[DXLog.net - Support] Cluster behind proxy

[Fabian Kurz]

Hi Patrick,

On Fri, Oct 04, 2013 at 02:10:47PM +0200, Patrick EGLOFF wrote:
> It seems that DXLog does not use the windows proxy settings to
> connect to a cluster. I can't connect to any cluster behind our
> office proxy.

proxy servers, especially in corporate environments, are usually just
configured to pass HTTP(S) traffic.

But in order to provide a tunnel for HTTPS, most proxies support the
CONNECT command which would actually allow connecting to a DX cluster
from behind a proxy. Unfortunately, most proxy configurations only
permit this for the standard SSL port (443) and maybe a handful of
others. 

If the proxy allows CONNECT commands to _any_ port (e.g. 7000, which
many clusters seem to run on), you can use it within DXLog right away:

Enter the proxy server as the DX-Cluster address (e.g.
proxy.example.com:3128) and as the _username_ enter, for example:

CONNECT telnet.reversebeacon.net:7000 HTTP/1.0

After connecting initially, you will see nothing in the DXCluster
window, because the CONNECT command needs to be terminated by two
line-feeds. You can open the DXCluster Talk window (Alt-T) and just
hit enter. You'll then see the login-prompt of the cluster. Then just
hit Alt-T again and enter your callsign. Then everything should be up
and running.

Just tested with DXlog 2.0.17 running on WinXP and Squid 2.7 on a
Linux server, temporarily configured to allow CONNECT to port 7000.

If your proxy does not allow connecting to arbitrary ports, maybe
you'll find some friendly DX-Cluster sysop who's nice enough to make his
cluster listen on port 443, too.

Not sure if it is worth to implement connecting via a proxy server
"properly" into DXLog; it's just a few lines of code, but I am not
sure how many people would actually benefit from it. 

73,
Fabian, DJ1YFK

-- 
Fabian Kurz, DJ1YFK      Munich, Germany
fabian at fkurz.net         +49 176 24079617
http://fkurz.net/        http://lcwo.net/