New web proxy: BeatTheNanny.com

smalldog · 31st October 2005, 10:07 AM

Inspired by the blocking of wikipedia, I've set up a web proxy at http://beatthenanny.com. There are no restrictions on usage (not yet, anyway) and it should be fast. I'll keep the site going if it can support itself through the google ads.

There's still lots of room for improvement, so any comments are welcome.

roddy · 31st October 2005, 01:09 PM

Works fine, but I got display problems on some sites, for example danwei.org - that was with Firefox.

I also notice you are stripping out other sites Adsense code. Is that to ensure you comply with Google's T+C's?

Roddy

smalldog · 31st October 2005, 04:47 PM

At the moment it strips out any Javascript. Adsense uses Javascript, so it also gets stripped out. I hadn't actually thought of that. I set it to remove Javascript because that was causing big problems with links on the BBC site -- the most commonly viewed site. Once I understand what's going on with the BBC site I'll hopefully be able to find a better solution that lets Javascript through.

Will have a look the display problems when I can access the site... for some reason it's unavailable at the moment.

roddy · 31st October 2005, 05:39 PM

Seems to be back up now.

You may wish to take care with the Google T+C's. I'm not sure if it's permissible to have ads from two different publishers on one page - which you would be doing, if you let website ads appear alongside yours - I assumed that was why you stripped them.

Also, your ads + website ads may add up to more than the permissible number of ad units.

These are issues you may wish to raise with Adsense support - or you may wish to hope they don't notice

Roddy

smalldog · 31st October 2005, 06:37 PM

Hmm, it's back again after 3.5 hours offline. Traffic wasn't that heavy, so I'm not sure what the reason was.

Good points about google t&c's. I didn't really think about them (a result of having spent too long in lawless China?

). I can't find anything prohibiting ads from different providers, but the ad limit could be exceeded if the site being viewed already has the maximum. I don't think I've seen any genuine sites that actually use the maximum though. Another possible violation of the t&c's occurs when users visit sites with prohibited material such as pornography or gambling. Anyway, I'll let it be for now.

On the subject of pornography, I'm amazed that about half the traffic so far has been a small number of users spending hours on porn sites. Not sure what to do about this: I don't want to become a nanny, but I would rather save the bandwidth for more legitimate uses.

Display problems seem to occur with sites that use css with absolute co-ordinates. I could solve this by using frames.

roddy · 31st October 2005, 09:08 PM

If I was running a proxy I'd be restricting access somehow - maybe by a password people have to email for, or checking that IP addresses are from within China - as once the site gets onto lists of anonymous proxies, the last thing people are going to be looking at is the BBC.

sky888 · 1st November 2005, 12:30 AM

Like the site but wish it was https.

Nipponman says my head is too big. But still, I smile!

smalldog · 1st November 2005, 08:40 AM

Restricting use to IP addresses in China is definitely a good idea. I'll try and do that today.

Enabling https would be good, but it seems I'm lacking some perl module. Actually, I'm tempted to port the whole thing to php, as perl is really not my strong point.

The proxy software is from http://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy .

pandaxiongmao · 2nd November 2005, 07:58 PM

While this site worked yesterday for me (and it was great to be able to use wikipedia!), this morning and right now (evening) it no longer seems to work. I try to connect, and it just waits until it eventually times out. Perhaps the nanny beat your site, at least for people connecting from Kunming.

smalldog · 2nd November 2005, 08:12 PM

Beaten by too much traffic, not by the nanny! My web host disabled the account because it was taking up too many resources.

I'm looking into other options at the moment... check back next week.

Battosai · 3rd November 2005, 06:04 PM

Yesterday I managed to open several BBC pages perhaps the firewall is openning up a bit....

roddy · 3rd November 2005, 08:24 PM

Which BBC pages? The only part blocked is the news.bbc.co.uk subdomain - if you want the TV schedules and so on at bbc.co.uk, that's never been a problem.

Roddy

Battosai · 5th November 2005, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Which BBC pages? The only part blocked is the news.bbc.co.uk subdomain - if you want the TV schedules and so on at bbc.co.uk, that's never been a problem.

Really? I thought the whole domain was blocked...
I think I managed to open the world news section - just the menu though
btw- is it true that China blocks the ICMP protocol as suggested here?

Whenever i use traceroute in linux or pathping in windows i just get a bunch of ****.

roddy · 5th November 2005, 08:20 PM

It's always been like that as far as I can remember. Right now I can get BBC.co.uk, but not News.bbc.co.uk

I've recently started using this service (affiliated link, btw, so the forums gets a cut if you sign up) . It's paid but cheap, seems to work great and has a number of useful options - an SSL connection, url encoding (in case there are problematic keywords in the url), and the ability to load pages without images / javascript, etc. I'm finding it pretty fast and there hasn't been a single page it hasn't been able to get. Only been using it a couple of days, but it's looking good.

Roddy

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31st October 2005, 10:07 AM	#1
smalldog	New web proxy: BeatTheNanny.com Inspired by the blocking of wikipedia, I've set up a web proxy at http://beatthenanny.com. There are no restrictions on usage (not yet, anyway) and it should be fast. I'll keep the site going if it can support itself through the google ads. There's still lots of room for improvement, so any comments are welcome.

31st October 2005, 01:09 PM	#2
roddy Admin	Works fine, but I got display problems on some sites, for example danwei.org - that was with Firefox. I also notice you are stripping out other sites Adsense code. Is that to ensure you comply with Google's T+C's? Roddy

31st October 2005, 04:47 PM	#3
smalldog	At the moment it strips out any Javascript. Adsense uses Javascript, so it also gets stripped out. I hadn't actually thought of that. I set it to remove Javascript because that was causing big problems with links on the BBC site -- the most commonly viewed site. Once I understand what's going on with the BBC site I'll hopefully be able to find a better solution that lets Javascript through. Will have a look the display problems when I can access the site... for some reason it's unavailable at the moment.

31st October 2005, 05:39 PM	#4
roddy Admin	Seems to be back up now. You may wish to take care with the Google T+C's. I'm not sure if it's permissible to have ads from two different publishers on one page - which you would be doing, if you let website ads appear alongside yours - I assumed that was why you stripped them. Also, your ads + website ads may add up to more than the permissible number of ad units. These are issues you may wish to raise with Adsense support - or you may wish to hope they don't notice Roddy

31st October 2005, 06:37 PM	#5
smalldog	Hmm, it's back again after 3.5 hours offline. Traffic wasn't that heavy, so I'm not sure what the reason was. Good points about google t&c's. I didn't really think about them (a result of having spent too long in lawless China? ). I can't find anything prohibiting ads from different providers, but the ad limit could be exceeded if the site being viewed already has the maximum. I don't think I've seen any genuine sites that actually use the maximum though. Another possible violation of the t&c's occurs when users visit sites with prohibited material such as pornography or gambling. Anyway, I'll let it be for now. On the subject of pornography, I'm amazed that about half the traffic so far has been a small number of users spending hours on porn sites. Not sure what to do about this: I don't want to become a nanny, but I would rather save the bandwidth for more legitimate uses. Display problems seem to occur with sites that use css with absolute co-ordinates. I could solve this by using frames.

31st October 2005, 09:08 PM	#6
roddy Admin	If I was running a proxy I'd be restricting access somehow - maybe by a password people have to email for, or checking that IP addresses are from within China - as once the site gets onto lists of anonymous proxies, the last thing people are going to be looking at is the BBC.

1st November 2005, 12:30 AM	#7
sky888	Like the site but wish it was https.

1st November 2005, 08:40 AM	#8
smalldog	Restricting use to IP addresses in China is definitely a good idea. I'll try and do that today. Enabling https would be good, but it seems I'm lacking some perl module. Actually, I'm tempted to port the whole thing to php, as perl is really not my strong point. The proxy software is from http://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy .

2nd November 2005, 07:58 PM	#9
pandaxiongmao	The Nanny wins in Kunming While this site worked yesterday for me (and it was great to be able to use wikipedia!), this morning and right now (evening) it no longer seems to work. I try to connect, and it just waits until it eventually times out. Perhaps the nanny beat your site, at least for people connecting from Kunming.

2nd November 2005, 08:12 PM	#10
smalldog	Beaten by too much traffic, not by the nanny! My web host disabled the account because it was taking up too many resources. I'm looking into other options at the moment... check back next week.

3rd November 2005, 06:04 PM	#11
Battosai	Yesterday I managed to open several BBC pages perhaps the firewall is openning up a bit....

3rd November 2005, 08:24 PM	#12
roddy Admin	Which BBC pages? The only part blocked is the news.bbc.co.uk subdomain - if you want the TV schedules and so on at bbc.co.uk, that's never been a problem. Roddy

5th November 2005, 07:55 PM	#13
Battosai	Quote: Which BBC pages? The only part blocked is the news.bbc.co.uk subdomain - if you want the TV schedules and so on at bbc.co.uk, that's never been a problem. Really? I thought the whole domain was blocked... I think I managed to open the world news section - just the menu though btw- is it true that China blocks the ICMP protocol as suggested here? Whenever i use traceroute in linux or pathping in windows i just get a bunch of ****.

5th November 2005, 08:20 PM	#14
roddy Admin	It's always been like that as far as I can remember. Right now I can get BBC.co.uk, but not News.bbc.co.uk I've recently started using this service (affiliated link, btw, so the forums gets a cut if you sign up) . It's paid but cheap, seems to work great and has a number of useful options - an SSL connection, url encoding (in case there are problematic keywords in the url), and the ability to load pages without images / javascript, etc. I'm finding it pretty fast and there hasn't been a single page it hasn't been able to get. Only been using it a couple of days, but it's looking good. Roddy