Setting Up My “Socks Wife”
Alright, let me tell you about this little project I called “socks wife”. Sounds weird, I know, but stick with me. For a while, I was getting frustrated with network restrictions and sometimes slow speeds when trying to access certain things online. Needed something reliable, something I controlled. Decided setting up my own SOCKS proxy was the way to go. Why “socks wife”? Well, getting it right felt like it needed some real commitment, maybe a bit demanding at times, hence the name.
First things first, I needed a place to run this thing. Didn’t want to spend a fortune. Hunted around and grabbed a cheap virtual private server. Just a basic Linux box, nothing fancy. Went with Ubuntu because I’m used to it, makes life easier. Got that spun up pretty quick.
Next up, installing the actual SOCKS software. Lots of choices out there, you know? Shadowsocks, Dante, even just using SSH tricks. I decided to try Dante server first. Seemed powerful enough but maybe a bit involved. Logged into my new server using SSH. Did the usual commands:
- Ran sudo apt update to refresh the package lists.
- Then sudo apt install dante-server to get the software installed.
Simple enough so far. But then came the configuration. That’s where things got a bit messy. The main config file, usually somewhere like /etc/*, needed careful handling. Had to tell it which network interface was internal (my server itself) and which was external (the internet connection). Picked a port number for the proxy to listen on.
Security was important. Didn’t want random folks using my proxy. So, I made sure to set up username and password authentication. Spent a good hour reading the documentation for Dante, trying different settings. It took a few tries, honestly. The service failed to start a couple of times. Had to check the logs, found some typos I’d made in the config file. Fixed those up.
Getting It Working
Almost forgot the firewall! The server’s own firewall needed to know about the new service. I use UFW most of the time, so I ran something like sudo ufw allow 1080/tcp (using 1080 as an example port, I picked a different one). Had to make sure that port was open for business.
With the server side hopefully sorted, it was time to test. Went back to my own computer. Opened up my browser’s network settings. Plugged in the server’s IP address and the port number I configured. Entered the username and password I created earlier. Then, I tried visiting a few websites. Checked one of those “what’s my IP” sites. Bingo! It showed my server’s IP address, not my home one. Success!
So, that’s the story of setting up “socks wife”. It’s been running pretty smoothly since then. Does what I need it to do. Took a bit of fiddling, especially with that config file, but wasn’t too bad overall. Just needed to go through the steps methodically. Check the logs when things break. Pretty standard stuff when you’re setting things up yourself.
