Configuring GAIM to use SOCKS through an SSH tunnel ::SUCCESS!::
Ahh...
Finally. Been working on this for some time and finally learned the last thing I needed to know in order to get things to function.
Ok.. SO- At work? Have SSH but all your messaging needs are being denied by an evil IT admin?
Let's circumnavigate the firewall, so you can find out all the latest from your buds at lunch.
First off, of course, you're going to need to have access to an SSH server that -doesn't- block instant messaging clients. You can easily setup one, there are many guides easily located with a google search on how to setup SSH at home. If you're home machine is behind a router you'll need to forward port 22 to the machine with the ssh server.
Next you're going to need an ssh client. Since I'm stuck using windows at work, that's the position I'll write this guide from. So basically I'm assuming here that you've got an SSH server setup at home (if it's windows I'm going to have to suggest SFU 3.5, its closer to native and less of a hassle than using cygwin).
For your SSH client I'd suggest the free puTTY - no installer, just good stuff. And there are several utilities available from the author for a host of Good Stuff™.
Go ahead and setup putty and try to connect to your home SSH server. Once you've got it working close your SSH connection and were going to go through the settings to setup a tunnel to your home.
Open up puTTY and select your saved session. If you havent saved it already I would definately suggest doing so, to make this process much faster. On the left hand side expand connection, expand SSH and select Tunnels like so:
Ok... so now what I've done here is I added port 1020 into the Source Port and selected Dynamic button. This is what the result should look like. I left Local ports accept connection from other hosts and Remote ports do the same (SSH-2 only) unchecked, I went to Source Port and put in 1020 (you can put just about whatever you like here.. I belive 1080 is more popular), I left Destination blank (because its going to be dynamic) and then I selected from the radial below Destination the option Dynamic. I left the last selection to Auto. Then I just hit Add and the screen shot above is the result.
Next you just connect to the SSH server like we did before. Tada! You now have a tunneled connection to your SSH server. Now in any web based application, be it a browser or chat program, you can point it at the 1020 address as a socks4 proxy and you will be essentially messaging and surfing from home through an encrypted connection.
Now the next part was what killed me and made me a bit stir crazy for like twenty minutes. If you're doing this with AOL, for whatever reason (it might be something whack with my local connection.. I dont know..) but instead of login.oscar.aol.com I had to use login.glogin.messaging.aol.com. Go figure. I was able to ping plain login.oscar from home and when I'm there I can just straight up connect with GAIM no problem.. but in this particular case I had to use login.glogin.messaging.aol.com in order to connect. So my GAIM config looks like this:
Saved it and viola! Everything was good and happy. You can do the same thing with your web browser, just set the SOCKS host as 127.0.0.1 and (in this config) port to 1020 and you're set!
Ok.. anyway.. hope this helps someone out there.
ShaBot
Finally. Been working on this for some time and finally learned the last thing I needed to know in order to get things to function.
Ok.. SO- At work? Have SSH but all your messaging needs are being denied by an evil IT admin?
Let's circumnavigate the firewall, so you can find out all the latest from your buds at lunch.
First off, of course, you're going to need to have access to an SSH server that -doesn't- block instant messaging clients. You can easily setup one, there are many guides easily located with a google search on how to setup SSH at home. If you're home machine is behind a router you'll need to forward port 22 to the machine with the ssh server.
Next you're going to need an ssh client. Since I'm stuck using windows at work, that's the position I'll write this guide from. So basically I'm assuming here that you've got an SSH server setup at home (if it's windows I'm going to have to suggest SFU 3.5, its closer to native and less of a hassle than using cygwin).
For your SSH client I'd suggest the free puTTY - no installer, just good stuff. And there are several utilities available from the author for a host of Good Stuff™.
Go ahead and setup putty and try to connect to your home SSH server. Once you've got it working close your SSH connection and were going to go through the settings to setup a tunnel to your home.
Open up puTTY and select your saved session. If you havent saved it already I would definately suggest doing so, to make this process much faster. On the left hand side expand connection, expand SSH and select Tunnels like so:
Ok... so now what I've done here is I added port 1020 into the Source Port and selected Dynamic button. This is what the result should look like. I left Local ports accept connection from other hosts and Remote ports do the same (SSH-2 only) unchecked, I went to Source Port and put in 1020 (you can put just about whatever you like here.. I belive 1080 is more popular), I left Destination blank (because its going to be dynamic) and then I selected from the radial below Destination the option Dynamic. I left the last selection to Auto. Then I just hit Add and the screen shot above is the result.
Next you just connect to the SSH server like we did before. Tada! You now have a tunneled connection to your SSH server. Now in any web based application, be it a browser or chat program, you can point it at the 1020 address as a socks4 proxy and you will be essentially messaging and surfing from home through an encrypted connection.
Now the next part was what killed me and made me a bit stir crazy for like twenty minutes. If you're doing this with AOL, for whatever reason (it might be something whack with my local connection.. I dont know..) but instead of login.oscar.aol.com I had to use login.glogin.messaging.aol.com. Go figure. I was able to ping plain login.oscar from home and when I'm there I can just straight up connect with GAIM no problem.. but in this particular case I had to use login.glogin.messaging.aol.com in order to connect. So my GAIM config looks like this:
Saved it and viola! Everything was good and happy. You can do the same thing with your web browser, just set the SOCKS host as 127.0.0.1 and (in this config) port to 1020 and you're set!
Ok.. anyway.. hope this helps someone out there.
ShaBot
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