HTTPort Frequently Asked Questions

- I'm a novice when it comes to computer and still can't get it to work. Any advises ?
- Is there a Russian manual for HTTPort ?
- Will HTTPort get through my proxy ?
- Why does HTTPort not work with "my software" ?
- Does HTTPort work with ICQ ?
- Does HTTPort work with FTP ?
- How to set up HTTPort for use with e-mail client ?
- How to set up HTTPort for use with IRC ?
- How to set up HTTPort for use with AOL Instant Messenger ?
- How to set up HTTPort for use with news browser (NNTP)?
- How to set up HTTPort for use with Quake, Antz or other network game ?
- How to set up HTTPort for use with Napster ?
- What if my software does not allow me to edit the address to connect to ?
- What about the security ? Does HTTPort increase the vulnerability of our network ?
- Why does HTTPort fail with message "407 proxy authentication required" although I've entered the password ?
- Why does HTTPort freeze or hang when I try to use it ?
- Where can I find a list of available proxies ?
- How should I determine whether my proxy supports CONNECT ?
- What does that retcode XXX mean ?
- How to edit mapping parameters ? There is no EDIT button.
- What is the latest version of HTTPort ?
- May I take a look at HTTPort source code ? Will you advise me how to write "my program" ?


Q: I'm a novice when it comes to computer and still can't get it to work. Any advises ?

A: First, read readme.txt and this FAQ throughly. These cover the vast majority of the problems you may face. Please do not write for help if you are simply bored with reading these long manuals. In this case your best bet would be finding a knowledgeable friend nearer to you. I will not waste my time answering, sorry.

The typical problems you may encounter are:

Problem: You have entered the wrong proxy on System page of HTTPort.

Solution: Enter the proxy parameters that your browser is currently using for surfing. Also, do NOT enter webcache.dial.pipex.com here. This proxy address should typically look like 10.X.X.X:X, or 172.X.X.X:X and varies from one company to another.

Problem: You have set up the software you want to run through HTTPort wrong.

Solution: Whatever software you are setting up for use with HTTPort, please keep in mind, that there MUST appear a server address somewhere. Make sure that you have entered 127.0.0.1 for server address. Other details may vary.
Typical mistake is to enter webcache.dial.pipex.com as a proxy in one's browser setup. This is wrong. How may the browser guess about HTTPort existance if you are pointing it directly to some other proxy ?

Problem: You have deleted all the default mappings (who needs them anyway ? :) and are stuck with entering new ones.

Solution: The default mappings are guaranteed to be correct. Re-install HTTPort, then try surfing through HTTPort (setting up your browser to use 127.0.0.1:8080 as a proxy). This is the easiest way of determining whether HTTPort will work for you. Then add a new mapping and edit it to make somewhere similar to the defaults. When you are familiar to mappings setup, you may delete the defaults.

Q: Is there a Russian manual for HTTPort ?

A: No. I'm not going to write it and will neither instruct you by mail. Please find a friend who knows English language well enough to read the English manual.

Q: Will HTTPort get through my proxy ?

A: Not necessary. HTTPort is no magic. Your proxy administrator may turn off the feature HTTPort is based on. Or this feature has never been enabled. Or your proxy does not support it at all. The only way to tell is to try.

Q: Why does HTTPort not work with "my software" ?

A: Check the following:

1. You have read the readme.txt file.
2. You have clicked the "Start" button.
3. You have TCP/IP and Winsock installed and configured.
4. You have specified the right proxy on the "System" page.
5. Your proxy supports CONNECT. See below for more information.
6. You have specified the right port mappings.
7. The "Messages" window on "System" page contains no errors AFTER YOU HAVE UNSUCCESSFULLY TRIED TO USE SOME SOFTWARE THROUGH HTTPORT.
8. You have correctly configured your software. In brief, whenever you map a port X at local host to port Y at remote host, you should think of an address localhost:X as if it was remotehost:Y.
9. Note, that you may need to use address 127.0.0.1:X instead of localhost:X. TRY BOTH before you consider it does not work.

Q: Does HTTPort work with ICQ ?

A: No. I mean absolutely NOT. ICQ uses UDP/IP protocol and also attempts to listen ports on localhost. HTTPort has nothing to deal with this.

Q: Does HTTPort work with FTP ?

A: No. With FTP it's not known beforehand on which port the file will be actually available. I'd recommend you to use an excellent program "Net Vampire" that supports FTP downloads through proxy.

Q: How to set up HTTPort for use with e-mail client (Outlook, Messenger, Pegasus, The BAT!, etc.) ?

A: You should have an account on an external mail server, which provides POP3/SMTP services. Ex: I use account on yahoo.com. I will explain the setup with Yahoo account.

Yahoo provides POP3/SMTP services by means of two servers: pop.mail.yahoo.com:110 and smtp.mail.yahoo.com:25 respectively.
Create two HTTP mappings. These should mirror local ports 110 and 25 (or any other ports you like), to remote ports pop.mail.yahoo.com:110 and smtp.mail.yahoo.com:25. Set up your mail client to use server 127.0.0.1:110 as a POP3 server, and 127.0.0.1:25 as an SMTP server. This should work.

Q: How to set up HTTPort for use with IRC ?

A: First, choose ONE IRC server from your IRC client's list. Let it be "irc.supermegawondernet.com:6667". Create a new HTTPort mapping, set "Local port" to "6667", "Remote server" to "irc.supermegawondernet.com" and "Remote port" to "6667". Now run your IRC client and add a new server to the list. The new server should be set up to "127.0.0.1:6667". Start HTTPort, click "Connect" and enjoy :)

If you wish to use another server (irc.negligible.com:6667) you should repeat the above procedure, and I recommend you to map another local port (say, 6668) to "irc.negligible.com:6667" instead of enabling and disabling HTTPort mappings each time.

Q: How to set up HTTPort for use with AOL Instant Messenger ?

A: Find a public free SOCKS5 proxy. You may use the proxy list below. Let the proxy you've found be 123.45.67.89:1080 (the default port for SOCKS5 is 1080). Now map local port 1080 to 123.45.67.89:1080 using HTTPort. Start AOL IM. At the "Sign On" window click "Setup" (a wrench icon), then check "Connect using proxy" and enter 127.0.0.1 for Host and 1080 for Port. Select "SOCKS5" option. Check "Use proxy to resolve hostnames". Check "Keep connection alive". Click OK. Now proceed with login.
Please note, that when I have tested this, I experienced "Unable to load ticker file" error from AOL IM, and therefore there was no ticker for me, yet all other AOL services worked. The source of this error is not known to me, so please don't ask me about that.

Q: How to set up HTTPort for use with news browser (NNTP)?

A: Using exactly the same technique as above, map local port 119 to news.your.server.com:119. Set up your news browser to use 127.0.0.1:119 as a news server and proceed.

For every other news server news.another.server.com:119 map another local port to it.

Q: How to set up HTTPort for use with Quake, Antz or other network game ?

A: At the moment I have no stable opinion on that topic. I'm not using any of these so I did not perform any tests. It is very likely that most of the modern network games use TCP/IP protocol for client-server communications, and therefore may be run over HTTPort. On the other hand, game designers may have decided to use too many ports, for example, Antz uses more than 200 ports (at least, it requires these ports to be potentially available). This makes tunneling such a program quite hard task.
If you have succeeded or failed with using some network game over HTTPort, please send me a detailed description.

Q: How to set up HTTPort for use with Napster ?

A: Find a public free SOCKS5 proxy. You may use the proxy list below. Let the proxy you've found be 123.45.67.89:1080 (the default port for SOCKS5 is 1080). Now map local port 1080 to 123.45.67.89:1080 using HTTPort. Start Napster. When prompted, choose an option to connect via SOCKS5 proxy and enter 127.0.0.1:1080 as a proxy address.

One important note: upon start, Napster tries to connect to the server "server.napster.com". In case your PC does not have DNS service installed, Napster will be unable to resolve the host into an IP address.

See below for a solution. Using the technique described there (hosts file modification) you should enable local resolution of the host server.napster.com to an IP address of 208.184.216.223.


Q: What if my software does not allow me to edit the address to connect to ?

A: You will need the following items: three wooden sticks, stench, mouse blood, candy rock and a ladder.

Just kidding.

1. If your software tries to connect to some.host.on.the.net (just like Napster does), you should append the following line

127.0.0.1 some.host.on.the.net

to the file
c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (for NT)
c:\windows\hosts (for 9x)

This will allow a local name resolution for this host, and it will be resolved to localhost. Just what we need.

2. If your software tries to connects to a predefined address of 123.45.67.89, this is much harder to fix. Please make sure that you are familiar with TCP/IP setup before proceeding. Or ask a guru friend for help :)

In brief - you should edit your TCP/IP parameters and add a new IP address to your network adapter. Thus your local machine will host two (or more) IP addresses: your previous IP address and 123.45.67.89. From this point TCP/IP layer will not route packets to 123.45.67.89 any farther than localhost.

Note, that this may prevent other local software from functioning. Do not touch except for the strongest need.

Q: What about the security ? Does HTTPort increase the vulnerability of our network ?

A: The answer is - very little.

This is how you may think of it:

If there was no HTTPort and you used your browser for surfing, then, most probably you were able to download and run some executable file from the Internet. Was it secure ? No, not at all. A trojan, a bomb, or simply a virus could have been injected in your network EVEN WITHOUT HTTPORT.

Now HTTPort.

HTTPort makes it possible to open a client side of a TCP/IP connection and provide it to any software. The keywords here are: "client" and "any software".

What does it mean:

CLIENT means that HTTPort may not be used for trojans like NetBus or BackOrifice, because HTTPort can't make a "listening" server side of a TCP/IP connection. This in turn means that HTTPort may be exploited by "client" software only, not "server". So, the next passage completes the answer.

ANY SOFTWARE means, that ANY OTHER software may use the same technique that HTTPort does to perform exactly the same. Moreover, the client side of a malicious software (we are talking of the client sides only, remember ? :) may use plain HTTP protocol to access remote malicious server. Need an example ? Yahoo Messenger is the one. It uses HTTP protocol for passing custom information through the proxy. Imagine that there were a Gotcha Messenger instead.

Therefore in my humble opinion HTTPort may not be abused as a security hole or something.

Q: Why does HTTPort fail with message "407 proxy authentication required" although I've entered the password ?

A: This sometimes occurs with MS Proxy. This is due to the fact that MS Proxy may use other authentication methods, not the simplest one HTTPort knows of. Your only chance is to switch the proxy to "basic" authentication. Nothing else can be done. Probably in future versions...

Q: Why does HTTPort freeze or hang when I try to use it ?

A: HTTPort does neither freeze nor hang. What you are experiencing is known as "blocking operations". If you wait for some time (up to a minute I guess), HTTPort will resume its execution. This is a rare situation, when blocking lasts for so long and this is typically due to the fact that you have entered "some.literal.name.com" in place of system proxy whereas your network is not configured for resolving this name. In this case you should enter an IP address, ex: "123.45.67.89" on the System page.

Q: Where can I find a list of available proxies ?

A: The largest list I've ever seen is at http://freebooks.hypermart.net/proxy/proxies1.htm.

Note, that I do NOT encourage you to use any of these proxies. Some of them may be really free, while others serve you only by mistake. I guess sometimes you may even be violating the law by using the proxy you're not intended to use. You have been warned.


Q: How should I determine whether my proxy supports CONNECT ?

A: I'd say my proxy does not support CONNECT if HTTPort "Messages" window contains the following string(s):
  |-------------------
  | Mapping name: CONNECT to "your proxy" failed with retcode XXX (error description)
  |-------------------
  Mind the case: CONNECT must be in uppercase. Message of
  |-------------------
  | Mapping name: Unable to connect to "your proxy"
  |-------------------
  means that your proxy was not found or failed to connect. In this case check the proxy settings.

A2: If you wish to check it manually, follow these steps:

1. You have your local HTTP proxy. Let it be 172.11.11.11:8080

2. When you set up your browser to use 172.11.11.11:8080 as a proxy for HTTP protocol everything works fine. I mean you are surfing freely. If not, your proxy does not work at all.

3. Click [Start] mega button, then Run, and enter the following command (do NOT include quotes and mind the spaces):
"telnet 172.11.11.11 8080"

This will run a connection to your proxy. On successful connection you'll see a window with a cursor, awaiting for your input. Select from menu Terminal - Preferences. Set Local Echo to ON. Click OK.

4. Enter the following (do NOT include quotes):
"CONNECT pop.mail.yahoo.com:110 HTTP/1.0".

Now press Enter twice. This will send a CONNECT command to your proxy.

5. Wait. You will see something like that:

|-------------------
| CONNECT pop.mail.yahoo.com:110 HTTP/1.0
|
| HTTP 200 Connection established
| +OK hello from popgate
-------------------

This means that your proxy supports CONNECT operator and you may proceed.

Or, you may see:
|-------------------
| CONNECT pop.mail.yahoo.com:110 HTTP/1.0
|
| HTTP XXX Error message
|-------------------

This means that your proxy does not allow CONNECT and most probably you cannot use HTTPort :(

Q: What does that XXX retcode mean ?

A: When reporting "CONNECT failed with retcode XXX", HTTPort does simply repeat what your proxy did respond. This is A PROXY error, not HTTPort's.
The following retcodes are most common:
403 (forbidden) - your proxy disallows usage of CONNECT method. No solution.
405 (method not allowed) - same as previous. No solution.
502 (bad gateway) - your proxy is configured in such a manner, that you are unable to issue CONNECT for the host you want to map using HTTPort. You may still try to map another host (and, probably, port) using HTTPort. This may work, but may not work as well.

Q: How to edit mapping parameters ? There is no EDIT button.

A: To edit an item (ex: "Local Port"), make sure that HTTPort is stopped and click the parameter value:
|
+ Local Port
| |
| +-- [ 80 ]    <---- click here

Here "click" means pressing LEFT mouse button ONCE while the mouse pointer is positioned inside the bounding rectangle of the value, then immediate RELEASING the mouse button, and WAITING about 0.25 sec. with no mouse movement until the edit box appears inside the rectangle.

Q: What is the latest version of HTTPort ?

A: The latest version up to date is 1.1. It may be downloaded at:

ftp://ftp.kiarchive.ru/pub/windows/internet/proxy/httport.zip (ftp)
http://www.kiarchive.ru/pub/windows/internet/proxy/httport.zip (http)
ftp://ftp.cis.fed.gov/pub/security/HTTPort/httport.zip (ftp)


Q: May I take a look at HTTPort source code ? Will you advise me how to write "my program" ?

A: No. No.


If you did not find a solution for your problem with HTTPort, please, contact me at [email protected].

Thank you for using my software.
Have a nice day.

Dmitry Dvoinikov