this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2026
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I've been looking for a webproxy that would work with big websites like YouTube. So far I've found only very outdated and abandoned ones. Is there any up-to-date and actually functional webproxy I could host?

Edit: The reason I need this is that there are some locked up Windows computers I can't install any traditional VPNs on and that are used by non-tech-savvy people.

I can't pin the comment with the solution so here's the link

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[–] linuxguy@piefed.ca 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Ssh includes a built in socks proxy. What are you actually trying to accomplish?

[–] myszka@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm trying to find an alternative to VPN to be used on a locked up Windows device I can't install any apps on. And it should be easy enough to be usable by non-tech-savvy people. @moonpiedumplings@programming.dev already provided a good solution

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If I'm understanding, this is like the old trick of using Google translate to bypass web blacklists.

But it won't work for networks which implement whitelists.

[–] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

So, my high school used to have a domain/ip whitelist. The trick to get around whitelists is to take advandage of the fact that whole subdomains or cloud providers would be included in the whitelist.

Any duckdns subdomain, or anything hosted on many cloud providers would be unblocked.

So holy unblocker has a one click deploy, which can deploy to PaaS sites which would usually have their entire ip address space and subdomains included in the whitelist.

@myszka@lemmy.ml

[–] myszka@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago

Wow, that's pretty neat, thanks!

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 months ago
[–] ki9@lemmy.gf4.pw 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This ones been up-to-date since 1997

http://anonymouse.org/anonwww.html

I don't think any other commenters know what you're talking about.

[–] jode@pawb.social 1 points 3 months ago

Wow I used that to play miniclip games at school in like 2007 I can't believe it still exists.

[–] TheHolm@aussie.zone 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

you can't going wrong with squid. It was around forever, and still in development.

[–] IsoKiero@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 months ago

I agree. It's a bit tedious to configure, but rock solid and has all the features you could ask from a proxy.

[–] myszka@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago

Thanks! I'll look into it

[–] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah you want the titanium networks projects, which are essentially a bunch of web proxies exactly like what you ask for.

I used to use Metallic, but it's not actually that good and not maintained anymore.

Here is a public instance of holy unblocker: https://uc.robby.blue/scramjet

This is one of their flagship projects, and is what you want. Self hostable of course, code on github. I preferred the projects that give you internal tabs though, like hypertabs or anura.

Public anura instance: https://anura.pro/ (but anura looks like a pain to self host, it's much more complex)

[–] myszka@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago

That's exactly what I need, thanks!

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

What exactly do you mean by web proxy? Something site specific like Invidious? Or an HTTP or SOCKS5 proxy like danted?

[–] myszka@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Close to invidious but not specific to any particular site. A page that allows to open other pages through it, like a browser inside a web page except it's only for opening a website and has no other browser functionality. Here's a proprietary example: croxyproxy.com

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Yeah what you want is a SOCKS5 proxy then just launch another browser with the proxy config.

You can run a browser inside a docker or VM, and then use webvnc or something. I just don't see the point.

[–] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

These kinds of setups are used to bypass agressive network filtering and content censhorship. All the traffic is http(s). And then the way only a browser is needed means it works on locked down devices like chromebooks.

The browser in docker is something I have used, but it requires more resources to host and can only be used by one person at once if you are using something like linuxserver's webtop.

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Then SOCKS is what you want. It can be used on a Chromebook as well.

~~These proxying websites are running full browser instances in the background. It's the only way to guarantee all the traffic is routed through it.~~

I just had a look at croxy and there's a TON of data that doesn't get proxied.

[–] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

No, Socks5 does not work for this usecase. You don't get permissions to run it locally via crostini (or use crostini in general) and the relevant proxy settings are locked in the chromebook settings. In addition to this, it is too easy to fingerprint, and some of the more aggressive setups will catch it and block it. For example, my high school would autodetect wireguard and then kick you off of the network for 10 minutes if you attempted to connect.

[–] myszka@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Thanks! SOCKS5 proxy is a good option, I don't know why I didn't think of it from the very beginning...

My goal is to bypass local censorship on university computers that don't allow running any executables except those provided by the administrator. And I'm trying to help professors who aren't particularly tech-savvy, so a webproxy is actually still a better option.

A browser inside a docker is a very viable solution, however my VPS is super small, so I don't have resources for that unfortunately.

[–] gravitas@pie.gravitywell.xyz 4 points 3 months ago

Dante is what ive always used.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Why not run your own socks5 proxy server?

https://github.com/serjs/socks5-server

[–] Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web
VPN Virtual Private Network
VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)

3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 11 acronyms.

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