Setting up own private Bittorrent proxy on server

[JonathanSmith]

It seems a lot of people are interested in using proxy services specially tailored for Bittorrent clients. To me it seems that it would be a very good solution to use an own server (or VPS) that can not only serve as Bittorrent proxy. It seems to be more flexible and cheaper.

So I searched but I could not find much interest and descriptions of people that have done this. Most people seem to simply use SSH (for example with autossh). This works, but it would be nicer to set up a regular proxy just as offered by commercial proxy providers.

I installed and tested Dante (http://www.inet.no/dante/doc/1.3.x/config/index.html). This seems to work with uTorrent with some very basic setup. Problem is that I could not get authentication to work, which is very bad if I do not want just anyone to use it. There are several authentication methods documented (http://www.inet.no/dante/doc/1.3.x/config/auth.html). However, I did not get them to work with uTorrent.

Inside uTorrent there is not much info regarding proxies and I could not find any information on the authentication methods supported by uTorrent. Has no one tested this yet? I am interested in working this out, but I think I need some help. Ultimately I think it would be very beneficial to write up a short tutorial (perhaps on a blog) with this information and I am thinking about doing this once I figure it out.

[m2e]

Not trying to be rude but they outline a perfect example of how to do username/password based authentication based off of the accounts created on the OS.

Just read this documentation: http://www.inet.no/dante/doc/1.3.x/config/auth_username.html along with the documentation you posted in full and utilize the examples through trial and error. I have 5 VPS' setup using dante + username/password authentication and it really is not a difficult process.

If you can't figure it out after a few days contact me and if I have time ill see what I can do.

Good luck.

[JonathanSmith]

Dear m2e,

thank you for your reply. I already read the documentation you linked and tried some things with no success. I posted because if this and because I am unsure if "username" was indeed the correct method and uTorrent does give me any useful log feedback.

Based on the documentation you linked and what was working for me without authentication I came up with this config:

logoutput: /var/log/dante.log
internal: 127.0.0.1 port = 1080
external: eth0
user.privileged: root
user.notprivileged: nobody

method: username     

pass {
    from: 0.0.0.0/0 to: 0.0.0.0/0
    command: bind connect udpassociate
    log: error connect disconnect iooperation
    method: username
}

In uTorrent I used Socks5 with port 1080 and the IP of the machine and valid username and password. The danted process is running but uTorrent does not seem to connect. Can you see what I did wrong from the configuration I posted? Thank you for your help.

[znote]

These settings works perfectly for me.

Change 112.112.112.112 with the global IP address of your vps.

Change port to whatever you want.

Change eth0 if you use a custom network. (eth0 is default on Debian).

To see if you use anything else, check it out at:

nano /etc/network/interfaces

You should then be able to authenticate socks5 with root and its password.

logoutput: /var/log/socks.log
internal: eth0 port = 1080
external: 112.112.112.112
method: username #rfc931
clientmethod: none
user.privileged: root
user.notprivileged: nobody
user.libwrap: nobody
client pass {
        from: 0.0.0.0/0 port 1-65535 to: 0.0.0.0/0
        log: connect disconnect error
}
pass {
        from: 0.0.0.0/0 to: 0.0.0.0/0
        protocol: tcp udp
}

Extra note: Not sure if it matters but I have also opened port 1080 on both server and client side so they can communicate properly.

[JonathanSmith]

Dear znote,

thank you very much. It indeed works as you described. I just had to replace eth0 in external with my IP.

Incredible that nobody could point this out earlier.

I am just wondering, eth0 should be correct, it is the only network interface. The documentation also seems to list no examples that use the explicit IP so it was of no help for me. I don't know how this could be figured out. I would not consider myself a noob with Linux.

[mascced]

It seems a lot of people are interested in using proxy services specially tailored for Bittorrent clients. To me it seems that it would be a very good solution to use an own server (or VPS) that can not only serve as Bittorrent proxy. It seems to be more flexible and cheaper.

So I searched but I could not find much interest and descriptions of people that have done this. Most people seem to simply use SSH (for example with autossh). This works, but it would be nicer to set up a regular proxy just as offered by commercial proxy providers.

I installed and tested Dante (http://www.inet.no/dante/doc/1.3.x/config/index.html). This seems to work with uTorrent with some very basic setup. Problem is that I could not get authentication to work, which is very bad if I do not want just anyone to use it. There are several authentication methods documented (http://www.inet.no/dante/doc/1.3.x/config/auth.html). However, I did not get them to work with uTorrent.

Inside uTorrent there is not much info regarding proxies and I could not find any information on the authentication methods supported by uTorrent. Has no one tested this yet? I am interested in working this out, but I think I need some help. Ultimately I think it would be very beneficial to write up a short tutorial (perhaps on a blog) with this information and I am thinking about doing this once I figure it out.

Proxies are for beginners. If you want to go right past beginner get a VPN. A proxy is good for utorrent or whatever application you have it setup on. Installed VPN works off your operating system, so everything is covered. Not just utorrent. If you want to get serious. Use VPN along with a seedbox.

[JonathanSmith]

Proxies are for beginners. If you want to go right past beginner get a VPN. A proxy is good for utorrent or whatever application you have it setup on. Installed VPN works off your operating system, so everything is covered. Not just utorrent. If you want to get serious. Use VPN along with a seedbox.

Actually I had VPN set up for a long time. Even multiple. But I wanted a proxy only for uTorrent. I do not always want to tunnel all traffic through the seedbox.

[momo_levi]

thank you all. this information was very helpful to me...