Phoenix Network Forums

I have a connection at home (in south africa) which becomes internationally capped after 3GB of usuage, allowing 30GB more of local usuage. Local proxies are not common and not free due to the huge cost of bandwith here.

I have been tinkering with this idea and i want to know if it is possible. If i were to get an account with a local hosting company, is it possible to have a perl script (ive just started learning perl) that will basically retrieve the information i want to my webserver that im renting, and then pass it on to me, locally - very much like a proxy.

Just an idea
Bandit

mmm, i dun think u can set it like that...

Cream wrote:mmm, i dun think u can set it like that...

Thanks for the help you obviously have NO knowledge on the subject and just want to get your wretched post count up, which is already on 15 and you joined today >_< well done, that must be a record. But in future, don't do that to a post in which i am looking for someone who actually knows something, and can tell me WHY it can't be done, and doesnt provide me with a useless one line answer.

bandit

Yes you could do this. You could set up a proxy, using software called "squid". However, if bandwidth is so expansive, it should be around the same price for webhosts, and wouldn't you have to pay for the webhosting bandwidth? And if bandwidth is so expensive, I doubt there are any data-centers in your area.

Or if you don't have shell access to the webserver, you can run a web proxy.
http://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/php-proxy/
I use php-proxy at my school, since my school blocks most of the web pages I enjoy browsing (slashdot, webmasterworld, etc).

Another solution is to run a local proxy, if you have a extra computer lying around (or you could run it locally). Using the software i mentioned earlier(squid), you could have squid keep every website you visit in cache, thus reducing the amount of bandwidth usage.

Thanks for the help you obviously have NO knowledge on the subject and just want to get your wretched post count up, which is already on 15 and you joined today >_< well done, that must be a record. But in future, don't do that to a post in which i am looking for someone who actually knows something, and can tell me WHY it can't be done, and doesnt provide me with a useless one line answer.

Don't worry, people like that are quickly rejected for their shell account request, and perhaps banned from the forums.

<offtopic>
I see alot more of these people hanging around here..

sowwy

Krod,

Thanks for the usefull reply, ive gotten a lot of ideas with this, one being to bypass my schools similar site blockage. Any ideas how to access an FTP if (i suspect) ftp access has been blocked (upon accessing my server at home, iexplore returns a "server has been reset" error")

I saw a local hosting company offering hosting with unlimited bandwith for about $5 a month, but upon emailing them found it to be internationally hosted, which is pretty much useless

If i intend to run CGIPROXY or PHProxy (sp) at home on a windows box, you which free (opensource if possible) webserver you reckon i should use?

Thanks Again,
Bandit

You wouldn't want to use your own bandwidth surfing from school
If you have one of our shell accounts, you can just use your webspace. (But be sure to keep it password protected)

I personally like the cgi-proxy, as it is more internet explorer friendly(my school uses ie)

As for the ftp being blocked, it sound like their firewall/router only allows port 80 outbound. You can solve this by using a bouncer, a program that will bind to port 80, and redirect to port 21.

lol, don't have a shell account *yet* *ahem* but i will keep these in mind.

I'm going to be a bit of a brain leech at the moment, but i have so many new ideas i am so excited to put past you, most involving relaxing my computing experience at school...

First one: Most types of files are blocked to download (all i think) except all pic files, for obvious reasons. If you know anything about web programming, what do you think of creating a script that takes www.mysite.org/document.doc, downloads it to the server, changes the filename to document.jpg, then sends it to me at school as though i was downloading an "image" (cheap trick, i know ). I need this to download certain word documents etc I email or upload to a webserver for printing at school when it needs handing in.

Second: Does the server limit your bandwith in anyway, what is considered "overuse" or "abuse"? As i would like to make cgi-proxy and this script (as above) that i am thinking of writing available to my friends aswell...

Bare in mind that my account is a completely limited one (at school) no registry acccess etc...

Third: A bouncer on my ftp, im assuming? One which redirects all incoming traffic on port 80 to port 21? lol

Thanks man!

Bandit[/code]

First one: Most types of files are blocked to download (all i think) except all pic files, for obvious reasons. If you know anything about web programming, what do you think of creating a script that takes www.mysite.org/document.doc, downloads it to the server, changes the filename to document.jpg, then sends it to me at school as though i was downloading an "image" (cheap trick, i know Razz ). I need this to download certain word documents etc I email or upload to a webserver for printing at school when it needs handing in.

Well, the file extensions don't matter much, at least in linux. The file MIMES are what matter. You wouldn't need a program, you could just do it manually. (eg upload the file you want to download, change the file extension, then download it from your school computer, then change the file extension to the original one.)

Second: Does the server limit your bandwith in anyway, what is considered "overuse" or "abuse"? As i would like to make cgi-proxy and this script (as above) that i am thinking of writing available to my friends aswell...

Yes, we do limit bandwidth, but you shouldn't need to worry about it. (you get a lot)

Third: A bouncer on my ftp, im assuming? One which redirects all incoming traffic on port 80 to port 21? Idea lol Razz

A bouncer (aka port forwarder) would work. If you have ever heard about netcat, it is known as the swiss army knife of hacking, it is would possible to do it with that.
http://netcat.sourceforge.net/.

hmm, thanks for the tips...

Our school gets free licenses from Micro$oft, so we run fully win network...filename still matter? Explain MIMES please?

A format originally developed for attaching sounds, images and other media files to electronic mail, but now also used with World Wide Web applications. A MIME mapping is a list of file extensions and the types of files they belong to. When the server sends an HTTP reply, it sends a type/subtype header according to the requested file's extension. A MIME type/subtype is an HTTP header sent with a reply that determines how a client will view or use the message. ...