In our day and age, it is becoming increasingly important to have access to any online resources that you need, at any time. This is not always convenient or even possible at all — take such example as using a network with overly restrictive firewall. What will help you be 100% sure you can access any website is setting up your own proxy. Not to mention proxy will hide your IP and let you access geo-blocked websites.
In this article, we will walk together all the way from renting our own server to configuring proxy on a mobile device or in a browser.
Renting your own server
For starters, we'll need to rent a server. You can choose any web hosting service you prefer, I will be using Vultr as an example.
I emphasize that I don't try to advertise or distinguish this service, it was only chosen as an example. Among other possible solutions are HostGator, 1&1, Cloudways, Bytemark, Digital Ocean and many, many more.
Alright, let's get to it. I start by opening vultr.com and signing up there ('Create Account' button in the top right corner).
If you did the same, you'll receive an email with a link to confirm your registration. Once you do it and log in, you'll be asked to choose a payment method. I selected Credit card, but you are free to use any other, obviously.
Important — if you are choosing credit card as your payment method, tick the 'I just want to link my credit card' checkbox, otherwise, you will be charged immediately.
After you've linked your card, click on the 'Servers' tab on the left, and then choose 'Deploy New Server' (a button with a 'plus' symbol).
Our only option is to use a content blocking proxy like what we do in the standalone AdGuard applications. We're going to bring this feature support to AdGuard Home in the future. Unfortunately, even in this case, there still will be cases when this won't be enough or would require quite complicated configuration. Installing the Collector on macOS Overview. Nexthink distributes the Collector for macOS as a disk image (.dmg) file with the following contents: A package (.pkg) file for installing the Collector from a graphical user interface.The application csi.app for installing the Collector from the command line interface.; A reporter shell application that gathers system information in the case that. Open AdGuard and go to Settings —— Proxy settings. Tap on the Add proxy button and enter the following data: For Username and Password fields, enter your proxy username and proxy password you have chosen at TorGuard signup. Set this proxy as a default one by toggling the switch, then click Save. Then go into your Adguard, Settings, Network, Proxy, and click on the toggle next to the word Off. Then click on Add proxy server. Enter any proxy name you want. Set proxy type to Socks 5. For proxy host, type in the server you wrote down before. For proxy port, enter 1080. For proxy username and proxy password, enter your nordvpn username.
Ok, time to make a decision where our new server will be located. I've chosen one in Amsterdam, you can (and probably should, unless you have a specific reason) choose something relatively close to your geographical location.
In the 'Server type' tab select Debian 9 (x64) — this is very important!
The third step is to select the server size, it depends solely on your needs and your budget. Most users will find 1 TB for $5/mo or 500 GB for $2.5/mo sufficient.
At steps 5 and 6 there's no need to change anything. At step 7 choose a hostname and a label for your server, any will do.
Aaaaand done! Smash the Deploy Now button to finish the process. You'll get another email to confirm that the server has been deployed — you'll need it later.
Installing PuTTY (for Windows users)
Now we have to install and set up a proxy on our freshly acquired server. Windows users can use the PuTTY tool, which can be downloaded here. Click on the .msi build under the 'MSI (Windows Installer)' section. Mind if your OS is 32-bit or 64-bit when downloading the installer (if you are not sure, this article will help you determine it).
Open the .msi file and install PuTTY by following the wizard's instructions, and then run the tool.
This is what you'll be faced with — don't get scared at the number of tabs and settings there, we'll basically only need one. Open the very first tab (Session) and enter the IP address you got in that confirmation email from Vultr.
Done? Then click the 'Open' button located at the bottom. You'll see the console asking you to enter login and password (during the first launch there will be a warning pop-up — don't worry, it's fine, just press OK).
This data can be found in the Overview tab of your Vultr servers screen. The username will be root by default, and the password, of course, randomized (you can change it while you are at it). Ok, you've successfully entered login and password, which takes us to the next step — installing a proxy.
Setting up and configuring a proxy
For this purpose, we will use a special script by AdGuard that will perform all required actions. If everything has been going well so far, you should be seeing PuTTY console on your screen.
Subsequently execute the following commands in there (press Enter after each command):
The console should look somewhat like this:
This is what you'll be seeing after executing this command:
At the 3rd step, the script will ask you for a username/password pair for your future proxy. You are free to choose any, but make sure to remember them, or even write them down. What it will look like:
In the console, you will see the IP address of your proxy, HTTP port, SOCKS5 port, username and password. This information has to be entered whenever you want to configure your device/browser to use this proxy. Let's now have a look at a couple of specific examples.
Very important! SOCKS5 is not ideal in terms of security. Try not to use SOCKS5 proxy in public and unprotected networks. In one of the next articles, we'll tell about more secure solutions like Shadowsocks.
In case your server has restarted, you will need to reenable the danted service. To do so, run this command line in the console:
Configuring proxy in AdGuard for Android
There's no trickery here, we will be configuring our SOCKS5 proxy (since we need the authorization) just like we would configure any other proxy. Open the side menu of AdGuard app, go to 'Settings - Proxy settings'.
Don't forget to toggle the main switch in the top right corner on, then tap the 'Add proxy' button.
Fill out all the fields using data from PuTTY console. You can enter anything under 'Proxy name'. Also, enable the 'Default proxy' option if you plan to mainly use this proxy.
Excellent! Tap Save, now all traffic filtered by AdGuard will be routed through your proxy. And by the way, you can still disable AdGuard filtering for any app(s) via 'Apps management', it will prevent its traffic from being routed through the proxy.
There's one trick that will allow you to instantly switch between enabling and disabling the proxy — you can add a specific tile to the quick access panel. Note there's a new notification in the notification bar, telling that your traffic is routed through the proxy server. Tapping on it will also take you to the 'Proxy settings' screen in AdGuard.
Configuring proxy in Chrome/Firefox browsers
For this purpose, we advise using the SwitchyOmega browser extension. I use Chrome, so I'll be downloading it from the Chrome Store, Firefox users will find it among Firefox add-ons. Its unique trait is that it allows you to set up a proxy to be used on specific domains only, or, vice versa, to exclude specific domains.
Configuring SwitchyOmega is very simple. Add a new profile ('+New profile') in the Profiles tab on the left. We need to choose HTTP protocol, since SOCKS5 does not support authorization here. Again, fill out the fields according to previously received information. Remember to apply changes by clicking the button on the left!
To make your browser use this proxy by default, in the 'Auto switch' tab select the freshly added proxy in the Default drop-down menu.
In case you want your proxy to be used for specific websites or IP addresses only, set up respective switch rules. A tooltip will help you with the syntax.
And here's one small 'lifehack' (please don't kill me for using this word): on any page you can quickly access proxy settings by clicking the SwitchyOmega extension icon. Manage proxy in respect to the current website, or change global proxy settings — everything is within a couple of clicks.
Color indicator also helps determining if the proxy is being used currently or not.
Summarizing
We've done it! If everything went according to plan, you should have your own server with a working proxy installed there, and respective settings on your phone/browser. Not so bad for 10 minutes spent on reading this article :)
Should you encounter any difficulties along the way, or if you just have any questions — let me know in the comments, and I (or some other team member) will help you get through! Good luck!
This article explains how to set up some of the most popular proxys to work with AdGuard.
How to use AdGuard with Tor
- Open AdGuard and go to Settings —— Proxy settings. Download 'Orbot: Proxy with Tor' by tapping on Configure Tor® integration button or directly from Google Play.
- Open Orbot and press the Start button on the application's main screen.
- Go back to the Proxy Settings screen of AdGuard.Apr 24, 2020 From Outlook App Step 1:. Open the Mac App Store and download the Outlook Email app. Open Outlook Mail and sign in using the Microsoft account credentials. After the successful login, move to the bottom menu bar. Here, you will see the mail, contacts, calendar. Microsoft sticky notes for macos.
- Tap on the Configure Tor® integration button.
- All the required fields will be pre-filled:
Field | Value |
---|---|
Proxy type | SOCKS4 or SOCKS5 |
Proxy host | 127.0.0.1 |
Proxy port | 9050 |
Or you can tap on Add proxy and enter these values manually, then set the Orbot proxy as a default one.
- Enable AdGuard protection.
Please note, AdGuard will now forward all traffic through Orbot proxy, if you disable Orbot proxy, then Internet connection will be unavailable until you disable outbound proxy settings in AdGuard
How to use AdGuard with PIA (Private Internet Access)
here we presume that you are already a PIA VPN client and have it installed on your device
- Open AdGuard and go to Settings —— Proxy settings.
- Tap on the Add proxy button and enter the following data:
Field | Value |
---|---|
Proxy type | SOCKS5 |
Proxy host | proxy-nl.privateinternetaccess.com |
Proxy port | 1080 |
- You also need to fill out the Username/Password fields. To do so, log in to the Client Control Panel on the PIA website. Click the Generate Password button under the Generate PPTP/L2TP/SOCKS Password section. A Username starting with 'x' and a random Password will be shown. Use them to fill out the Username and Password fields in AdGuard.
- Set this proxy as a default one by toggling the switch, then click Save.
- Enable AdGuard protection.
How to use AdGuard with TorGuard
here we presume that you are already a TorGuard client and have it installed on your device
- Open AdGuard and go to Settings —— Proxy settings.
- Tap on the Add proxy button and enter the following data:
Field | Value |
---|---|
Proxy type | SOCKS5 |
Proxy host | proxy.torguard.org or proxy.torguard.io |
Proxy port | 1080 or 1085 or 1090 |
- For Username and Password fields, enter your proxy username and proxy password you have chosen at TorGuard signup.
- Set this proxy as a default one by toggling the switch, then click Save.
- Enable AdGuard protection.
How to use AdGuard with NordVPN
- Open AdGuard and go to Settings —— Proxy settings.
- Tap on the Add proxy button and enter the following data:
Field | Value |
---|---|
Proxy type | SOCKS5 |
Proxy host | any server save for 'Obfuscated' from this list |
Proxy port | 1080 |
- For Username and Password fields, enter your NordVPN Username and Password.
- Set this proxy as a default one by toggling the switch, then click Save.
- Enable AdGuard protection.
How to use AdGuard with Shadowsocks
here we presume that you have already configured a Shadowsocks server and a client on your device
NOTE: You should remove Shadowsocks application from filtering before setting up the process (AdGuard - Apps management - Shadowsocks - Disable protection) to avoid infinite loops and drops
- Open AdGuard and go to Settings - Proxy settings.
- Tap on the Add proxy server and fill the fields:
Field | Value |
---|---|
Proxy type | SOCKS5 |
Proxy host | 127.0.0.1 |
Proxy port | 1080 |
- Tap on Save and select
Limitations
Adguard Proxy Configuration For Macos Mac
There are several factors that can prevent certain traffic from being routed through the outgoing proxy.
Adguard Proxy Mode
- AdGuard will only re-route traffic that goes through it. Basically, it means apps that have Ad blocking flag enabled in the Apps Management tab.
- AdGuard does not route UDP through proxy. We plan to add UDP over SOCKS5 support later, but so far only TCP traffic is routed through outgoing proxy.