Setting Up Proxy Servers of Your Own

Setting up proxy servers of your own is so much simpler than most people think. In fact, the actual “setting up” of the proxy server is the easiest part. The part that takes a little work (ie, the part that intimidates a lot of people) is getting a remote hosting account (a remote server) to set the proxy up on.

But it’s really not a difficult process, and these days it’s actually really cheap. Not too long ago hosting companies started partitioning dedicated servers off into much smaller (and thus, much cheaper) sections. They call these cheap partitions “virtual private servers” (VPS’s) and typically they’re used by website developers as a really cheap dedicated server solution to test the websites they build before making them live (ie, development servers).

Different VPS hosting companies have a variety of different sized VPS’s (ie, different levels of storage space and bandwidth) but all of them generally have a really tiny bare-bones version that they rent out for less than about $10 per month. Since vps’s are typically used by website developers, many hosts also offer “unmanaged” versions with root access; meaning that it’s basically just a bare metal box with not much more than an operating system on it.

These really cheap unmanaged vps’s work perfectly for setting up proxy servers because we don’t need them to have anything on them but an operating system and an ip address (or multiple ip addresses). And all we need is enough space for a tiny proxy script. And less than $10 bucks a month for your own private/exclusive proxy server (ie, your own private/exclusive ip address(es)) is amazingly cheap.

One important distiction though (and the part that I think intimidates most people) is the fact that these hosting companies are NOT the same hosting companies that you think of for shared website hosting. For example, I’m pretty sure godaddy and hosts like that don’t do vps hosting. Hosting sites like that are set up for the general public to put up their simple little (mostly non-production) websites.

The type of hosting company I’m talking about here (vps hosting companies) are the type of host that rent servers to professional web developers and such. These are not brand-name type hosts that market to and service the general public. These are hosts that market to and service professionals (ie, programmers, developers, and such that setup websites and such from scratch, as their job). So you can’t just go to a site like godaddy or something like that for vps hosting.

You have to go to a host that specializes in dedicated server hosting (and/or, even more specifically, vps server hosting). Note: not all dedicated server hosts have vps’s, but generally pretty much every vps hosting company does also have full dedicated servers. The point is though; vps hosting companies are different than the type of website hosting company the general public would normally think of.

Do I Really Need a VPS for Setting Up Proxy Servers?

Well no, of course not, you could use a full dedicated server, but that would obviously be a heck of a lot more expensive and a waste of resources that you don’t need, or you could use an old server you have laying around the house, but that would pretty much defeat the purpose of setting up a proxy server because your ip address would still be assigned to you by your ISP.

The whole point of setting up a proxy server is to hide your real ip address (ie, to change your ip address from the one your ISP assigns you, to the ip address of the proxy server). And obviously there are all sorts of reasons for wanting to do that, but one of the very biggest is to be able to bypass your ISP so that they can’t track & record what you’re doing, or monitor what you’re doing (like monitoring torrent downloads for one thing) or block you from doing certain things, and on and on and on. So technically, no you don’t need a VPS account for setting up proxy servers on, but if we’re speaking practically, then yes, you do need a VPS account from a VPS hosting company.

It’s a proxy “server” so obviously you need some type of “server”, to set the proxy up on. In the old days that was pretty much out of reach for most people, but now with the advent of these super cheap dedicated vps partitions, setting up proxy servers has become incredibly accessible practically overnight. So my first question is always: Why wouldn’t you want to use a vps for setting up proxy servers on? And the answer I always get is some variation of: I feel like renting a remote server is kind of a pain, isn’t there some easier way? Well of course there’s an easier way; you can just keep using someone else’s slow sketchy public proxy.

Any way you slice it, a proxy “server”, needs the “server” part of it, and a VPS server is the cheapest, simplest, and fastest way to go … period. Thousands of people set up web hosting accounts every day, but for some reason everyone acts like setting up hosting for a proxy is somehow more difficult or more of a nuisance, when in fact, it’s actually a hell of a lot easier. Just like you would do with web hosting companies, you just go to the vps hosting company’s website and place an order for an unmanaged vps server partition. You fill out a really simple form (in fact, in my tutorial, I specifically show you exactly how to fill it out). The form will want to know which operating system you want on your vps, they will want you to give the vps a name & password (so that you can login to your vps instead of someone else’s). And then some hosts will also ask you for a domain name and name servers (because they assume you’ll be setting up a website on the vps) but since you’re setting up a proxy server, and NOT a website, you don’t need those things so you can either just leave it blank or put in fake ones. And putting in fake ones isn’t neccessarilly sneaky or something; the hosting companies themselves will tell you to do that if you’re not using the vps for website hosting. I know this because I’ve actually emailed them and said, “I’m not using this for website hosting, but your form requires me to fill in a domain name and name servers”. And their answer was, “just put in a fake one”. It doesn’t effect anything. In fact, many developers that actually are using the vps to test websites on, put fake names in too because they’re probably testing multiple websites (ie, multiple domains) on the same vps server.

Okay I Get it; A VPS Account is the Way to Go for Setting Up Proxy Servers, but Then What?

Once you get the vps account, they’ll send you the ip address(es) of the vps and your password for logging into it. The ip address of the vps is important because this will be your new “proxified” ip address when you’re done turning the vps server into a proxy server (ie, when you’re done setting up the proxy server).

You start with a VPS server, and then by installing my proxy script onto it, it becomes a proxy server. Technically it’s a squid proxy server because that’s the proxy framework I used. Squid is an open-source caching proxy that allows for many different configurations (to accomplish a variety of different uses on their basic framework). Obviously I’ve configured it as a high anonymous elite proxy. This is done by editing squid’s squid.conf file (ie, squid’s “configuration” file). This isn’t something I’ve invented, it’s just that I know how to do it. My unique part in this was making the installation of squid onto the vps incredibly simple for non-programmers to accomplish. I did that by setting up pre-wriiten scripts that you activate by typing in a few command lines. The command lines call up my scripts, which in turn call up, install, and then configure squid on your vps server). I guarantee you there’s no easier way of setting up proxy servers for your own personal/private/exclusive use. This Page Shows How You Actually Connect to the Remote (VPS) Server via SSH (PuTTY)

Is Setting Up a Proxy Server Easy Enough for Anyone to Do?

I can’t neccessarily say that setting up a proxy server is something that “anyone” can do, but if you have a basic understanding of how to use the internet, then you should easily be able to do this. In general I usually say that if you know how to type, copy, and paste, then you shouldn’t have any problem setting up a proxy server for yourself. I would also say that the very fact that you’re here reading my website is pretty much a perfect judge of whether you’ll be able to do this or not, because if you were smart enough or informed enough to know that you needed to set up an elite proxy server, then you have more than enough computer savvy to be able to follow the extremely simple step by step instructions in my 10 minute tutorial (this isn’t exactly the type of site that someone just randomly stumbles upon; you have to know what you’re looking for).

Now if you tried to do it the traditional way (ie, doing the scripting yourself, and learning server programming) then I completely agree that it would probably be out of reach for most people, but the fact is; that’s exactly why I made my “setting up your own proxy server” tutorial in the first place; because if you use my tutorial, you don’t need to do it the traditional way. I’ve already done (pre-written) all the proxy scripting for you in advance. So all you have to do is type in 5 command lines. Those command lines will trigger my scripts, which will in-turn, basically do the installation & configuration of the proxy for you. So technically, I guess, you’re really not even setting up the proxy server so much as your typing in a bunch of command lines that activate my scripts that then set up the proxy for you. Bottom-line, yes (pretty much) anyone can do this. — You are Here: Setting Up Proxy Servers of Your Own

More Setting Up Proxy Server Pages…

Setting Up Proxy Servers to Hide Your IP Address

. If you want to start setting up proxy server(s) to hide your ip address (ie, setting up an elite proxy server to hide your ip address) then you’ll first need the “server” part of it. There are two distict things you need for setting up proxy servers: An elite proxy server script, and a remote server to run the proxy script on (with it’s own ip address, or multiple ip addresses). This part (the remote server part) is covered by renting monthly hosting on what are called virtual private servers (VPS’s).These are just really cheap partitions from a full dedicated server, and are

Setting Up Proxy Server for Torrent Downloads

. Setting up proxy server for torrent downloads might just be my favorite use of elite proxies because it only requires one (1) ip address. That’s nice because obviously that means that it’s very cheap (because one ip address already comes on a vps by default, so you don’t need to pay for any extra ip’s) and because it makes it that much simpler/faster to set up the actual proxy server. When you need multiple ip addresses, you need to do more editing of the squid.conf file than you do if you only need one private/proxified ip address for downloading torrents with. So when

OPTION #1:

Standard Version

Use this option to set up as many elite proxy servers as you want to for the rest of your life. It will never become outdated because the script automatically updates itself every time you use it.

  $14.99

OPTION #2:

Advanced Version

Same as option #1 above but also includes instructions for putting multiple ip addresses on the same proxy server. Don't bother with this option if you only need 1 new ip address (most users) but if you want to put lots of different ip addresses all on the same proxy then this is the option for you.

  $27.50