This is for educational use only, because if you are behind a restrictive firewall (corporate or otherwise), your system admin may take a dim view of you using these techniques. It's not necessarily complete, but it should point you in the right direction.

What is http-tunnellling and why would I need it?

Here's a link to HTTP_Tunnel for Windows, read this first:
http://www.http-tunnel.com/HT_Products_HTT...unnelClient.asp



In simple terms, this means that it allows applications that run on a specific port to be redirected through port 80, which most firewalls leave open for web browsing.

What would I need to do this?

You will need the HTTP-Tunnel application for windows, available from the link above and the details for your proxy server/firewall, including hostname/ip address and the port that it uses (typically port 80), and any login details for your proxy/firewall if required. These details will need to be entered in the configuration page of HTTP-Tunnel.

Example configuration:



Once http-tunnel is configured, you will need to change the SOCKS proxy configuration in your other applications to point at SOCKS proxy server 127.0.0.1 on port 1080. It is recommended where supported that you use SOCKS5 rather than SOCKS4 as the server type, as this is the latest standard.

Example mirc configuration:



Your tunnel should now be set up, and your application should work. In some cases, where streaming is disabled for HTTP, some chat applications may not work.

If the tunnel is not working as expected, you could try mapping a port in the tunnel, by using the menu "Settings > Add Ports/Applications"

Here you can map specific ports to use for remote servers. You should supply both a hostname and a local and remote port that the application needs to communicate on. This can be useful when there is no support for SOCKS proxies in the application you want to use.

Example:



Be aware that there is no way to remove these from the GUI. While you cannot remove individual port maps from the GUI, you can remove ALL of the entries from this list, by deleting PortMap.dat from the directory in which HTTP-Tunnel is installed. You should make a backup of this file first, just in case.

Tweaking HTTP-Tunnel
In the configure panel of HTTP-Tunnel, you should try using the "Proxy supports the CONNECT command". If this option works, then it should speed up your connection. If not, disable it and it should work as before.

--

Wide range of guides for configuring HTTP tunnel with other apps, including p2p clients:
http://www.http-tunnel.com/html/support/user_guides.asp

--

As of October 19th 2003, the "free" low-bandwidth version of HTTP-Tunnel now requires you to pay $9.95 per year.

As a result, here are some instructions for Hopster ( http://www.hopster.com ) which has a freee, low-bandwidth option. This includes adware, but is still free. You can pay $2 per month to get rid of the ads, which seems a bit steep to be honest, although the ads are annoying.

Simply download the app from http://www.hopster.com and install it. It automatically detects your proxy settings from IE and configures the apps you want to use. There was no complex setup involved and seems to work well.

If you need to use an app which is not covered by the setup of Hopster , which also supports SOCKS proxies, you can configure it with the following settings:

SOCKS Proxy
IP Address : 127.0.0.1
Port: 1080

If you can put up with the ads, I would recommend this as a free solution to tunnelling.

Also worth noting, is that while HTTP-Tunnel kept dropping the persistent connection behind a Novell BorderManager firewall, Hopster seems to maintain the connections without a problem. Also MSN messenger seems to work properly, while it didn't with HTTP-Tunnel (i have used Http-tunnel for MSN Messenger before behind other firewalls without problem).

Can I use BitTorrent with Hopster? How to configure it?

Whenever I use BitTorrent to download a file using BitTorrent, it gave me "HTTP Error 407: Proxy Authentication Required".

ok a quick google for "bittorrent socks proxy" brought back a few results. you may want to check them out for yourself.

This was a reasonable result, although it doesn't specifically deal with hopster, it may well help you:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BitTorrent/message/1357

Has anyone tried using

http://www.bypass.cc

I've been using it for basic web surfing and ftping. Seems
to do the job.

I dont think it gives you extra privacy but KazaaHTTP2 i found is very good. It has a 20day free trial and can be brought for $25 dollars which is really cheap especially if your in the UK.
I looked around for a long time at hopster and http-tunnel but the free trials were really slow.
Found it was good for MSN and ICQ although Kazaa works its not as fast as it seems to fail alot of thje connections it tries. When running with Kazaa and error mesage pops up normally but if you ok it and lave it running in the foreground it doesnt beep anymore.

Download it here KAzaaHTTP2

ok ill check it out , thanks monkey butler.