Setting up a WWW Proxy server

[imasterxx]

I need a bit of help configuring a WWW proxy server on my computer...

The situation is at my work they have a very good firewall set up and it only allows access to certain websites (sites used for work purposes only).

I did some probing and found out that the ftp port (21) is open. (you can probably see where I'm going with this)

I want to setup Wingate so it will accept the work computer's connection on port 21 and will redirect it to the website.

I have the correct settings on the port forwarding for the router and I know what my proxy settings will be on my work computer's browser...my last step is configuring Wingate on my home PC. Unfortunately, I haven't worked with Wingate very much and am having trouble getting it to do what I want. If anyone could please take me through the steps to configure Wingate to my needs I would greatly appreciate it. : )

[adrien]

Hi

Not sure I understand specifically what you want to be able to do here?

Port 21 is typically for FTP, whereas web sites use predominantly HTTP.

If you redirect port 21 to a webserver, you are not likely to get anything useful back in the FTP client, since the webserver will be talking the wrong language (i.e. not FTP, which works in a completely different fashion).

Or do you wish to tunnel through port 21 to avoid your firewall policies?

If so, you would simply set up the web proxy to run on port 21 instead of port 80, then set up your browser at work to use the proxy at your home address on port 21. Then it should just work as normal.

Adrien

[imasterxx]

I believe the tunneling is what I'm trying to do. I'm not running any kind of web server from my house...I just wish to gain access to the Internet through my cable modem connection from work. (I know I have the 30Kb/s upload cap but it's a heck of a lot faster than the dialup I'm currently using at work).

Anyway, I believe the tunneling is what I'm trying to do because port 21 is the only port that's open at work and I don't care if it's meant for ftp I just want to use it to connect to the Internet.

I tried setting up the proxy to run on 21 instead of 80 but I wasn't able to get it to work. (I tested it on my Laptop using dial up and I remembered to put the correct IP under HTTP proxy in my web browser along with port 21 and checked the SOCKS v5 option). - So all in all what I'm doing at the moment isn't working.

I'm positive the ports are forwarded through my router correctly and believe the problem is with the Wingate configuration. There were a lot of options that I'm unsure about. I disabled all the services in Wingate except for the WWW proxy server. Within that proxy server service, what changes do I have to make to ensure that I will be able to connect from the outside through port 21. Do I have to add any policies or bindings or anything like that?

Thanks

[adrien]

OK

I'm picking it's a binding and firewall issue. In this case your browser will probably time out its connections to WinGate.

To connect to the WWW Proxy from the internet, you would need to set up a binding policy in the WWW Proxy to bind either to any adapter at all, or any external adapter. This then automatically opens the necessary firewall holes.

It also makes you very useful to spammers (who believe me will very quickly find your IP, there are port scans going on all the time). You really don't want to be an open proxy.

So, either make sure the policies on that WWW Proxy require users to be authenticated, or lock it down to only accept connections from your work IP address.

Adrien

[imasterxx]

I added the binding adapter to port 21 and it worked! :) thx for your help
...and now I get limitless hours or internet fun at work :-p