[CentOS] ssh -D socks proxy through CentOS-5

Fri Sep 30 19:51:48 UTC 2011
James B. Byrne <byrnejb at harte-lyne.ca>

On Thu, September 29, 2011 15:13, Akemi Yagi wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 11:54 AM, James B. Byrne
> <byrnejb at harte-lyne.ca> wrote:
>> Is there anything special in the way of configuration
>> that
>> is required to enable a CentOS box to act as the point
>> of
>> origin for an http request routed to it via a SOCKS ssh
>> link?
>>
>> I have researched this matter and the recommended
>> procedure is to open an SSH connection to the desired
>> host
>> passing the requisite switches so:
>>
>>  ssh -f -n -D <port> user at host.domain.tld
>>
>> And then reconfigure the desired applications to use the
>> localhost:<port> as the SOCKS proxy.
>
> Would this blog help? It's been working for me:
>
> http://blog.toracat.org/2008/09/socks-proxy-with-auto-config/
>
> Akemi
>
>

Yes it did help.  However, I only discovered my error when
I carefully considered the contents of this site:

http://sage.ucsc.edu/~wgscott/xtal/wiki/index.php/SSH_and_Tunneling

Which gives an excellent overview of the entire process.
My error was to configure both the http proxy and the
socks proxy in Firefox, mistakenly thinking that the one
should point to the other.  The proper configuration is to
just set up the socks proxy alone and not proxy localhost
at all.

I now am able to create a tunnel and securely web-browse
from my laptop through my desktop unit at work.  I
discovered that the custom port issue I feared does not
exist because the thing that is important for socks is the
protocol and not the address.

Thanks,

-- 
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