I usually check my websites to see what visitors from other countries (ex: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, etc) will see especial on how my advertising banners are displayed. Also, in my country, some social sites (Facebook) are blocked by some reason so I have to utilize the internet connections from my oversea servers to access.
I’m using Tunnelier whenever I want to do that. Basically, it tunnels all my web access through a remote server. Therefore, you need to have access to a SSH server. If you want to act an US visitor, the server should be located in US. The same for United Kingdom, Canada,etc.
Dynamic tunneling via integrated proxy supporting SOCKS4, SOCKS4A, SOCKS5 and HTTP CONNECT proxy tunneling protocols. Configure your applications to connect to target hosts through Tunnelier’s proxy, and no manual tunneling rules need be configured.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you:
- 1. Set up SOCKS/HTTP Proxy Forwarding in Tunnelier
- 2. Set up Proxy server (SOCKS Host & Port) in Firefox
- 3. Set up Proxy server (SOCKS Host & Port) in Internet Explorer and Google Chrome
1. Setting up SOCKS/HTTP Proxy Forwarding in Tunnelier
- 1. You need to download and install Tunnelier. It’s available for FREE download via: http://www.bitvise.com/download-area
- 2. After download & install Tunnelier, let’s run it and enter your SSH server log in detail in Login tab.
Note: let’s select the password option in the Initial method.
Tunnelier SSH Login Detail
- 3. Go to Services tab and select Enabled check box in SOCKS / HTTP Proxy Forwarding panel
Tunnelier Enable SOCKS HTTP Proxy Forwarding
Noted: I assume that you keep the current setting for Listen Interface (127.0.0.1) and Listen Port (1080). We need these information for later use.
- 4. Click Login button to see if your connection is established.
Tunnelier Connection Established
Note: if a Host Key Verification comes up, please click Accept and Save or Accept for This Session.
2. Setting up dynamic tunneling (SOCKS Host) in Firefox
- 1. Open Firefox, go to Tools => Advanced => Network => Settings…
Firefox Advanced Network Settings
- 2. In the Connection Settings box, select Manual proxy configuration then enter the SOCKS Host (127.0.0.1) and Port (1080) which were set in the previous step. Remember?
Firefox Sock Hosts And Port
- 3. Click OK & OK button
3. Setting up dynamic tunneling (SOCKS Host) in Internet Explorer and Google Chrome
As Google Chrome is using the same proxy configuration with the IE, so we just need to make changes on IE then Google Chrome will follow.
- 1. Open Internet Options: go to Tools => Internet options in IE or from Start menu => Control Panel => Internet Options
- 2. Go to Connections tab then click on LAN settings button
Internet Explorer Connections LAN settings
- 3. In the Local Area Network (LAN) setting box, select ‘Use a proxy server for your LAN’ in Proxy Server panel then click Advanced button
Internet Explorer Proxy Server Setting
- 4. In Proxy Settings, type Socks host (127.0.0.1) and Port (1080) as was mentioned above
Internet Explorer Sock Host And Port
Wow, we finished a great job with a lot of steps :). Now you can access or check websites through your remote server. To do a quick test, you should check your current online IP address to see where are you now, another online tool for you: http://rapid-tools.net/
And do not forget to log out and exit the Tunnelier and reset your Proxy setting (use no proxy) when you’re done or your browser will stop working.
