy, but it really does work. Try it!

Proxy Scanning Guide

This guide explains how to search for proxy servers by scanning certain ranges of IP addresses. We describe the proceeding by the use of the commercial tool Advanced Administrative Tools (AATools)

Introduction to Proxies & Port Scanning

When a user visits a web site, he connects to a remote server over the internet. Such a server is a computer which is connected to the internet. To provide services to a visitor, the appropriate software must be installed on the server. The most common service is a web server (e.g. Apache HTTP server) which delivers the requested content to the browser, i.e. HTML pages, picture files, files to download,... Other services are for example: FTP server (file transfer), SMTP/POP3/IMAP server (send/receive email), IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and many others. A proxy server (e.g. for HTTP, HTTPS (SSL), SOCKS,...) is a service too, i.e. it is program that runs on the remote server and responds to the user's requests.
Usually a remote server is reachable under a single (fixed) IP address. An IP address is a unique identifier which is assigned to a certain computer within a network. When a host name is typed into the browser (e.g.

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it will be resolved to the assigned IP address (Domain Name Resolution). For example:

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resolves to 216.239.57.99. To allow multiple services on single IP address, the access is done via Ports. At each IP address up to 65536 ports are possible. So a server is able to run many services on different ports of a single IP address.



To find out if a certain service runs on a server the ports must be tested. If a service is active on a port, the port is called open or active. A Port Scanner is a network tool which is able to scan for open ports on a server.
One of the best port scanners is the open-source tool Nmap, yet it's quite unstable in Windows and difficult to setup and use. The freeware ProxyHunter is dedicated to scan for proxies. Read our ProxyHunter - Quick Tutorial for more information. The commercial tool Advanced Administrative Tools (AATools) provides a powerful and reliable port scanner and proxy analyzer (and many other useful tools), yet it's very easy to use. Therefore we will use AATools

Configuration of the Port Scanner:

The Port Scanner of AATools must be configured first to allow an efficient process of scanning for proxies.

Start AATools in Port Scanner mode.



Set Port Set: to Proxy Ports. This is a predefined set to scan the most common standard proxy ports (80, 1080, 1081, 3121, 3128, 8000, 8001, 8080). Read the chapter How to work with Port Sets for more information.
The value of Threads determines the number of simultaneous accesses to the scanned computer, i.e. how many IP addresses/Ports are scanned at once. Values from 1 to 200 are possible. The higher the value the faster the portscan works. If the speed of your internet connection is slow, set it to 30 for example.
It may be that during a portscan the scanned computer is not responding. To terminate the unsuccessful portscan after a predefined time, set Connect timeout (in seconds) to a decent value (e.g. 10).



Click on Policy and select TCP Scanning. Then check Resolve Host Names and TCP scanning. Uncheck all other boxes.



Enter the Settings by clicking




Portscanning is not illegal in most countries, it's just a 'knock on the door' of the server (Actually entering the system may be forbidden). Yet a portscan is able to cause a lot of traffic on the scanned server. So the owner may accuse you of a Denial of Service attack, i.e. he assumes that you deliberately tried to break down his system. He can identify you by your IP address which shows up in the log files of the server. To stay anonymous during the port scan, a SOCKS proxy can be used.

This is the setup for a direct connection:



Here the portscan runs through a SOCKSv5 proxy:



Press OK to finish the configuration.

How to use the Port Scanner:

Start AATools in Port Scanner mode.



The Port Scanner must be configured as described in the chapter Configuration of the Port Scanner.

Scanning a single IP address
Enter the IP address of the server to scan in Hosts to scan.
Then press

to start the scan. Now all ports which are specified in the Proxy Ports set are tested. If a port is open, i.e. a service is running there, it will be added to the results window.



In this example the result window shows open ports on:
202.47.139.13:1080 - (SOCKS proxy standard port)
202.47.139.13:80 - (HTTP proxy standard port)
202.47.139.13:3128 - (HTTP proxy standard port)
202.47.139.13:8000 - (HTTP proxy standard port)

Scanning multiple IP addresses/ports

It is possible to scan a whole range of IP addresses or ports at once. When a port is added to the IP address (e.g. :80) the Port Set settings are overridden, i.e. only the specified port is scanned. Some examples:
202.47.139.[1-255] - Scans the IP range 202.47.139.1 to 202.47.139.255 on the ports which are specified in the selected Port Set.
202.99.112.[1-255]:80 - Scans the IP range 202.99.112.1 to 202.99.112.255 on port 80.
200.91.201.[100-200):1080,1813 - Scans the IP range 200.91.201.100 to 200.91.201.200 on ports 1080 and 1813.
200.91.201.112:8000-8080,80 - Scans the IP 200.91.201.112 on the port range 8000-8080 and on port 80.
Enter the IP address(es)/port(s) of the server(s) to scan in Hosts to scan. Then press

to start the scan. Now the specified IP addresses and ports are tested. If a port is open, i.e. a service is running there, it will be added to the results window.



Testing the results of the portscan

An open port doesn't mean necessarily that the desired service (e.g. HTTP proxy) is actually running there. The results of the portscan must be tested with a proxy checker!

AATools contains a very powerful proxy checker (Proxy Analyzer, look it up in our Testing anonymous proxies with AATools manual). Highlight the desired items in the result window of the Port Scanner, right-click the mouse and choose Send to - Proxy Analyzer. Then start the proxy check in Proxy Analyzer.



To export the results of the portscan to use it with another proxy checker, highlight the desired items in the result window of the Port Scanner, right-click the mouse and choose Copy to Clipboard - HostIP:Port. Then paste it to a text file (Ctrl+V). It will be stored in the standard format <IP address>:<Port> which can be imported in virtually all network related programs.



How to work with Port Sets:

A proxy server isn't fixed to run on a certain standard port (e.g. 8080 for HTTP proxies or 1080 for SOCKS proxies). It is able to work on any port within the range of 1-65536. The web administrator may have configured his system to run a proxy server on a so called non-standard port. One way to find non-standard port proxies is to scan the full port range (e.g. 200.31.44.1:1-65536). Yet that's very time consuming. Another way is to create a Port Set with some known non-standard ports (e.g. 1813, 5113, 5262, 8148,...). AATools has a Port Set editor in which the user can create individual sets to suit his personal needs.

Open the Port Set editor by clicking on

in the toolbar. Select a Port Set (Proxy Ports in this example) or create a new set by pressing New. Select a port in the left window and press the arrow.



The specified port will be added to the right window. Click Save to store the new configuration. At the next portscan with Proxy Ports, port 1813 will be included in the scan

Quick Start with Simple Configuration

The principle behind A4Proxy is the following: you configure your browser to use A4Proxy program as a proxy server. That means that instead of sending all requests to websites directly, your browser will be sending them to A4Proxy. As a result, A4Proxy will be able to relay those requests through anonymous proxy servers, so that when they finally reach the destination website, it won't be able to recognize their origin.

So there are two logical parts of the configuration: you must set up your browser properly, so that it will connect to A4Proxy; and you must set up A4Proxy so that it will choose the right proxy servers.

Note that you normally change the settings in your browser only once: after you have configured it properly, you forget about it, and control everything through A4Proxy. As for A4Proxy, you might need to change its settings quite often, according to your needs; at least you will need to re-check the proxies from time to time (e.g. once in a few days).

Please read about the configuration of your browser here. When the browser is configured correctly, the A4Proxy icon in the Windows tray must be flashing as you surf and there must be activity and statistics on the Proxy Activity tab. Please let me know if you don't see any activity there. Once you see that the requests are physically travelling through A4Proxy, it means that your browser is configured correctly. Similarly, if you can't get to any websites once you reconfigure your browser, it may indicate that everything is actually fine: the browser sends the requests to A4Proxy, but probably A4Proxy itself is not configured properly.

Configuring A4Proxy on the basic level involves the following:

1. Updating proxy status. You must regularly update the status (i.e. anonymity and speed) of all proxies in the database. It is done by selecting all proxies (in the Edit menu, choose Select All) and then "checking" them (click the Check Proxy button, which is on the Proxy Check tab in the program). There will always be some bad proxies (marked with a red cross), some non-anonymous ones (black dots), but most of them should be good anonymous proxies (green dots).

2. Choosing the right proxy(s) to use. It is important to remember that A4Proxy never takes the basic decision as to which proxy or proxies to use; and although it can change proxies automatically, it is for you to decide which proxies it will choose from.

There are two possible strategies: using a single proxy or forming a group of proxies and making A4Proxy pick one of them for each page on a random basis. You should learn how to use a single proxy first:
The best proxy is the one with the least number in the Response Time column (Check Proxy tab) and with a green dot. You will easily find it if you sort the list by clicking on the header of the Response Time column.
In order to have A4Proxy use one single proxy, and not a group of proxies, you must make sure that the option called "Use a new proxy on each request" (Proxy Options tab) is disabled.
That one proxy is called "Default proxy" in the terminology of the program. It is displayed in bold in the proxy list, and you can change it at any time, by right-clicking on a proxy you like and selecting "Set As Default" from the local menu that will appear. Alternatively, you can simply click it so that it becomes highlighted, and then choose "Set as default" in the Edit menu in A4Proxy. However, the right-click method is faster, so use that.

Well, once you have pointed your browser to A4Proxy and selected a good proxy as default, everything must work for you. This is what the basic level is all about: re-checking the proxies, selecting the best as default, and getting back to surfing. You are anonymous.


Configuration of Your Browser

Internet Explorer.


Select Internet Options from the Tools menu (in some versions of IE, the Internet Options menu item located in the View menu)
Click on the Connections tab
Select the dial-up connection you are using.
Press the Settings button
Set Proxy Settings: In the appropriate fields in the dialog box type the following: 127.0.0.1 (address of proxy server to use) and 80 (port number). Currently supported protocols (or server types) are HTTP, Secure HTTP and

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Do not modify other entries. Do not select the Use the same proxy server for all protocols option
Press OK
Do the same for all Dial-up connections. If you connect to the Internet through a LAN, you should change in the same way the Proxy Settings for your LAN connection.

Netscape Navigator


Choose Preferences from the Edit menu
Open the Advanced subtree on the left and click on Proxies
On the right, select Manual proxy configuration and click the View button (if you ever need to disable A4Proxy, just select Direct Connection in this dialog and the browser will communicate with websites directly, bypassing A4Proxy)
In the appropriate fields in the dialog box that will appear, type the following: 127.0.0.1 (address of the proxy server to use) and 80 (port number). Currently supported protocols (or server types) are HTTP, Secure HTTP and

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Gopher resources should also work with A4Proxy although this has not been tested.
Click OK everywhere


Opera


Choose Proxy Servers from the Preferences menu
In the appropriate fields in the dialog box that will appear, type the following: 127.0.0.1 (address of the proxy server to use) and 80 (port number). Currently supported protocols (or server types) are HTTP, Secure HTTP and

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Gopher resources should also work with A4Proxy although this has not been tested.
Select the checkboxes on the left of these fields (HTTP, HTTPS and FTP)
Click OK


Need To Know More ? ......

Code:

http://www.inetprivacy.com/a4proxy/support.htm

Proxycheck with Advanced Administrative Tools

This guide shows how to check a proxy server for accessibility and other functions using the Advanced Administrative Tools (AATools) software from G-Lock Software. AATools is a network diagnostic program which includes 12 tools in 1: TCP/UDP Security Port Scanner, Proxy Analyzer, RBL Locator, TraceRoute, Email Verifier, Links Analyzer, Whois, Network Monitor, Process Monitor, System Info, Resource Viewer and Registry Cleaner. We need the Proxy Analyzer, Trace Route and WHOIS tools here. This manual assumes you are using version 5.5 of the AATools, but older releases work in a similar way.

Every application and protocol requires a different proxy:
HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) - Used to access normal websites in HTML format.
HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) - Used for encrypted connections via SSL (Secure Socket Layer).
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - A protocol for handling files.
SOCKS - Network traffic can run through a SOCKS proxy to provide a proxy function for any communication software.
Whichever protocol you use, your proxy must be tested for that particular protocol. Some other issues are also important: speed, anonymity, reachability, response time, etc. AATools is able to scan large lists of proxy servers. Selecting an appropriate proxy server is simple to achieve.

Installation and configuration:

The current release of AATools is available as a time limited evaluation version. The registered version comes with some additional features, but you will be able to follow these instructions even with the evaluation version.
The installation works in the usual way. When launching AATools, a start screen is shown. Select Proxy Analyzer and press Start:



Click the Settings icon:



General Settings: In Script an on-line ProxyJudge or Environment Checker can be use to check the proxy server. Use one of the presets or enter another url. To check a proxy server for for HTTPS support, enter a working SSL server url (e.g. https//www.ziplip.com). Adjust the IP Address settings as shown.
Settings for ProxyJudge:



Settings for Environment Checker:



FTP Settings: To check a proxy server for FTP support, enter any working (public) FTP server url and click Test

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If the test is successful, press OK.



SOCKS Settings: To check a SOCKS proxy server, enter any working (public) FTP server or SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, sending email) server url and click Test. If the test is successful, press OK.



With all the important settings configured, we can now continue to the actual proxy checking...


HTTP proxy checking:

To check a single proxy server, enter the IP address and port. Then Add it to the list.



Establish an internet connection and press Start Scanning to check the proxy server.



This is the result:



To check several proxy server press Load List and choose a text file containing a list of proxy server. This list must be in the format:
proxy IP:port
proxy IP:port
proxy IP:port



The list is loaded now. Press Start Scanning.



The results:



Doubleclick on an entry in the list to open a browser window with the ProxyJudge or the Environment Checker results (depends on the settings, see above) for that particular proxy server.

How to assess the results:

When the scanning process is finished we have to consider and assess the results of the proxy check. An entry with green background indicates a working (responding) proxy server. An orange background indicates that the proxy server was found but it didn't respond within the adjusted timeout, it may be temporarily unavailable. A red background indicates an unreachable proxy server, i.e. it doesn't exist at all or your ISP is unable to route to it.

The items in the result window:

Host IP The IP address of the proxy server.

Host Name The name of the proxy server (if available).

Port The port number.

Location Country information (if available)

Time Response time in seconds. How fast the server responded to the request.

Speed An estimation of the transfer speed in kb/s. Not very accurate due to the very short connection time.

Spill your IP
The real IP (client IP) is visible and thus the proxy server is not anonymous.

Distorting
Distorting (gateways) proxies change their own IP address and the header fields. The connection seems to run without using a proxy, very valuable.
VIA
The remote server detects that he is connected to a proxy server and receives information about the proxy server.

Forwarded
The name of the server which processes the document. If set, watch the ProxyJudge test to determine which server is forwarded. If it is your own instead of the proxy server, the proxy is not anonymous

User Agent VIA
Your browser, operating system and language is visible. Watch the ProxyJudge test to see what information is given in the variable HTTP_USER_AGENT.

Cache Control
The proxy server runs a cache (proxy cache) to store temporary data. To minimize evidence it's better if no cache is used. A max-stale=0 in HTTP_CACHE_CONTROL means no caching too.

Https Ready
The proxy server supports the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) protocol.

Connection
A (Keep alive) means that the connection to the remote server is persistent after it is established. C (Close) means that for each request a new connection is established. Not security related.

FTP
The proxy server supports FTP (for your browser). Depending on the test modes (Connect only, Waiting for banner or Send USER and PASS commands) one, two or three dots may appear (if the test was successful).
Rating A proxy server is considered to be fully anonymous if it has a rating of 100 points or higher.
Status OK, Not Found or Broken by timeout. An OK indicates a functional proxy server.

SOCKS proxy checking:

To check a SOCKS proxy, the settings must be adjusted appropriately (see Installation and configuration above).

Switch to the SOCKS Proxys tab. Load a list with SOCKS proxies or enter a single SOCKS proxy.



Press Start Scanning to launch the check.



The results. A green dot indicates that the SOCKS proxy is functional and supports the respective level.



Trace route:

It's advisable to do an additional Trace Route to the chosen proxy server. The data travels over the internet through several servers (nodes) till it reaches the target server. A Trace Route can reveal the track a data packet follows. The data packets are hopping from one server to the other.

Switch to the Trace Route mode in AATools, enter the target IP/Hostname and press Start Scanning.



The results show the way in which data travels. Each node is shown by its IP or Hostname.



Country check:

To determine the location and owner of the proxy server, use the WHOIS mode in AATools.

Switch to the WHOIS mode in AATools, enter the target IP/Hostname and press Start Scanning.



If AATools was unable to determine the information about the server, enter the WHOIS Settings and try another WHOIS server for your query.

Anonymity of Proxy

The exchange of information in Internet is made by the "client - server" model. A client sends a request (what files he needs) and a server sends a reply (required files). For close cooperation (full understanding) between a client and a server the client sends additional information about itself: a version and a name of an operating system, configuration of a browser (including its name and version) etc. This information can be necessary for the server in order to know which web-page should be given (open) to the client. There are different variants of web-pages for different configurations of browsers. However, as long as web-pages do not usually depend on browsers, it makes sense to hide this information from the web-server.

What your browser transmits to a web-server:
a name and a version of an operating system
a name and a version of a browser
configuration of a browser (display resolution, color depth, java / javascript support, ...)
IP-address of a client
Other information

The most important part of such information (and absolutely needless for a web-server) is information about IP-address. Using your IP it is possible to know about you the following:
a country where you are from
a city
your provider?s name and e-mail
your physical address

Information, transmitted by a client to a server is available (accessible) for a server as environment variables. Every information unit is a value of some variable. If any information unit is not transmitted, then corresponding variable will be empty (its value will be undetermined).

These are some environment variables:

REMOTE_ADDR ? IP address of a client

HTTP_VIA ? if it is not empty, then a proxy is used. Value is an address (or several addresses) of a proxy server, this variable is added by a proxy server itself if you use one.

HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR ? if it is not empty, then a proxy is used. Value is a real IP address of a client (your IP), this variable is also added by a proxy server if you use one.

HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE ? what language is used in browser (what language a page should be displayed in)

HTTP_USER_AGENT ? so called "a user?s agent". For all browsers this is Mozilla. Furthermore, browser?s name and version (e.g. MSIE 5.5) and an operating system (e.g. Windows 98) is also mentioned here.

HTTP_HOST ? is a web server?s name

This is a small part of environment variables. In fact there are much more of them (DOCUMENT_ROOT, HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING, HTTP_CACHE_CONTROL, HTTP_CONNECTION, SERVER_ADDR, SERVER_SOFTWARE, SERVER_PROTOCOL, ...). Their quantity can depend on settings of both a server and a client.

These are examples of variable values:

REMOTE_ADDR = 194.85.1.1
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE = ru
HTTP_USER_AGENT = Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Windows 98)
HTTP_HOST =

Code:

www.webserver.ru

HTTP_VIA = 194.85.1.1 (Squid/2.4.STABLE7)
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = 194.115.5.5

Anonymity at work in Internet is determined by what environment variables "hide" from a web-server.

If a proxy server is not used, then environment variables look in the following way:

REMOTE_ADDR = your IP
HTTP_VIA = not determined
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = not determined

According to how environment variables "hided" by proxy servers, there are several types of proxies
Transparent Proxies

They do not hide information about your IP address:

REMOTE_ADDR = proxy IP
HTTP_VIA = proxy IP
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = your IP

The function of such proxy servers is not the improvement of your anonymity in Internet. Their purpose is information cashing, organization of joint access to Internet of several computers, etc.
Anonymous Proxies

All proxy servers, that hide a client?s IP address in any way are called anonymous proxies

Simple Anonymous Proxies

These proxy servers do not hide a fact that a proxy is used, however they replace your IP with its own:
REMOTE_ADDR = proxy IP
HTTP_VIA = proxy IP
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = proxy IP

These proxies are the most widespread among other anonymous proxy servers.

Distorting Proxies

As well as simple anonymous proxy servers these proxies do not hide the fact that a proxy server is used. However a client?s IP address (your IP address) is replaced with another (arbitrary, random) IP:

REMOTE_ADDR = proxy IP
HTTP_VIA = proxy IP
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = random IP address
High Anonymity Proxies

These proxy servers are also called "high anonymity proxy". In contrast to other types of anonymity proxy servers they hide a fact of using a proxy:

REMOTE_ADDR = proxy IP
HTTP_VIA = not determined
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = not determined

That means that values of variables are the same as if proxy is not used, with the exception of one very important thing ? proxy IP is used instead of your IP address.
Summary

Depending on purposes there are transparent and anonymity proxies. However, remember, using proxy servers you hide only your IP from a web-server, but other information (about browser configuration) is accessible!