This service enables single stream TCP/IP protocols to be relayed between two machines via Mailtraq. Examples of single stream protocols are SMTP, NNTP, POP3, IMAP, HTTP, Time, Finger, etc.
Notes
The service specifically excludes multiple stream protocols such as FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
FTP can be proxied by Mailtraq within the FTP Service or HTTP Proxy but it can also be supported through an external web proxy. FTP in a web browser via an external web proxy is actually handled by the HTTP protocol.
TCP/IP Proxy Tunnel Example
Proxy tunnels can be used to send single stream TCP/IP protocols through Mailtraq for a wide variety of purposes. The following example is intended to be indicative, not comprehensive.
News Client Direct to Remote Server
It may be advantageous to connect a news client direct to a remote server for a number of reasons. The remote server may require a particular authentication process which is not available in Mailtraq or the required newsgroups may not be suitable for collection using Mailtraq's NNTP slave server. One example of the latter is binary newsgroups. Mailtraq does not contain the necessary functionality to collect headers-only on a first connect to a remote server, and new headers and selected articles only on subsequent connects. Although the proxy tunnel in Mailtraq allows the news client to connect directly to the remote server, it also enables Mailtraq to manage the dial-up process and monitor the online time consumed. Follow this procedure for the settings in Mailtraq:-
Select Services from the Options menu in the console to display the Service Manager
Click on Add and select TCP/IP Proxy Tunnel from the menu
On the Service Tab set the TCP/IP Port to listen on to 5002
On the Proxy Tab set the Remote Server to, for example, news.isp.com on Port 119
Click on Initiate a dial-up then on Settings
Check the Scheduled Dial-up Settings and click OK
Start the Proxy Tunnel Service from the Tools menu in the console
Finally, change the remote news server (to point to Mailtraq) and port (to port 5002 in this example) settings in the news client. Please refer to the documentation provided because this procedure is different in all clients programs.
HTTP Proxy for Faster web browsing
Web proxying is the most popular use of Mailtraq apart from email handling. It allows several machines in the local network to share a single Internet connection for web browsing. However there are two ways of setting it up, which make a big difference to how fast the web browsing goes.
Which method you use depends on a number of issues, including your ISP.
The first method is to set up an HTTP Proxy service in Mailtraq:
Under Options | Services, click Add and choose the 'HyperText Transport Protocol'.
In the dialog, check the 'Provide HTTP Proxy Service', and uncheck the 'WWW Server' and 'Web Administration Service' checkboxes.
Make a note of the Port the service will be running on - for this usage it's conventional to run it on 8080.
This method gives you full logging and content control over what is being browsed, but this control tends to slow things down. If you're connecting over a modem, and several people are browsing at once, the inherent bandwidth limitation of the connection means this isn't an issue, but if its a fast connection, and there aren't many simultaneous users then you might want to consider the second method:
The second method is to use a TCP/IP Proxy Tunnel:
This needs a proxy service to be available from your ISP, so it isn't open to everyone. There are also independent commercial web proxy providers:
Under Options | Services, click Add and choose the 'TCP/IP Proxy Tunnel'.
Set the Port the service will be running on - for this usage it's conventional to run it on 8080.
For example:
On the Proxy tab, set the remote host to:
www-cache.example.com
and the port to:
8080
For both methods, client machines are set up to use a web proxy, on the Mailtraq machine, on port 8080. If you are using the TCP/IP proxy tunnel method, you can set the browser to 'Use HTTP 1.1 through a proxy' (found in the Advanced settings tab in the Internet Options dialog in Internet Explorer), which will speed things up even more.
