This article describes the setup of a proxy-server in a cloud. You can use a proxy like this from everywhere through the internet. Reasons to do this could be:
Your internet access is filtered but you need access to sites which are filtered.
You want to have a log of all sites and files you’ve visited from different browsers.
You need to speed up your internet connection through caching.
You want to filter the internet access of your kids.
prerequisites: virtual machine with public ip in a cloud (e.g. Amazon EC2)
contents: 1. Setup a virtual machine in Amazon‘s cloud 1 2. Connect to the virtual machine in the cloud 6
3. Install FreeProxy 9
4. Open tcp-ports in the cloud 15
5. Change your browsers proxy-settings 17
6. Install Techlogica http-Server and change log-settings (optional) 20 7. Change DNS-Servers in the virtual machine (optional) 25 8. Change your proxy-authentication (highly recommended) 27
1. Setup a virtual machine in Amazon‘s cloud
a. Go to http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/ and Sign Up for Amazon EC2 b. Go to https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/home
which is called AWS Management Console
d. Choose „Basic Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (32 bit)“
f. Give it a name and click on „Create and Download your Key Pair“
h. Choose 1 as a number of instances, your new Key Pair and click „Launch“
j. Check your new VM and click on „More Actions“ >> „Get Windows Password“
2. Connect to the virtual machine in the cloud
a. Check your VM in the AWS Management Console and click „Connect“
c. Enter your Administrator-Password from Step 1l
d. Now you should change the Administrator-Password to something you can remember ;-)
e. Go to „Local Users and Groups“, Right-Click the Administrator and choose „Set Password
g. Enter the new password twice
3. Install FreeProxy
a. Connect to your virtual machine through a RDP-Session (see point 2) b. Download FreeProxy from
http://www.handcraftedsoftware.org/index.php?page=4&action=file&file_id=5
e. Accept the license agreement and click „Next“
g. Click „Yes“
i. Click „Install“
k. Click „Finish“
m. Click on „Start/Stop“
n. Click on „Start“ in Service-Mode
4. Open tcp-Ports in the cloud
a. Go to the AWS Management Console and go to „security groups“
c. Give it a name and description
d. Check your new Security Group and choose the following values: i. Connection Method = Custom…
ii. Protocol = tcp iii. From Port = 8080 iv. To Port = 8080
5. Change your browsers proxy-settings
a. Go to the AWS Management Center and click on Instances to see your VM
c. Go to your browsers proxy-settings (e.g. Firefox)
e. Click on „Manual proxy configuration“ and fill the „Public DNS“ of your VM in the „http Proxy“ field
Set the Port to 8080 and click „OK“
6. Install Techlogica http-Server and change log-settings (optional)
If you want to check the sites and files which were opened through your proxy, you have to change the log-settings oft he FreeProxy program and install a little http-server to make the logs easily accessible. Advanced users may use the http-service of Freeproxy (which is not described here) instead of the Techlogica http-Server.
a. Connect to your VM using a RDP-Session (see point 2) b. Open the „FreeProxy Control Center“ and click on „Options“
c. Set the options as they are set in the following screenshot
d. Download the Techlogica http-Server:
http://www.techlogica.us/software/httpserver/download.php e. Launch the setup.exe and click „I Agree“
f. Click „Install“
h. Click „Next“
j. Click on „Local Server“ and change it to „Internet Server“ and click „Apply“
l. Now you have to open port 80 in the cloud – Go to the AWS Management Console
m. Click on „Security Groups“ and check the security group you created in step 4c
n. Choose the following values: i. Connection Method = HTTP o. Click „Save“ under Actions
Now you can access the connection-log through
7. Change DNS-Servers in the virtual machine (optional)
Due to government filtering you may want to change the used DNS-Servers of your proxy-server. Therefor you might want to use the following DNS-Servers:
Europe: 213.73.91.35 (dnscache.berlin.ccc.de)
80.237.196.2 (n80-237-196-2.cnet.hosteurope.de) United States: 208.67.222.222 (resolver1.opendns.com)
208.67.220.220 (resolver2.opendns.com) To change DNS-Servers to use in the VM do the following:
c. Mark „Internet Protocol“ and click Properties
d. Choose „Use the following DNS Server addresses“ and fill in the DNS-Servers from the beginning of point 7.
e. Click „OK“
8. Change your proxy-authentication (highly recommended)
You may not want the bad guys to use your proxy-server for doing bad things – Therefor you should activate authentication in your proxy-service:
a. Connect to your VM using a RDP-Session (see point 2.) b. Open the „FreeProxy Control Center“
c. Click on „Users“
e. Give it a name and description and click „done“
f. Click on „Users“ and click the button „Add“
h. Click on your new group and click „Add“
j. Click „Done“
l. Check „Use http Authentication“, fill something in the „Realm“ and click on „Permissions“
n. Change the settings like they are set on the following screenshot and click „Done“
q. Restart the Service
