SpoonProxy
What
is SpoonProxy?
SpoonProxy
is an affordable yet industrial-strength proxy server written by
veteran Pi-Soft programmer Shawn Stanley. It is perfect for small
businesses or individuals who need to connect their entire TCP/IP
LAN to the internet but don't want to spend hundreds of dollars
and buy new hardware in order to accommodate this level of functionality.
How
do I set it up?
There
really isn't any setup necessary for basic proxy operations. Simply
download the setup program into the directory of your choice and
run the executable. Then startup the SpoonProxy program on a machine
that has a direct connection to the internet in order for other
users on your LAN to access the internet through the proxy. SpoonProxy
will work with any type of internet connection from analogue modems,
to ISDN modems, cable modems and even T-1 internet connections.
What
changes do I make in my client software in order to make it work?
Here
are the default port settings (as of version 2.4 of SpoonProxy)
you should use in your client software (Netscape, Internet Explorer,
Eudora, CRT, etc.)
-
For
Internet Explorer, set FTP, HTTP & Security Port by
going to View, Options, Connection and check the box marked
"Connect Using a Proxy Server." The settings should
be entered under the advanced tab according to the port map
below.
-
For
Netscape, go to Options, Network
Preferences, Proxies and select "Manual Proxy Configuration."
And set your IP's and ports appropriately according to the port
map below.
FTP
Port: 8021
HTTP Port 8080
HTTPS Port: 8081 (Sometimes called SSL)
Telnet Port: 8023
Please
note that even these basic port settings are configurable through
the port settings tab available on the Properties menu.
You
may map as many incoming and outgoing ports as you like using
the TCP map. Click on the following link for a listing of most
of the major default TCP and UDP ports covering major services
such as News (NNTP), POP3, SMTP, Telnet, FTP, whois, finger, etc.
Click
here for port list.
Please
read our Compatibility FAQs for helpful information on
setting up SpoonProxy with various types of clients. We are in
the process of adding to these FAQs on client configurations with
the help of users. Also, please consult your client documentation
and their respective webpages for help on configuration. SpoonProxy
is compliant with most client standards and many clients provide
their own instructions for proxy configurations.
Setting
Up POP3 and SMTP Mail with SpoonProxy
POP3
Proxy Quick Start
As long
as you're not running a mail server on the same machine you're running
SpoonProxy on you can simply use the TCP/IP Map tab to map ports
110 and 25 in and out to the IP's of your POP3 and SMTP mail servers
respectively.
If you
need to know the IP's of your mail servers, ping their friendly
names (i.e. mail.home.com) from the DOS or command prompt on an
internet connected machine. If you don't know the friendly names
of your POP3 and SMTP servers, ask your internet service provider
and they'll be happy to provide you with that information.
Point
your mail client (Eudora, Pegasus, Outlook, Netscape) at the INTERNAL
IP of the machine you're running SpoonProxy on. (That would be the
IP of that machine as it appears on your network.) Use that IP in
your mail client's configuration windows for both your POP3 and
SMTP servers.
Note:
If you are using advanced services through your mail client, such
as Kerberos or a password changer, those will require further mapping
on the TCP Map.
(If
you are running your own mail server, we'd suggest you
use port 1110 in for POP3 and port 1025 for SMTP, leaving port out
settings at their defaults. You will then need to use your mail
client's advanced configuration option to tell it you are using
POP3 and SMTP on those nonstandard ports. Please note that not all
mail clients at the time of writing have the ability to use nonstandard
ports.)
Using
the SpoonProxy POP3 Proxy.
Mapping
multiple POP3 and SMTP servers with SpoonProxy.
Client
Programs which work with SpoonProxy
SpoonProxy
is known to work with the following internet clients. Internet
clients with specific instruction sets for SpoonProxy are hyper-linked
Audiogalaxy,
ICQ, AOL 4.0, AOL
5.0, AOL
Instant Messenger, BattleNet,
CoffeeCup Direct FTP, CUSeeMe,
DNS, Eudora
5.0, FrontPage 98, Internet
Explorer, Netscape, Netscape Mail,
CuteFTP, Hotmail,
Lotus Notes, Napster,
Pegasus, Outlook, Outlook 2000,
Outlook Express 5.0, pcANYWHERE, mIRC, PIRCH,
Quake III, Quicken
99, Telnet Clients,
RealAudio, Norton AntiVirus Live Update, SQL
Server,
Webdrive, WS_FTP, Yahoo Messenger
UDP
Support in SpoonProxy
In an
IP network, TCP and UDP are common transport layer protocols. While
TCP provides a connection-oriented, reliable, full-duplex byte-stream
service to an application, UDP provides a connectionless, unreliable
datagram service. In other words, UDP datagrams are not guaranteed
delivery, although they can be delivered with much less overhead
than with TCP..
(With
the example of a RealAudio server, imagine requests coming into
the server while packets of audio data are being sent out to many
clients. To have connections with every single client would be cumbersome,
and to deal with guaranteed delivery over a network that is not
guaranteed to be stable can bog down a busy server.)
SOCKS4
and SOCKS5 Support in SpoonProxy
SpoonProxy
supports SOCKS4 and SOCKS5.
SOCKS
extends the capabilities of your private network's internet connectivity
by enabling some client software that might have trouble connecting
to the internet from behind a proxy to communicate almost transparently
with other internet clients.
To use
SOCKS, we recommend either of the following two freeware programs.
Both programs are designed for installation your network's client
machines.
-
Sockscap from
NEC automatically enables Windows-based
TCP and UDP networking client applications to traverse a SOCKS
firewall. SocksCap intercepts the networking calls from WinSock
applications and redirects them through the SOCKS server without
any modification to the original applications or to the operating
system software or drivers.
-
The Hummingbird SOCKS client seamlessly "socksifies"
any TCP/IP application eliminating the need to re-code "SOCKS-aware"
applications. Because the Hummingbird SOCKS client is
more difficult to configure than SocksCap, we have assembled
our own Hummingbird/SpoonProxy configuration instructions.
SOCKS
support in SpoonProxy is enabled by default on port 1080. To turn
it off, change the port to 0.
This
is a shareware product. How do I register it and what if I don't?
SpoonProxy
is fully-functional in this trial version and will not expire. However,
it is limited to one concurrent user connection at a time until
registration and SOCKS and RealAudio support will stop working after
30 days. In other words, if you have ten machines on your network
and both Betty in Purchasing and Joe in Sales attempt to access
the internet through SpoonProxy at exactly the same time, one of
them will be able to get access to the Dilbert homepage while the
other will receive a polite reminder message that the network administrator
should register SpoonProxy and that they should try again in a moment
or two.
So, for
a small two machine home network, SpoonProxy is basically free.
If you
run a small network and fall outside of our licensing requirements
but still find SpoonProxy to be a great product, send us a postcard,
an email, some money, anything to show your appreciation. It takes
time and money for us to continue to develop what we feel is a terrific
product. Your support helps ensure continued development.
If you're
using SpoonProxy in a business environment where multi-user simultaneous
access is crucial, read on, you're still in for a great deal.
SpoonProxy
Pricing
Effective
January 2, 2002, SpoonProxy pricing is as
follows: (These prices are available only to users of version 2.6
and higher.)
"Home"
User |
Single
User Only |
$19.95 |
Convert
currency |
Tier
I |
2-3
Users |
$39.95 |
Convert
currency |
Tier
II |
4-9
Users |
$59.95 |
Convert
currency |
Tier
III |
10+
(Unlimited* users) |
$79.95 |
Convert
currency |
Single
Tier Upgrade |
n/a |
$20.00 |
Convert
currency |
*Please
note that even with an unlimited SpoonProxy license your
usage will still be limited by the constraints of your own
network, i.e. bandwidth, memory and processing power. |
This
pricing schedule is available only with versions 2.3 of SpoonProxy
and greater. If you are running an earlier version, you
must upgrade to receive this pricing.
There
is no additional charge to upgrade to our current version from an
earlier version of SpoonProxy.
We challenge you to compare
our prices against the prices of similar products. We think you'll
find SpoonProxy to be the best value on the market today.
Furthermore,
SpoonProxy takes considerably less memory to run than every Proxy
Server we've benchmarked it against, so it's very likely you'll
be able to implement SpoonProxy on your network without need for
a hardware upgrade of the machine you're using to run it from.
Registration
Information:
Online Registration
- All Major Credit Cards
Or
Send
a check or money order in US dollars to:
Pi-Soft Consulting, LLC
5115 Excelsior Boulevard, #430
Minneapolis, MN 55416
For your
registration code to be generated include: (1) A Username and (2)
An Organization or Company Name.
Upon receipt
of your check, a registration key will be e-mailed to you promptly,
so please be sure you include your e-mail address.
Additional
Helpful tips on using SpoonProxy:
-
The
absolute #1 request for support we get from customers regards
how to setup their TCP/IP network. We cannot emphasize enough
that in order for SpoonProxy or any proxy server to operate
properly (in fact, at all) your internal TCP/IP network must
be configured properly. This means that each network node
on your system must be pingable from each other node by its
IP address alone. The IP address which you point your client
software at is the internal IP address of the machine on which
you're running the proxy server. If you are having trouble
setting up your TCP/IP Network, see some simple instructions
on Configuring a simple
3 machine TCP/IP Network.
-
If
you are having trouble with your internal TCP/IP network as
mentioned above, we recommend the following configuration.
Set your subnet mask to 255.255.255.0 and use 192.168.0.1,192.168.0.2,
192.168.0.3, (etc.) as the IP's for your internal network.
This is a block of 256 contiguous class C network numbers
which the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has reserved
for private internets as per RFC
1918 (Address Allocation for Private Internets)
-
For
help in troubleshooting your own TCP/IP problems, see our
list of common WinSock error
codes.
-
To
setup your Macintosh computer to use SpoonProxy on your TCP/IP
network please use our reference for configuring MacTCP.
-
Proxy
Server logs can grow quite large quite quickly. Logging defaults
to on. You should disable this feature if logging is unnecessary
or if you are running SpoonProxy on a machine with minimal
diskspace.
-
To
minimize SpoonProxy to the taskbar or to open it up when minimized
to the taskbar simply click on the spoon.