pickaproxy.com blog

Tryout proxy server IP addresses now listed

Our 15 different "tryout" proxy services at pickaproxy.com now show which IP addresses they are made up of, along with their geographic location ("geolocation") and the name of the organization that owns it. For the "Tor speak" version of our web site page, we now also show the Tor node nickname of each.

Many of you will likely wonder why we have so many IP addresses included in each of these - the US, Germany, non-China, non-US and non-Germany ones have 32 different IP addresses. The reason is because each of our proxy services randomly assigns 1 of these IP addresses to you each time you go to a web site, and also changes it every x minutes to 1 of the other IP addresses. The actual value of "x minutes" is not precise, and depends on a number of factors that we cannot predict in advance at this point. This random assignment of IP addresses allows more users to use the same proxy service at the same time.

Our "random" tryout proxy service does not have a specific set of IP addresses - it randomly picks from the complete set of Tor Network proxy servers, which is averaging about 617 so far this month.

Next up is to show the real-time status of each of these proxy services, so you can know in advance which ones are currently working and which ones are currently not. The US proxy in particular is often running at capacity and also crashes and goes offline regularly, which is something we are working on getting resolved. The crashes are automatically resolved every 1-2 hours when we take down and restart each proxy service, but it is still vexing that we have not been able to stop the crashes so far.

We have also changed the way we determine "Excluded" proxy servers, and now show the list of globally excluded proxy servers underneath the list of "Current tryout Proxy Servers". Previously we were excluding specific proxy server "nicknames" but we now also support excluding by ISP, Owning Organization, domain name, IP address and IP address range, Country, Continent, City, Tor software version number running on the proxy server, and the operating system "platform" running on the proxy server.

LogMeIn Hamachi - a better VPN?

We have provided support for stunnel secure communications between our users' computers and our pickaproxy.com server(s) since May 1, 2008. Today we have added support for LogMeIn Hamachi which may be a better way of doing the same thing.

Initially we are only setting up 3 Hamachi VPN "networks" while we try this out. You can connect to our cavpn.pickaproxy.com "network" from your LogMeIn Hamachi software using password ca487_nx. Then, once you are connected, you can change your proxy settings to cavpn.pickaproxy.com and port 8132 to get access to Canada-only IP Addresses.

Alternatively you can connect to our usvpn.pickaproxy.com "network" using password us92XAM5, then change your proxy settings to usvpn.pickaproxy.com and port 8125 to get access to USA-only IP Addresses. 

Or you can connect to our devpn.pickaproxy.com "network" using password deX3Bc_, then change your proxy settings to devpn.pickaproxy.com and port 8133 to get access to Germany-only IP Addresses.

The LogMeIn Hamachi software encrypts all communications between your computer and our server, so that no one can snoop on it. Not us, your ISP, or anyone else.

Change your proxy settings (how to...)

Lots of questions lately on how to change your proxy settings...

If using Microsoft Internet Explorer, go to Tools | Internet Options | Connections | LAN Settings and select the "Use automatic configuration script" option, with http://www.pickaproxy.com/nonCN.proxy.pac as one example of the PAC files we currently support for tryouts.

As an alternative, you could select the "Use a proxy server for your LAN" option, along with the "Bypass proxy server for local addresses" option, de-select the "Automatically detect settings" option, click the Advanced button, enter "tryout.pickaproxy.com" in the "Proxy address to use" fields for HTTP, Secure and Socks, and enter 8123 in the "Ports" fields.

If using Firefox, go to Tools | Options | Advanced | Network | Connection Settings and select the "Automatic proxy configuration URL" option, with http://www.pickaproxy.com/tryout.proxy.pac as one example of the PAC files we currently support for tryouts.

After this, use your browser to go to https://check.torproject.org or http://www.whatismyipaddress.com or https://www.showmyip.com to confirm that your new proxy settings are geospoofing you!

Other browsers and other programs will have similar ways to change their proxy settings. If you come across something that is giving you grief, let us know and we will find out what you need to do.

Too many open files

If you are trying out our proxies and get an error indicating there are "Too many open files" we apologize, but this is an indication that our server is running at maximum capacity.  Best to retry or come back later when things will be less busy.  Our web accelerator cache is also hitting capacity at times, and we are currently working on a better design to address this.  Eventually we expect to have much greater capacity - perhaps even unlimited capacity - as we move to a "cloud computing" infrastructure.

Proxy Auto Configuration now skips 127.0.0.1

If you are using our PAC files, and Google Desktop Search, you will notice you no longer get an error message, because we no longer try to proxy anything where "127.0.0.1" or "localhost" are the domain name. Our PAC file now looks like this (for the us.proxy.pac file), which is just a bit of Javascript:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {
if ((host == '127.0.0.1') || (host == 'localhost')) 
  return "DIRECT";
else 
  return "PROXY us.pickaproxy.com:8125";
}

"DIRECT" in this context means do not use the proxy, but rather make a direct connection.

On another note, we also are now showing a list of all Tor proxy servers ("exit nodes") that we never use, for reasons of security and/or reliability.  You will have to be looking at the "Tor speak" version of our site (at http://www.pickaproxy.com/?speak=tor) to see this list, but it is shown below the "Top 10 Fastest (Running)" list.  And you will notice that we have added "AoF" to this list because of reliability problems we have noticed in the last few days.  Any changes to our "ExcludeList" will now be shown automatically in this way, so we will not be announcing each and every change on this blog or in our RSS feed.

Proxy Auto Configuration "PAC" files now available

You can now use our pre-set "PAC" files to specify your proxy settings, which simplifies things a bit. Instead of setting your proxy to tryout.pickaproxy.com and port 8123, you can now specify the "Use automatic configuration script" option (if using Internet Explorer) or the "Automatic proxy configuration URL" option (if using Firefox) or the "Use automatic proxy configuration" option (if using Opera) and use https://www.pickaproxy.com/tryout.proxy.pac as the Address and name and location of the script file. 

• us.proxy.pac is equivalent to us.pickaproxy.com and port 8125
• uk.proxy.pac is equivalent to uk.pickaproxy.com and port 8126
• fr.proxy.pac is equivalent to fr.pickaproxy.com and port 8129
• ru.proxy.pac is equivalent to ru.pickaproxy.com and port 8130
• cn.proxy.pac is equivalent to cn.pickaproxy.com and port 8131
• ca.proxy.pac is equivalent to ca.pickaproxy.com and port 8132
• de.proxy.pac is equivalent to de.pickaproxy.com and port 8133
• nonCN.proxy.pac is equivalent to nonCN.pickaproxy.com and port 18231
• nonDE.proxy.pac is equivalent to nonDE.pickaproxy.com and port 18233
• nonUS.proxy.pac is equivalent to nonUS.pickaproxy.com and port 18225

We will add more functionality and flexibility to our PAC file support at a later time. The plan is for subscribers to be able to define multiple proxy options within a single PAC file for their own use, and to allow PAC files to be updated from our https://www.pickaproxy.com web site so that you do not have to muck about with proxy settings on your computer, other than to do the initial, one-time change to use your PAC file.

Desync ok

So I sent an email to the contact Ben Wilber for the Tor network proxy named "desync", getting the IP Address wrong in the process: "I wonder if you would mind giving me some information about your intentions with the Desync Tor exit node you ostensibly operate at 63.230.230.230? I run the pickaproxy.com site and noticed that you are the 2nd fastest node in the Tor network http://www.pickaproxy.com/?speak=tor and the only one owned by Reliable Web Services and using ISP Neucom. I am generally suspicious of fast nodes, so please do not take offence if your intentions are worthy :)"

And I got a reply: "Our node is intended to support the Tor project's efforts to preserve anonymity on the Internet.  No transmitted information or logs concerning circuit construction are monitored or recorded within our scope of control, both for clients' privacy and our own legal protection. The node is physically located in Tampa, FL and is operated by desync.com out of Desync's network, AS30217."

I replied: "Thanks, Ben. I would be glad to remove this node from our pickaproxy.com ExcludeNodes list based on this information. Would you mind if we posted your email reply on our pickaproxy.com blog?"

And he said: "Sure, go ahead."

So desync is in, and as of today it is the fastest of all computers in the Tor network with a throughput measured to be consistently around 6 GB per second for at least the last week. Considering that the average proxy server ("exit node") in the Tor network has a throughput of about 243 KB per second, and the mean throughput is only about 50 KB per second, Ben is to be thanked for adding so much horsepower for all to use!

Webdvdr and desync now excluded

We have now excluded 2 more proxies from our service: Webdvdr and desync.

Webdvdr is currently the fastest computer in the entire Tor network by a considerable margin, and the operator of this computer continues to regularly change their "exit policy", indicating some sort of experimentation and possibly analysis of traffic flowing through it. Located geographically in Paris, France at dedibox.fr, the operator has also not identified themself with a Tor Contact name, the IP address 88.191.79.196 does not have a DNS host name, is listed on spamhaus.org's XBL composite block list, and is listed on uceprotect.net Level 1 spam list. We think all this warrants protecting our users from this proxy, and so are adding it to our "ExcludeNodes" list effective immediately until further notice.  The operator of this proxy is certainly welcome to contact us at any time.

Desync is currently the second fastest in the Tor network, geographically located in Placentia, California, USA, with Contact name Ben Wilber, and the only computer in the Tor network using ISP Neucom and owned by Reliable Web Services.  It's IP address 66.230.230.230 likewise does not have a DNS host name, and although it is not an obvious candidate for our ExcludeNodes list, we are being cautious in doing this, and in addition we will be attempting email contact with the operator to learn more about him and his intentions with this proxy.

Further to our May 22 blog posting, Paranoia part 1, the names of the 5 proxy servers owned and operated by PSI in Washington, DC, USA are bettyboop, croeso, jalopy, myrnaloy, and nixnix.

Tor network status now available

Further to our last post on May 22, we have now made available an initial step to identify and advise people about the status of the overall Tor network.  This information is now displayed at the top of our pickaproxy.com web site, showing the "current Tor network status" as either Ok, Use With Caution, or Not Considered Safe.  These 3 conditions are initially defined as follows:

"Ok" means there are at least 525 exit nodes ("proxy servers" for the non-Tor-speaking set), 500 relays, 300 guards, 6 version 3 directories, 500 version 2 directories, 32 KB/s mean and average exit bandwidth, and 40 KB/s mean and average relay bandwidth. Any nodes hibernating, marked as "bad", not "valid", or not "running" are excluded from these numbers.

"Use With Caution" means there are less than 1 or more of these thresholds, but at least 375 exit nodes ("proxy servers"), 350 relays, 150 guards, 5 version 3 directories, 250 version 2 directories, 22 KB/s mean and average exit bandwidth, and 30 KB/s mean and average relay bandwidth.

Anything less than any of these Use With Caution thresholds will result in a "Not Considered Safe" status.

Our next step will be to allow people to subscribe to this information, and to define these thresholds for themselves. Our checks to update this status are currently done every 1-2 hours.

Paranoia part 1

There are 5 very fast proxy servers operated by Performance Systems Inc. (PSI) in Washington, DC that scare me.

They are all exit nodes on the Tor network, providing proxy support for DNS (port 53), POP3 email (port 110), IMAP email (port 143), MSN Messenger (port 1863), ICQ (port 5190), Jabber and/or Google Talk and/or possibly a Tor Hidden Service (port 5222), MMCC (port 5050), Virtual Places (port 1533), and IRC (ports 6660-6667).  One of the 5 also provides proxy support for telnet (port 23).  None of them provide proxy support for http (port 80) or https (port 443), but there is a good chance if you are using the Tor network your traffic will run through 1 of these servers as a relay or guard/entry node.

None of them have any records in the DNS domain name system that I can find, they all have IP Addresses starting with 149.9.0, these are the only  proxy servers on the Tor network operated by PSI, and they all seem to be configured identically, even to the point of using the same out-of-date version of the Tor software.

I would say it is likely they are operated by, or on behalf of, some branch of the US government.

As a result, in order to limit your exposure to the potential of your internet activity being monitored by or through these servers, we have now configured our pickaproxy.com tryout services to always exclude these 5 proxy servers.  This will slow down our proxy service to some degree, but we consider the trade-off to be worth it.  Eventually we will allow our users to decide for themselves if they want to exclude these or any other proxy servers.

Comments are certainly welcome ...