Copyright: VSOCKS Light Help (c) 1997 P.D.Smith


This field indicates the current state of any connection to your Internet Provider. Normally it will show "Offline" indicating that there is no current connection. If it shows "Online" then a connection is currently established. Other messages show the current state whilst setting up a RAS connection.

Whilst a connection is in progress, you should see two coloured bars in this field. The upper green bar shows the progress of the current POP3 connection (retrieving messages) and the lower blue bar shows the progress of the SMTP connection (sending messages)


Choose this option if VSOCKS Light is connecting to the Internet via a LAN connection.


Choose this option if VSOCKS Light is connecting to the Internet via a RAS or DUN connection.

You will also need to configure the RAS parameters below.


Choose the name of the RAS/DUN connection you wish to use to connect to the Internet.


Choose the Username you use to connect to the chosen RAS connection.


Choose the Password you use to connect to the chosen RAS connection.


Select alternative RAS/DUN connections which VSOCKS Light can also use to proxy requests to the Internet.

(VSOCKS Light will not attempt to initiate any of these connections, but it will use one if it sees it already active).


Enter the number of times VSOCKS Light should attempt to try to connect to the Internet.


Enter the time (in minutes) between VSOCKS Light attempting to connect to the Internet.


Enter the time (in minutes) which VSOCKS Light will allow for making a connection to the Internet.


Select the IP address of the connection on which VSOCKS Light will allow incoming connections.

Normally you will want to specify the IP address of the VSOCKS Light server on your LAN.


Enter the IP address of a DNS server on the Internet. Normally this server is supplied by your ISP.

You MUST enter a valid DNS server address here!


Enter the time (in minutes) which VSOCKS Light will wait before terminating an idle connection.

2 or 3 minutes is a reasonable starting point for this value.


Contents

VSOCKS Light is a basic SOCKS proxy server for Windows 95 & NT 4.0.

The SOCKS protocol supports proxying of any TCP/IP protocol, such as HTTP, FTP, TELNET, etc.

•	Setting up VSOCKS Light

•	Setting up the local DNS names in VSOCKS Light

•	Setting up Client PC

•	Setting up Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.x

•	Setting up Microsoft Internet Explorer 4

•	Setting up Netscape Navigator 3.x

•	Setting up Netscape Navigator 4.x

•	Setting up any other client software


Configure VSOCKS Light

•	You need to have TCP/IP configured on your LAN.

•	Create a directory called C:\VSOCKS on your designated VSOCKS server which should be able to connect to the Internet.

•	Copy VSOCKS.EXE into this directory.

•	Run VSOCKS.EXE.

•	A red & white sock should appear in the Windows taskbar.

•	Right-Click on this sock and choose ‘Properties…’

•	Choose the Connection Method (LAN or RAS) as appropriate.

•	If you chose ‘RAS’, then enter the RAS connection details

In Allow Incoming Connections on Interface, you normally want to choose the IP address of the VSOCKS server on your LAN. This will prevent PCs connecting to it from the Internet.

In External DNS Server you MUST enter the IP address of a DNS server on the Internet. Your ISP will normally have a DNS server which you can use. Ask them if you’re not sure.

Enable Auto Disconnect if you want VPOP3 to disconnect from the Internet after a predetermined idle time. If you enable this, then also set Idle Timeout - enter the time (in minutes) that you want VSOCKS Light to wait before ending an idle connection. If this is too short, then response will be slow, as VSOCKS Light will constantly be dialling up your ISP. If it is too long, then you will spend more time online than necessary. Two or three minutes is normally a good starting point, and adjust it as you deem necessary.


Configure Client PC
Configuring the Client PC

Each client PC needs to be told to perform DNS queries via the VSOCKS Light server.

To do this in Windows 95, go the control Panel -> Network Settings

Choose ‘TCP/IP’ from the list of Network Components (if you have multiple TCP/IP entries, choose the one which is bound to your Network card). Press the ‘Properties’ button.

Now choose the ‘DNS Configuration’ tab:

Select Enable DNS.

In the Host and Domain fields you can normally enter whatever you want. This setting is only used if some software on your PC asks the operating system what your PC is called. It is not visible to any other machines on the network.

In the DNS Server Search Order enter the IP address of your VSOCKS server, and press the Add button.

You can leave the Domain Suffix Search Order blank.


Configure Internet Explorer 3
Configuring Microsoft Internet Explorer 3

Run Internet Explorer 3.

From the menu, choose ‘View’, ‘Options…’.

Choose the Connection tab.

Disable Connect to the Internet as needed.

Enable Connect through a proxy server

Press the Settings button.

Make sure all the Proxy Server fields are empty, except for the Socks Server field.

In the Address of proxy to use field for that server enter the IP address of your VSOCKS server.

In the Port field enter 1080.

You may need to close down and restart Internet Explorer for this change to take effect.


Configuring Netscape Navigator 3

Run Netscape Navigator.

From the menus choose ‘Options’, ‘Network Preferences’.

Choose the Proxies tab.

Choose Manual Proxy Configuration and press View

Make sure all the Proxy server fields are blank, except for the SOCKS Host field.

In the SOCKS Host field enter the IP address of your VSOCKS Server.

In the Port field, enter 1080.

You may need to close down and restart Netscape Navigator for this change to take effect.


Configuring Other Internet Software
Configuring other Client Software

To use other TCP/IP software through the VSOCKS server, you will probably need to install some SOCKS client. There are two packages which are recommended. Both are quite easy to set up, and allow you to access the Internet via VSOCKS just as if you were connected directly to the Internet, with any TCP/IP software.

These packages are both Free, and they are surprisingly easy to set up, the documentation with these packages tells you how to do it.

1) Hummingbird SOCKS Client at http://www.hummingbird.com/freestuff.htm.

2) SOCKSCAP at http://www.socks.nec.com

FTP Clients

Because of the way the FTP protocol works, you will need to set your FTP client to use the ‘PASV’ transfer method. If your FTP client doesn’t support this, then I’m afraid it will not work with VSOCKS Light.

This is necessary because normally the FTP protocol requires the server to make a connection back to the FTP client, and VSOCKS Light does not allow incoming connections for security reasons.


Setting up local DNS names in VSOCKS Light

Normally, if a client PC asks VSOCKS Light to look up a domain name, VSOCKS Light will connect to your ISP, and ask their DNS server to look up the name.

Sometimes this can be undesirable, either because you want to have your own local names, or because some software on your PCs is doing a DNS look up for no apparent reason.

To help to solve these problems, VSOCKS Light contains a very basic DNS server as well as the DNS proxy which is normally used.

To configure the DNS server, you need to create a text file called DOMAINS.LST in the current directory when VSOCKS Light is run (this is normally the directory containing VSOCKS.EXE). The format of this file is very simple:

DomainName	IPAddress

For instance:

www.intranet	192.168.0.1

vpop3.intranet	192.168.0.2

You can also specify the * wildcard instead of any section of the name, so you could have

*.intranet	192.168.0.1

This would mean that www.intranet, vpop3.intranet, fred.intranet etc. would all resolve to the address 192.168.0.1

Note that www.fred.intranet would not resolve to 192.168.0.1 using this method. The ‘*’ only matches a single section of the name.

If you specify the address relating to a name as ‘0.0.0.0’, then VSOCKS Light will report authoritatively that the name does not exist.

After changing the DOMAINS.LST file, you need to restart VSOCKS Light for the changes to take effect


Configuring Microsoft Internet Explorer 4

To use Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 with VSOCKS Light, there is a slight problem - the IE4 installer does not work correctly.

Here is how to fix the installation:

•	Copy the original IE4_S4.CAB file to a new folder (eg C:\JUNK)

•	In the new folder at the DOS prompt type:

C:\JUNK> EXTRACT /E IE4_S4.CAB

•	This gives a file called IE4_4.CAB

•	Now type:

C:\JUNK> EXTRACT IE4_4.CAB WSOCK32N.DLL

•	This gives a file called WSOCK32N.DLL. Just copy this to your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder

•	Start Internet Explorer 4...

You will also need to set up the proxy settings, as for Internet Explorer 3.x


Configuring Netscape Navigator 4.x
Configuring Netscape Navigator 4

To configure Netscape Navigator 4 to connect to the Internet via VSOCKS Light, go to:

Edit  Preferences  Advanced  Proxies  Manual Proxy Configuration

Press View. Leave all the fields blank, except for the SOCKS Hostsetting, type the IP address of the computer running VSOCKS Light here, and in the Port field type 1080.