CGI proxy script

[mgp77]

Hello,

I am behind a firewall and a proxy server and as a result am unable to access certain webpages such as Gmail. Now I know there is a CGI proxy script that has been developed that will allow me to access certain blocked sites by accessing the machine hosting the script and typing in the URL for the site you want to reach in the script's webpage. However it doesn't seem to work for accessing web based messaging sites such as MSN web messenger. I was hoping that someone on here might be able to tell me if there is a script available that will allow me to do this. All help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[Kirsle]

CGI Proxies are relatively limited. They're good at manipulating text-based things (i.e. webpages) to reroute through itself, but for binary things (Flash, Java applets), it can't manipulate it to direct through itself.

i.e. if a Java applet was programmed to read "/config.ini" or something from the target server, the CGI proxy isn't able to find that to tell it "okay, you'll get /proxy.cgi?http/site.com/config.ini"

In other words, CGI proxies can maybe download the Java classes or SWF files, but it can't do binary manipulations of them, so things such as MSN web messengers that use such things... a CGI proxy can't really do very much about.

 

[mgp77]

Is there anyway that you could recommend that I could try to see if I can get an instant messanger working. I thought about creating an SSH tunnel to my home machine and using MSN messenger from there however I do not have the necessary proxy info (uer id/passwd) in order to create the tunnel.

 

[Kirsle]

A cool little program is TightVNC (

http://www.tightvnc.com/

), it's kind of like a "remote desktop." You run the server from your home computer, and then can access it via HTTP or via the TightVNC Viewer (which is faster).

Like you'd go to

http://your-ip:7500/

and log in with the password (which defaults to the Windows account password running the server) and use a Java applet to see your computer at home. You can set the server to allow keyboard/mouse input for the remote viewer.

And if you have access to install TightVNC on the remote computer, the viewer program that comes with it runs a lot faster than the HTTP Java applet.

Of course, it would obviously need access to open a port like that so you'd have to set it up with your firewall or router (if applicable), and a static IP address would help too.

 

[mgp77]

Cool thanks for the tip Kirsle. I do have privledges that would allow me to install the viewer on my remote machine. What port does the viewer run on? I hope it will work through the firewall here. I can of course set up the server on my home PC to use an open port. Also, does it use an encrypted tunnel?

Thanks for all your help!!

 

[mgp77]

Hummm I just checked out the TightVNC website and according to what I read TightVNC is based on VNC which I have tried in the past to get working but again because I don't have the necessary proxy info (username/passwd) I wasn't able to get it working. Am I correct in assuming that TightVNC will also need this information in order to operate behind a firewall/proxy? I think that whatever port the viewer uses is blocked by the firewall. Can it be geared up to use port 80 or encrypt the header so that the firewall will no longer block it? Sorry for all the questions. I would just really like to get this working!

Thanks

 

[Kirsle]

Have you downloaded and tried playing with it yet? Last time I checked the ports were totally customizable.

 

[mgp77]

I'll give it a shot and see what I can do thanks.