Proxy server for changing geolocation - recommendations wanted

[Adam Funk]

On 2021-10-11, Karl Auer wrote:

> On Mon, 2021-10-11 at 14:00 +0100, Chris Green wrote:
>> I want to set up a simple proxy server so that I can use my UK
>> library services and my doctor's web site when I'm abroad 
>
> Is this a one-off trip, a regular thing, or a frequent thing? The more
> frequent, the more time and money you can reasonably invest in a
> solution.
>
> A proxy server would not be a good idea unless you have some way to
> authenticate yourself to it; otherwise it is effectively a proxy for
> everyone on the Internet. It will not take long for the rest of the
> Internet to find it, either.
>
> A better idea would be a VPN, which is all about authentication. If you
> run any of the popular NASes at home, like Synology, QNAP etc, you'll
> find they have VPN capabilities built in. Very easy to set up, but you
> would have to leave systems running at home while you were away - and
> not that useful unless you have a static IP address.

Or a service like no-ip.com (which I use and like).



> Alternatively, as you are not seeking security but only an IP address
> in the UK, sign up with a UK-based VPN provider (or a VPN provider that
> allows you to choose your apparent location). They don't cost much.
>
> If you want ONLY to access a couple of specific websites, you don't
> need any special software at all - just a system in the UK that you can
> ssh into. Given these facts:
>
> - your ssh server is myserver.co.uk
> - you are user "chris" on your ssh server
> - your doctor's website is [www].mydoc.co.uk
>
> then when you are in France you need to do three things as follows:
>
> 1: Add this line to the top of /etc/hosts on your laptop:
>
>    127.0.0.1 mydoc.co.uk www.mydoc.co.uk
>
> 2: Put this in ~/.ssh/config
>
>    Host myserver
>       Hostname myserver.co.uk
>       User chris
>       Port 22
>       IdentityFile /path/to/server/ssh/key
>
> 3: Execute this command on your laptop:
>
>    ssh -N -f -L 8443:mydoc.co.uk:443 myserver
>
> Now browse to https://mydoc.co.uk:8443 and use your doctor's website.
>
> When you are done, just "killall ssh" (or "killall -i ssh" if you have
> other ssh connections you want to keep).
>
> To access your library, just add your library's hostnames to that first
> line in /etc/hosts and run a second ssh command exactly the same as the
> first but with a different left-hand port number (i.e., not 8443). The
> actual port numbers are irrelevant as long as they are not already in
> use and are over 1024.
>
> If you don't have a system in the UK that you can log into via ssh, let
> me know off-list.
>
> Regards, K.
>
> -- 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
> http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
>
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>
>