A bunch of other content as well as Netflix, Hulu block non-US users from seeing their content. Because of this, many individuals living outside of the United States seek to circumvent such limitations by using services which advertise “free” and “open” internet proxies capable of routing browser traffic through US-based computers and networks.

His script attempts to see if a specified proxy enables encrypted browser traffic (https://), and whether the proxy attempts to change website content or inject any content into the user’s browser session, such as advertising or malicious scripts.

“It may be because they would like you to use http to allow them to analyse your traffic and steal your logins,” Haschek said. “If I am a good guy setting up a server in order that folks may use it to be safe and anonymous, Iwill enable individuals to use https. However, what’s my purpose if I tell users http just?”

Virtual private networks (VPNs) enable users to tunnel their encrypted traffic to different states, but increasingly on-line content providers are blocking popular VPN services too. Tor offers users the capacity to tunnel and encrypt traffic free of charge, but in my experience the service is not faithfully quickly enough to stream video.

Haschek indicates that users wishing to benefit from open proxies decide ones that enable https traffic. He is created and posted online a free tool that enables anyone to analyze whether a specified proxy allows encrypted web traffic, in addition to whether the user’s actual net address is actually hidden by the proxy. This site post describes more about script and his research methodology.

Security-aware users wishing to benefit from open proxies also should consider doing so using virtual machine set up or a Live CD which makes it simple to reset the system to a clean installation after every use. I rely on the free VirtualBox platform to run multiple virtual machines, a smattering of which I use to do much of my routine browsing, tweeting, e-mailing and other matters that can lead occasionally to malicious links, scripts, etc.

This tutorial offers a reasonably simple-to-follow primer on the best way to run a Live CD setup of a Linux distribution of your picking on top of VirtualBox.