[2005] Program that uses proxies to...

Hello, first of all what are proxies, how do i use them?

I want to make a program that may use proxies to allow me to watch videos on certain websites that restrict their video viewers to US citizens only.

Since i am from canada, and i want to watch a video on a website like abc family. If i click play on a video it says;

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Sorry our video services are currently avaible for US citizens only.

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Can i use proxies to confuse the website to watch the videos? Maybe put the video in a WebBrowser control?

I am pretty sure this is not illegal since all they say is that there services are going to come out in Canada and other countries later on.

Well first of all can anyone tell me what a proxy is? Are there any requirements for using proxies?

A Proxy is a server that acts as an intermediate node between two hosts. For example, instead of your browser directly connecting to different webservers to exchange information, it can connect to a proxy and send its request to it, and the proxy in turn will connect to the webserver and forward this request. The webserver responds back to the proxy, which then responds back to your browser.

You can use a proxy in the WebBrowser control, however by doing so, Internet Explorer and other Microsoft applications such as Windows Live Messenger will also use this proxy.

So how is this done?

And also if MSN will also use the proxy can't i turn off the proxy after the user is done using it?

Basically, first step is to "find" a proxy, and if your target is "US Exclusive" content, then you'll need to find a proxy server in the United States.

Do a Google search for "Anonymous Free Proxy" and you should get returned dozens of sites with lists of machines that are supposedly acting as an anonymous proxy. Many of these sites sort by country the machine is in as well.

Pick some US machines and give them a try in Internet Explorer. Click "Internet Options" then the "Connections" tab, and then "LAN Settings" if you're using Ethernet to connect to the Internet. Type in the address of the proxy and the port and you should be good to go. If pages don't load after that, or load WAY too slowly, try a different proxy.

All the major browsers have a setting similar to this as well. For Firefox 3.0 it's under Tools->Options->Advanced->Network Tab->Settings button under Connection area. Likewise, when most people talk about proxies, they're talking "HTTP" or "Web" proxies, machines that serve as a proxy to the World Wide Web. You can set up a proxy for anything though. Some general-purpose proxies like SOCKS5 also exist.

Basically, since you're bouncing it off a machine, the sites you're trying to get data from will see the request comming from the proxy, and not your own. It's a great way to surf the web anonymously as well.

To programmatically set a proxy in IE, you'd need to use API's.
I believe the InternetSetOption method in wininet.dll might be what you need.

I will also add that most of the "free proxy" services you find don't work, or at least don't work as you would want them to.

Some are also sites that try to infect you with a virus if you run an unpatched system, so be careful.

Firefox has a wonderful proxy system with one called Tor. You get yourself a plugin called the Tor button which sits down the bottom of the screen. If you want your proxy on you click it. Instant proxy. When you don't want it anymore you click it again. Unfortunately Tor is only seldomly US based.

To switch your proxy on and off you just have to change who your internet connection points to, localhost or proxy. Within your webbrowser control would be the easiest way to do that. You could even have a dedicated one for the US but as has been said proxies can be a bit unreliable and you have to keep looking for a new one. They work for a while and then just stop. You don't want that happening five minutes before the end of your show. :(

I will search for some, but can anyone supply an example the InternetOptions API. How i would do it. I think i have a program that generates API codes though.

You can just chain a proxy into your URL I believe:

http://www.proxy.com:8000/http://www.site.com

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Originally Posted by Jenner

You can just chain a proxy into your URL I believe:

http://www.proxy.com:8000/http://www.site.com

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Can anyone else here confirm this?

Also as said above, i now am not so sure i would like to use a proxy if there is a big chance of getting a virus.

Just dont use a dodgy proxy, google around a bit and see what others have used and you'll be fine.

but what jenner said is that true? i can just add it to the url?

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Originally Posted by noahssite

but what jenner said is that true? i can just add it to the url?

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No idea, try it:)
For example, by googling for "free anonymous proxy" I found this list of proxies.
Cant tell you if they're 100% safe or not though. Nobody ever knows.

you just need to find one that is reputable. Just doing a google search for "free anonymous proxy" is sort of like doing a google search for "free spyware removal software". Sure you will find some legit ones, but you will also find a bunch that are BS, and a bunch that are just trying to infect you.

oh, and I should also add good luck finding an anonymous web proxy that will work and also serve you streaming media. I have never seen one. Usually if anything, you just get back the text and some images, usually things never work correct because the site was never designed to be pushed across a proxy, so it may be missing linked files like JS files or something, causing the page not to work. In short, I have never seen anonymous web proxy sites serve up anything useful aside from some basic HTML pages.

I found a site called proxy list. I will try that.

Proxylist is good. Yea, for streaming content, proxies don't work well at all because they're slow. I KNOW you were able to string proxies in the address bar of your browser, and I found a site that confirms that, but I haven't done it in so long, what I showed may not work in the format exactly as typed.

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Originally Posted by Jenner

Proxylist is good. Yea, for streaming content, proxies don't work well at all because they're slow. I KNOW you were able to string proxies in the address bar of your browser, and I found a site that confirms that, but I haven't done it in so long, what I showed may not work in the format exactly as typed.

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I'm pretty sure that when you visit most proxy sites and type in the URL you want, that is all it does anyway, is append your URL to its and off it goes. Sometimes though it may be in a querystring variable, which would be hard to direct type until you know the variable.

Yea, that's all the big-boys like WebWarper does:

http://webwarper.net/ww/msdn.microsoft.com/

WebWarper works great with most sites like MSDN and other tightly coded sites. It seems to work fine with YouTube and some streaming content providers but failed to get videos from CNN. Then again I've been having a ton of trouble with CNN's website over the last year. It seems it never loads on first attempt for me among other things.

The proxy i used works well.
Though i want to put it in a program. Maybe with or without a webbrowser control. So my program would set the proxy for them if the user might have difficulty going into his/her internet options settings it up etc...

So i will look at the API for internet options and reply with my questions.

I'm not 100% positive, but I am pretty sure that changing the internet options via the API will change the settings for IE as a whole. This means that the settings you change will show in both IE and in the browser control.

If I installed some app because it claimed to use a proxy, then I found it the app changed all my IE settings without asking me, I would be pretty mad.

This is illegal.

Well i can make it so on the form close event it would change the internet settings back.

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Originally Posted by Ryan2406

This is illegal.

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What is, exactly?

This is not really illegal since they release there videos later on anyway.
Also it ends up on youtube ONE day later.

So i am pretty sure i won't get sued, also it is a proxy, they can't track it the the user...

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Originally Posted by Atheist

What is, exactly?

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well streaming content that is only destined for US customers that is being sent via proxy to another country is probably illegal. Or if it is not "illegal" it is at least against the companies terms of use, which if they wanted to could allow them to take legal action. The general idea of using proxy servers is not though.

The chance of the ABC network coming after a canadian for watching a video on their site through a proxy server is pretty slim I would have to think... I am not condoning it, I am just saying I doubt there is much issue here.

Viewing these videos outside of their licensed area is Illegal, I don't care if it's about someone leaking it on youtube, It is Illegal.

Whell then again i didn't only start this thread for the program i was going to make. I usally start threads to solve a problem and to learn more about the area. With every thread i make people give new solutions which will lead me to search up/ask about them. Then i learn about new methods/areas of programming.