How to create secure connection between my PC and Squid proxy?

Question

I have installed a Squid proxy outside of my private LAN. How can I make my communication secure between my PC and Squid proxy so that no one sitting on my LAN sniff my communication?

Answer 1

You should use a ssh tunnel, (clients : openssh on tux, putty on win)

The tunnel will redirect your local port, say 3128, to your squid (so localhost:3128 on your remote machine hosting squid)

So, personally i use :

ssh -N -f -L3128:localhost:3128 example.com

-N Do not execute a remote command. This is useful for just forwarding ports (protocol version 2 only).

-f Requests ssh to go to background just before command execution.

-L : Port 3128 is tunneled to exemple.com to localhost:3128

Using putty you can do the same, just follow instructions found right there : http://www.google.com/search?q=putty+tunnel+ssh

You'll got screenshoots of each steps with explanations, you sould see :

L3128 localhost:3128 on your Tunnels window in your putty, if you have a proxy on your remote box, then just configure your browser to use a proxy at localhost:3128

Another possiblity is to use -D (Dynamic) so to have

D1080 on your Tunnels window in putty, it works like a Socks server, so configure your browser to use a socks server on localhost:1080, this one don't need to have a proxy running on the remote server, so it's my favorite !