Breaking out of a proxy jail: SOCKS

SOCKS is a SOCKS server written in Java. It's simple to set up and due to it's Java source code, it's very portable.

The quickest way to get SOCKS is to download the pre-compiled version: socks_bin.zip.

Extract the contents of the archive to somewhere convenient.

You will need to configure the app before you can run it. Configuration is done in bin/socks.properties. The default timeouts should be OK, but you may want to change the port, users and proxy settings for your specific needs.

Running SOCKS on Windows

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Running SOCKS on *nix (including OS X)

Although the app comes with it's own startup script, I suggest you use this:

cd /usr/local/socks/bin java -classpath "../lib/socks.jar:../lib/socks_apps.jar:$JAVA_HOME/lib/classes.zip" SOCKS $1 $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7 $8 $9

If the java binary isn't in your $PATH, you will have to be more specific.

Once the app is running, it should look something like this:

Loading properties
Reading file socks.properties
Setting iddle timeout to 600000 ms.
Setting accept timeout to 60000 ms.
Setting udp timeout to 600000 ms.
Using Ident Authentication scheme:
Range:.
Users:Everybody is permitted.

At that point, it is ready to accept SOCKS client connections (default port is 1080).

Security

Important: It's not a good idea to have a SOCKS server open to the world, as anyone could use your server. Even if you have a password on it's access, I still wouldn't recommend it. It would be wiser to connect to it using a SSH tunnel.

For more information on the SOCKS app, visit the homepage.