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The Proxy Guide

Web proxy guide for users and webmasters

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Glype

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glype-girlGlype proxy script is a free-to-use, web-based proxy script written in. It is open source, but it is NOT released as GPL or a similar license. Its license requires: either keeping the back link or getting a (paid) license.

Glype script has become very popular after PHProxy project ceased. Glype is similar to PHProxy, but there is one fundamental difference: Glype uses curl to retrieve web pages. In addition, compared to PHProxy, Glype has more caching controls.

On May 7, 2010, Baron Munchausen, the administrator of Proxy.org announced that he acquired Glype. (source: http://forums.glype.com/news-updates/1286-baron-acquires-glype.html and http://proxy.org/forum/1273292889.html)

The official website of Glype is: http://www.glype.com. A live example of Glype is UtopianPal.com.

Some tutorials for Glype:

 

Comparison of Web Proxy Scripts

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comparison-of-web-proxy-scriptsFor web proxy webmasters, the first thing is to choose a proper proxy script. In this articles, 5 of the most popular web proxy scripts are compared. This is your definite guide for you on choosing a web proxy script.

I received some inquiries periodically on choosing a proxy script to start a web proxy site. So, I decided to post my opinions here.

It is always a tough question, when “the best” is involved. However, for a web proxy site, the candidates are quite limited. For simplicity and legal reasons, I will limit my discussion on free scripts only. The possible options usually include: CGIProxy, Glype, PHProxy, Surrogafier and Zelune.

CGIProxy is one of the oldest proxy scripts, and is very popular among veteran webmasters. Because it is written in Perl, the source code of the script is visible to those who install it, although CGIProxy is not an open source project. It is actually licensed through its own terms: for non-commercial usage, it is free. There are some misunderstandings on the licensing terms on CGIProxy: a lot of webmasters had though it is licensed under GPL . This is not correct. So, if you are going to run a large web proxy business, it is better to negotiate the licensing with the author as early as possible, at least before sparing considerable budget on modifying it.

The setup of CGIProxy is not complicated, as long as your system and web server support Perl. One of the most challenging problems for many webmasters is the performance tuning for Perl script. Proper tuning can make your proxy run significantly (10-100x) faster, and use less resource. Therefore, it is better to outsource the tuning task to some reliable experts unless you have sufficient knowledge on Perl and web server (e.g. Apache).

Glype is very popular among young webmasters. It is written in PHP, so it is easy to setup, and easy to find some tutorials to tune the performance. Again, Glype has its own licensing scheme: it is free to use, but a backlink is required unless you pay for the removal. There are no updates since January 2009. On May 8, 2010, Baron, who runs proxy.org, announced the acquisition of the project. Now, it is unclear whether some changes will be introduced.

PHProxy is a open source project and is licensed under GPL. However, Abdullah Arif, the author, discontinued the project and relinquished all rights (as well as responsibilities) on September 7, 2007. PHProxy mimics most functions and layout of CGIProxy in PHP. The last release of 0.52b2 is actually quite stable. Although a few people claimed to continue the project, there are no matured updates or forks yet.

Surrogafier is not widely used, and there have been no update since 2007. The script is not licensed under GPL, although the source code is not encrypted.

Zelune used to be a promising PHP-based proxy script. But it seems it has changed ownership a few times, and it gradually becomes less popular for some reasons. The licensing term is not clear for me.

So, in conclusion, for serious commercial operation, PHProxy and CGIProxy are recommended. For normal webmasters, Glype and PHProxy are recommended.

 

–CGIProxyGlypePHProxySurrogafierZelune
Programming languagePerlPHPPHPPHPPHP
Licensing typeCommercial; free for non-commercialCommercial; free to use with conditions GPLFree to use with conditionsNot clear, but not GPL
Source code visibleyesyesyesyesyes
Template systemNo (simple)yesNo (simple)noyes
CustomizationdifficulteasyeasyNot testedNot tested
PerformanceCan be very fast, but need tuningFast, out of boxFast, out of boxNot reportedFast, out of box
ConclusionRecommendedRecommendedRecommended––

Tutorial 5: PHProxy Tips and Tricks–Insert Ad Code and Customization

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Tutorial 5: PHProxy Tips and Tricks–Insert Ad Code and CustomizationThis is part II of TheProxyGuide tutorials on PHProxy (PHP proxy) script. In this tutorial, we will show you how to insert advertisement code and how to customize the address form.

PHProxy script (PHP proxy) is one of the best proxy scripts and is used by many sites, although the development has stopped. The demo site of PHProxy is setup at: http://theproxyfree.com.

In this tutorial, you need change two files: index.php and index.inc.php

Enjoy the video.

 

PHProxy

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phproxy-proxy-girlPHProxy (PHP proxy script) was a very popular proxy script before the author,Abdullah Arif, discontinued the project and relinquish all rights (as well as responsibilities) on September 7, 2007. The script is very similar to CGIProxy script. Actually the author also mentioned that the project was inspired by CGIProxy project. However, because PHProxy was written in PHP, compared with CGIProxy, PHProxy is generally easier to install for most webmasters.

The last release (version 0.5b2) of this script was on January 27, 2007 under GPL license. The script is available for download in sourceforge.

A copy of the last version (0.52b2) can also be found on TheProxyGuide (click to download). A demo of PHProxy script is available at: phproxy.goyap.net

Usually PHProxy does not need complicate templates and most webmasters just change the color schemes. A typical proxy sites powered by PHProxy is TheProxyFree.com, which uses the default template with slight modifications. Once of the largest collection of PHProxy (PHP proxy ) script powered websites can be found at:UnRestrictedSurf.

Tutorials on PHProxy:

1. How to install PHProxy ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOwVrm6T0zI  )

2. PHProxy (PHP proxy) tips and tricks: insert ad code and customization

 

Tutorial 4: How to Install PHProxy

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theproxyguide-tutorial-4This is part I of TheproxyGuide tutorials on PHProxy script. In this tutorial, it was shown how to download and edit the files to make a workable proxy in a few mins.

PHProxy script is one of the best proxy scripts and is used by many sites, although the development has stopped. The demo site is setup at: http://phproxy.goyap.net

To install PHProxy, there are three steps:

1. Download the script from SourceForge or TheProxyGuide;
2. Edit index.php and index.inc.php;
3. Upload 3 files and done.

In the coming tutorials (part II and part III), customization and security configurations will be illustrated.

How to Make Money from Your Free Web Proxy (Part II)

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shooting-girl-300It is simple: you need generate income to make your site online. You need pay for the server and pay for the bandwidth. Although the price of a dedicated server is not high, you still have to earn more than $100-200/month for each server to make your site alive.

Most web proxy webmasters use third-party ad services. Some ad providers are good, some do not allow web proxy, and some may run away after a few months. In this tutorial, I will introduce you a few reputable (for web proxy sites) ad providers.

1. Google Adsense. Google is the leader of online ad industry currently. According to its description: Because the ads are related to what your visitors are looking for on your site or matched to the characteristics and interests of the visitors your content attracts, you’ll finally have a way to both monetize and enhance your content pages. If you have a lot of Asian or middle east traffic, this may be the best for you. Google pays you on net-30, monthly. (with minimum $100, if your account has less than $100, your balance will be rolled to next month).

But keep in mind, you can only put Google adsense ads on your main page, because the proxified page is NOT considered as your contents. If you put the ads on the proxified page, your account will be very likely terminated and you will get nothing. So, this is important for web proxy webmasters.

Then, how can you monetize from the proxified pages? The answer is AdBrite.

2. Adbrite. AdBriteis actually an ad market, where you can sell your ad space or buy ads. You can choose to show network ads when your ad space is not sold. Adbrite pays you on net-60 bases. The CPM maybe not so good if you have only Asian and African traffics.

3. Paypopup. Paypopup is a reliable popup and pop-under ad provider. Actually, it is in the same big family of Clicksor. You can choose pop-up or pop-under; I would recommend pop-under and once per session so that it will not affect your visitors.

Of course, there are a few others, but some are not friendly to web proxy sites, e.g., RightMedia. Anyway, as a start, you may try to put Google adsense on the home page, and put Adbrite on the proxified page, as well as the home page. Pop-under usually put on the proxified page only.