HTTP Proxies

by Dru Lavigne
07/03/2003

In my previous article, I introduced some of the benefits to be gained by using a proxy. In today's article, I'd like to concentrate on HTTP proxies. We'll take a look at some of the HTTP proxies available in the ports collection and which proxies are suited for which needs.

If you have any familiarity with HTTP proxies, your first thought is probably Squid, the excellent HTTP proxy. Since there are already many fine articles and tutorials on using and configuring Squid, I won't cover that product in this series. For those that are disappointed, I'll give you with a few URLs:

• Jennifer Vesperman's excellent series on Squid
• Daemonnews' "Setting up Squid on FreeBSD"
• Squid Configuration Manual

Squid is an example of a very configurable HTTP proxy that can scale into very large networks. This is great if you are an administrator of a very large network, but overkill if you simply want to surf safely from your FreeBSD box or enforce a policy on a small home network. Thinking as a user, what are some of the irritants that go along with web browsing? The following quickly come to mind:

• Pop-up windows
• Flashing advertisements
• Cookies
• Webbugs
• Java applets
• Shockwave intros
• Speed, or the lack thereof

Depending upon the web browser you use, some of these irritants can be dealt with directly. Others require you to install additional proxy software. Let's start by taking a look at some common browsers, then move onto complementary proxies.

Web Browser Features

As of this writing, these are the latest (non-forbidden) versions of three popular web browsers:

• mozilla-1.3_1,2
• opera-6.12
• linux-netscape-navigator-4.8

Keep in mind that new features are added with new versions, so features that are missing now may appear in later versions. Also, every web browser has a "Preferences" section, so if your browser isn't listed here, check it out to see what features are available.

For these browsers, the Preferences section is found under the Edit menu of Netscape and Mozilla, and under the File menu of Opera. You'll find a big difference in the amount of Preferences available between Netscape and Mozilla or Opera. This is because this is an older version of Netscape.

All three browsers have an appropriately named setting that allows you to deal with cookies. Each also allows you to enable or disable Java and JavaScript. Finally, if you have a slow Internet connection and plenty of disk space, you may find a speed improvement by tweaking each browser's cache settings.

Dealing with popup windows is a newer feature, so it is not found in this version of Netscape. In Opera, click on General to find the setting to disallow popups. Mozilla takes this a step further by either disabling popups entirely or on a site-by-site basis. To disable popups all together, go to Privacy & Security->Popup Windows and read the warning on the ramifications. Alternately, as you encounter a site with an irritating popup, simply right-click the page and choose to "Reject popup windows from this site."

bfilter

Now, let's see what some of the applications in the ports collection can do to augment the features already provided by your favorite web browser. I'll start with bfilter. This HTTP proxy not only controls popup windows, it also stops those annoying flashing ads and promises to disable webbugs. To build this port, become the superuser and:

# cd /usr/ports/net/bfilter
# make install clean

The port will install an application to /usr/local/bin/bfilter and a configuration file to /usr/local/etc/bfilter/config. Once the build is finished, leave the superuser account and type bfilter in order to start the proxy. Then verify that the proxy is listening for requests:

$ sockstat -4
USER     COMMAND    PID   FD PROTO  LOCAL ADDRESS         FOREIGN ADDRESS      
dlavigne bfilter  20336    3 tcp4   127.0.0.1:8080        *:*

You'll note that bfilter listens on port 8080 on the loopback address. If you read the comments in its configuration file, you'll see that 127.0.0.1 means to listen for HTTP requests on all interfaces. If you wish to listen only on one interface, specify its IP address in the configuration file.

bfilter is not a transparent proxy, meaning you will have to configure your web browser to use the proxy. Go into the Preferences section of your browser and you should find a setting that deals with Proxies. Type in the IP address and port number used by bfilter. In my example, bfilter is running on the same machine as my web browser, so I use 127.0.0.1 as the IP address and 8080 as the port number. If you are running bfilter on a separate computer, change the IP address in its configuration file to reflect the IP address of the NIC attached to your internal network. Then set the browsers on the computers in your network to use that IP address in their Proxies section of Preferences.

bfilter also has a rules file, found in /usr/local/etc/bfilter/rules. However, I found that the default rules worked flawlessly at catching popup windows and flashing ads. If you're looking for an easy-to-use proxy that works out of the box, bfilter is a very nice solution.

middleman

Another HTTP proxy I enjoy using is middleman. Like bfilter, it works as is, but what makes this proxy interesting are the additional features that provide an enticing way to learn more about HTTP and what is happening behind the scenes every time you visit a web site.

First, let's build the port:

# cd /usr/ports/www/middleman	
# make install clean

Note that the name of the installed application will be /usr/local/bin/mman. You also need to know the name of the default configuration file in order to start the application. If you just type mman, you'll receive the help file. Instead, use the c or config-file switch to start the proxy:

# mman -c /usr/local/etc/mman.xml

I found that the proxy needs to be started as the superuser. Don't forget to check the port mman is listening on and set the Proxies section of your browser accordingly:

sockstat -4
USER     COMMAND    PID   FD PROTO  LOCAL ADDRESS         FOREIGN ADDRESS      
root     mman       575    0 tcp4   127.0.0.1:8080        *:*

If you plan on using middleman, take the time to read /usr/local/share/doc/middleman/README.html. This is the only documentation on the product, but it is very thorough and full of interesting ideas on how to use a proxy.

Although the default configuration will probably suit your needs, you should check out the included web interface by typing mman into your browser. This will allow you to view:

• Active connections
• Log entries
• Config
• Cache entries
• DNS cache
• Headers
• Connection pool

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