Browsing the web via a SOCKS proxy

Step 1:

On a terminal on your local machine outside CERN network, do this ssh -D 1080 username@hostname

For lxplus, just do

ssh -D 1080 username@lxplus.cern.ch

If 1080 is being used already, just use some random large number. Like 5040

Step 2:

Then (for firefox), go to

Edit -> Preferences -> "Advanced" category -> "Network Settings" button

On different versions of firefox, the steps to reach network settings might be dfferent.

Most important: Then choose “manual proxy configuration” and enter host as localhost and port 1080 as SOCKS host information. You only need to do this once.

I have automated the whole process on my machine. So as soon as I open my machine, Step 1 happens automatically and I am good to go. You may do the same.

That’s it. Happy browsing.