Accessing web pages via a proxy

Hi,

There are certain web pages I can only access from my University web
server, from a machine which is inside my University network (so has
the .ac.uk suffix) - for example, academic service websites. Even if
I set up my home computer (outside the academic network) to use the
University web proxy, I'm not allowed to view these pages.

Is there any way to fool these academic service websites into thinking
that I am using a machine inside my University's network, and
therefore allowing me to access these websites?

One obvious strategy is to ssh to a machine inside the network, and
run mozilla remotely from there. But this is very slow, because I
only have a cable modem at home.

I am thinking of a way of, basically

1)using the University web server directly from my home machine

and

2)somehow ssh-ing into a machine inside the University network, and
using its ID to convince the academic service websites (somehow) that
I am accessing them from inside the University network

without the bandwidth hit of using mozilla remotely.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

Travis Perkins wrote:
> Hi,
>
> There are certain web pages I can only access from my University web
> server, from a machine which is inside my University network (so has
> the .ac.uk suffix) - for example, academic service websites. Even if
> I set up my home computer (outside the academic network) to use the
> University web proxy, I'm not allowed to view these pages.
>
> Is there any way to fool these academic service websites into thinking
> that I am using a machine inside my University's network, and
> therefore allowing me to access these websites?
>
> One obvious strategy is to ssh to a machine inside the network, and
> run mozilla remotely from there. But this is very slow, because I
> only have a cable modem at home.
>

try using vnc, I use it over cable and its fast enough.

also you can start your own proxy I suppose, their proxy must be
intentionally not proxying those sites.


Wish I knew more..


clg

Travis Perkins <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Hi,

> There are certain web pages I can only access from my University web
> server, from a machine which is inside my University network (so has
> the .ac.uk suffix) - for example, academic service websites. Even if
> I set up my home computer (outside the academic network) to use the
> University web proxy, I'm not allowed to view these pages.

> Is there any way to fool these academic service websites into thinking
> that I am using a machine inside my University's network, and
> therefore allowing me to access these websites?

> One obvious strategy is to ssh to a machine inside the network, and
> run mozilla remotely from there. But this is very slow, because I
> only have a cable modem at home.

You've probably thought of this, but I do the same, expect use lynx on
the internal machine, through the ssh connection. Works okay for the
sites I'm interested in.

Not sure of another easy solution. A hard solution would be writing a
simply proxy to run on the internal machine which modifies your http
requests to it and forwards them on to the web server. Could be tricky.
I'm trying the think of a ssh tunnel solution too, and can't figure one
that will do it.

--
*--------------------------------------------------------*
| ^Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool^ |
| Heath Raftery, HRSoftWorks _\|/_ |
*______________________________________m_('.')_m__ _______*

Heath Raftery <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I'm trying the think of a ssh tunnel solution too, and can't figure one
> that will do it.

That should be fairly simple.

ssh -L 13128roxyserver:3128 sshmachineoncampus

Then tell your client browser to use localhost:13128 as a www proxy.

--
Cameron Kerr
(E-Mail Removed) : http://nzgeeks.org/cameron/
Empowered by Perl!

Cameron Kerr <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Heath Raftery <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>> I'm trying the think of a ssh tunnel solution too, and can't figure one
>> that will do it.

> That should be fairly simple.

> ssh -L 13128roxyserver:3128 sshmachineoncampus

> Then tell your client browser to use localhost:13128 as a www proxy.

Sounds good, but that would require a proxy to be running on the
sshmachineoncampus right? And this solution would be pretty close
in functionality to just having your client browser use
sshmachineoncampus:3128 as a www proxy, except that
sshmachineoncampus wouldn't have to be open to the Internet on
3128.

Definately an option.
--
*--------------------------------------------------------*
| ^Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool^ |
| Heath Raftery, HRSoftWorks _\|/_ |
*______________________________________m_('.')_m__ _______*

Cameron Kerr <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Heath Raftery <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> Cameron Kerr <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>>> ssh -L 13128roxyserver:3128 sshmachineoncampus
>>
>>> Then tell your client browser to use localhost:13128 as a www proxy.
>>
>> Sounds good, but that would require a proxy to be running on the
>> sshmachineoncampus right?

> Ummm, no. You just need ssh access on the sshmachineoncampus, when the
> local ssh gets a connection on port 13128, sshmachineoncampus will open
> up a TCP connection to port 3128 on proxyserver. No other www proxy is
> needed. If you like you could kind of view ssh as being the proxy here
> (which isn't far from the truth really, althought it's NOT a www proxy,
> its a TCP proxy, kinda).

Ah, of course! I was thinking of 13128:sshmachineoncampus:3128 (which I'm
more familiar with). Quite different and much less effective! Thanks for the
education, it makes good sense now. What's the OP think?

--
*--------------------------------------------------------*
| ^Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool^ |
| Heath Raftery, HRSoftWorks _\|/_ |
*______________________________________m_('.')_m__ _______*

Heath Raftery <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Cameron Kerr <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>> ssh -L 13128roxyserver:3128 sshmachineoncampus
>
>> Then tell your client browser to use localhost:13128 as a www proxy.
>
> Sounds good, but that would require a proxy to be running on the
> sshmachineoncampus right?

Ummm, no. You just need ssh access on the sshmachineoncampus, when the
local ssh gets a connection on port 13128, sshmachineoncampus will open
up a TCP connection to port 3128 on proxyserver. No other www proxy is
needed. If you like you could kind of view ssh as being the proxy here
(which isn't far from the truth really, althought it's NOT a www proxy,
its a TCP proxy, kinda).

> And this solution would be pretty close in functionality to just
> having your client browser use sshmachineoncampus:3128 as a www proxy,
> except that sshmachineoncampus wouldn't have to be open to the
> Internet on 3128.

No, if that were the case, sshmachineoncampus WOULD need a www proxy
installed. Also, sshmachineoncampus would need to open to the internet
on port 3128, whereas with the solution I outlined, the only thing that
needs to be open to the internet is sshmachineoncampus port 22 (ssh).

--
Cameron Kerr
(E-Mail Removed) : http://nzgeeks.org/cameron/
Empowered by Perl!