Pointing the Domain to Your Host
This is a simple thing to do, and if you have owned a website before, you have most likely already done this.
All web hosts have their own Name Servers. If you are using a VPS or Dedicated Server, you will have your own Name Server (contact your host if you need more information). It is probably something like ns1.webhost.com and ns2.webhost.com.
Once you find out the Name Servers, go into your domain registrar's control panel, and configure it to point to your NS. Your website should appear within 5 minutes or so, but it may take up to 24 hours to appear globally.
If you need help configuring your own Name Servers, click here for a tutorial for NameCheap and here for a tutorial for GoDaddy.
Uploading the Script
For this, you will need an FTP client. I personally suggest FileZilla. I will not go into much detail about it here, because they explain the installation and usage well at the Wiki. Simply download the proxy script at it's website, and then upload it to your web host to the public_html folder.
If you are using Glype, then you will need to upload all of the contents inside of the 'Upload' folder, as well as the contents of your choice in the 'Extras' folder. I don't advise that you upload anything except for the admin.php file – the other files are not necessary.
Glype Configuration – The Admin Panel
One of the great things about Glype is that you really don't need to do much. Upload it, and it will work! But it's also great to configure it to do what you want.
After you have uploaded the admin.php file from the 'Extras' folder to your root directory, access it by going to http://yourdomain.com/admin.php. You will be triggered to enter a Username and Password. You will also be told to CHMOD your settings.php file (located in the 'includes' directory) to 777. This is so that you can change it via the Admin Panel.
You can do all kinds of things via the Admin Panel: change settings, place advertisement codes, ban IP addresses, enable caching, limit server load, view logs, and more. We'll do a quick rundown of each of the options. You can also get a definition by scrolling over the names.
Theme – This is the folder in your 'themes' folder that you will be using as your proxy's theme.
Temporary Directory – This is the folder that contains your logs and cache folders
Use GZIP Compression – This helps you lower your bandwidth usage, but it does increase your CPU load. Only use it if you are in need of bandwidth.
SSL Warning – This configures whether you want an 'SSL Warning page' to appear when visitors from unsecure → secure. Turn this off, it will only annoy/frighten your visitors, most of which know nothing about what SSL is.
Override Native Javascript – This helps correctly proxify the JavaScript codes. However, it is warned that it may mess up other JS codes, like advertisement codes. If you do not plan on adding JS codes (some ad networks use iFrame), then enable this.
Load Limiter – This limits the amount of pages served based on a set server load. I've never used this, so I can't comment further.
Censor Content – It does just that, censor content. Which I really don't understand, I'm sure the teenage boy looking up porn sites has probably seen a curse word or too
Footer Include – This is very useful if you do not want to edit the files. This is where you would add your ad codes, and they would appear at the top of the proxified page. You should also put your Google Analytics code here.
License Key – If you bought a license key to remove the 'Powered by Glype', but it here. It will allow you to remove the copyright (You have to do it yourself).
Use Path Info – Simply changes the URLs from being browse.php?u=xxx to browse.php/xxx
Unique URLs – If enabled, every time you visit the same website, the URL will be different. However, you won't be able to link to websites from your main page with it.
Prevent Hotlinking – I would enable this, unless you want some website from Iran linking straight to your proxified pages. The point of stopping hotlinking is that people who do hotlink will not see your index page, reducing your chances of getting an ad click.
Allow Hotlinking From – If you enabled the above option, these are sites where hotlinking is allowed.
Enable Caching – I recommend this, it will make your proxy faster and use up less bandwidth.
Cache File Types – These are the generally static file types that will most likely not change every time a person visits the page.
Cache All Websites – I have this set to no, because some sites are very dynamic.
Cache Websites – If you have the above set to 'No', then this will come into effect. It has the basic very visited sites, like MySpace and Facebook. You may want to add YouTube to it as well.
URL To Cache Folder and Path to Cache Folder – These have the directory paths to your Cache folder. They should be set by default.
Enable Logging – You can set this to yes. It allows you a quick look at the websites being visited, and can give you some nice statistics.
Path to Logs Folder – This should be /logs/ unless you renamed it.
Log all Requests – Set this to No! When I set it to yes, I was getting huge files around 100MB-300MB each (and that was when I had low traffic), when I tried opening one my browser crashed. You don't need to know which images your visitors are looking at.
Website Access Control – Simple, if you want users to not visit a certain website, put it in the Blacklist. If you want users not to visit any website except a certain one, put it in the whitelist. I don't recommend you use either one – unless you want to use the blacklist to prevent people using multiple proxies at a time.
User Access Control – This allows you to IP ban traffic, giving it a 403 access denied error. We will talk about that later on.
Connection Time Out – By default, this is set to 10 seconds. What it does is, if it takes more than X seconds for a page to load, then it will cancel the request and the user will be sent back to the index.
Transfer Time Out – This is how long you will allow it to take for the page to fully load once it has been successfully accessed. By default it is set to disabled (or 0)
Filesize Limit – This limits the amount of files that a user is allowed to download, saving you bandwidth – but possible annoying the user. By default it is set to disabled (or 0).
Download Speed Limit – This controls the speed at which files are downloaded, saving bandwidth. If you are going to put a limit, make sure to increase or disable your Transfer Time Out.
Resume Transfers/Queue Transfers – I am putting this together because they fit together. Queue Transfers only allows your user to make 1 connection at a time using your proxy, and Resume Transfers will allow your user to continue previous connections when the first transfer has finished (I hope that made sense).
Store Cookies on Server – Some websites require cookies to be used, but I have this set to No. It increases CPU usage, and is really not necessary.
Path to Cookies Folder – this should be the name of the folder for cookies inside of your Temporary (tmp) directory - /cookies/ by default.
Encode Cookies – This encodes cookies for more privacy, but increases server resource usage.
Cleanup Interval – This controls the time that files are stored by the script, such as cookies and cache. A good time to set this would be 48 hours.
Keep Logs For: This sets the amount of time logs are kept before deleted. You can set this to what you want, or you can simply disable it and delete logs yourself when you are done analyzing them.
User Configurable Options – I will not spend too much time on each one, but I will go through the columns. 'Title' is the name of the option, shown on your index and proxy form on your proxified pages. 'Default' is whether they are checked Yes or No automatically when using the proxy. 'Description' is the tool tip that comes up when hovering over the options. 'Force' means that users will get the option to set this to Yes or No, if you check it then it will automatically be what you set, and users won't be able to change that.
There are also a few notes at the bottom of the Settings page that you should probably read. But that's the Admin CP for you!
If you wish to view your logs, click on 'View Logs' in the top navigation. Clicking on 'Raw Logs' will give you a TXT with all of the requested URLs, and 'Popular Sites' will give you an HTML file in the Admin CP showing the most visited sites and the amount of visits to them. Make sure to take care of the file size of the logs, and not let it get too high. Using the 'Keep Logs For' option mentioned above will help.
Privacy Policy/Terms of Service
It is extremely important that you have a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service on your website. These can help save you from a major lawsuit in case your proxies are used illegally, or something happens. They are also professional, and make many users more comfortable with using your proxy.
Privacy Policies tells users what information you take from them, and how you will handle that information. This is important, especially with proxies. Plus, most (if not all) advertisement networks require a Privacy Policy on your website (did you know that?).
A Terms of Service tells your users what they can and cannot do, and also declares liability and responsibility. This can help you legally, and it is very possible that you may run into legal issues somewhere down the road (don't let this frighten you).
I recommend these two documents, written by Matt of 'Platinum Proxy Guide'. These are free for use on your website, I use them, and they seem very solid. I have not had issues yet.
Privacy Policy and Terms of Service - Platinum Proxy Guide
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and cannot guarantee that these documents will protect you in the court of law. These are provided on an 'as is' and 'as provided' basis only. I am not responsible or liable for any damages that my occur in result of using the above two documents. Contact a lawyer of you need further help.
If you are using Google AdSense, you will need to place additional information into your privacy policy for their Interest-Based Advertising. Click here for specifications.
Summary: Setting up a proxy is the same as any other website. If you use Glype, I suggestion 100% that you upload the admin.php script. It will allow you to edit every aspect of your proxy without needing to open up raw files and risk destroying something. You will also need a solid Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for ad networks and to keep you out of legal trouble.
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