13 December 2013

Install GoAgent Proxy Using Google App Engine




We have written quite a few articles about various free open source proxy software such as Hyk-Proxy and GappProxy that can be installed using the Google Application Engine. We also explained to you that what are a proxy and the advantages of using one. But just for the reminder, let talk about the proxy one more time.

A proxy is an intermediate between the user's computer (client) and server. It’s a computer with ability of providing network services to the users and allows them to connect to a network indirectly. Using a proxy gives the benefits of surfing the internet or any computer network anonymously. It also hides your actual IP address and provides access to the sites that are blocked in your country, office, or school.

GoAgent is free open source proxy software written in Python which supports various operating systems like Windows, OS X, and Linux. This proxy is similar to the GappProxy and their sets up using Google Application Engine (GAE) almost follow the same path. With GoAgent you can create a local proxy on your machine or personal computer and surf the Internet freely. To install GoAgent Proxy on the GAE follow the steps below:


Step 1

As usual before anything we need to create a new application on the Google App Engine. To do this sign in to your Gmail account, go to the GAE website and create a new application. First in the Application Identifier, assign a name (sub domain name) for your application, choose a Title (title can be anything) and then hit the Create Application button. 



Step 2

We will need an application password in case when we want to deploy it on the Google App Engine. To generate a new password, go to your Gmail account settings, Security tab and then App passwords. In the Authorized Access to your Google Account page, under the Generate a new application password, enter the name of the application (the one you have created in the step 1) and click on the Generate password button. Copy and save the new password somewhere because we will need it in the next steps. 




Step 3

Download the GoAgent application from the links below and unzip it on your local machine. The zip file contains two directories, called local and server.


GoAgent Proxy v3.1.0 (4.3MB)



Or download from the GoAgent official website.


Step 4

What we need to do now is to upload the GoAgent server. Open the server folder and double click on the uploader.bat file. A Windows command prompt will be open and asked you to enter the Application ID, your email address (Gmail) and the password (enter the password that we created in the step 2). Enter the required information and hit the Enter key. When the upload is finished, press the Enter key again to exit the prompt window. 




Step 5

Go to the local directory and then open the proxy.ini file (the Configuration settings file) and find the appid. Change the application ID from goagent to your application ID name (domain name), save and exit.



Step 6

Till now, we have uploaded and configured our application; it’s time to run the GoAgent proxy. In the local directory, double click on the proxy.exe file to execute the application. Leave the application open and continue with the next step. 



Step 7

To use the proxy, we need to modify our web browser proxy settings. I will explain it using the Firefox web browser but you can use the same method in other browsers such as Google Chrome or Internet Explorer. In the Firefox, go to the Menu, Options and then the Advanced tab. On the Network tab, select the Settings button under the Connection section and in the next window, choose the Manual proxy configuration. Assign the value 127.0.0.1 for HTTP Proxy and 8087 for the Port. OK the changes and exit from the Firefox Options menu. You all done, now open any website to see the GoAgent proxy work in action. 




Some Hints

This Proxy can carry multiple application ID, it means you can use the same GoAgent proxy for different application IDs (using the High Replication storage). To use this feature, in the step 4, you can assign multiple IDs by separating them by "|", for example "my-first-appid|my-second-appid". 

In the step 5, when we change the appid from goagent to our appid, we also can change the value of profile from google-cn to google-hk which works better with https

To check the status of your IP address when you are running the GoAgent proxy, you use the Geo IP Tool website to check whether your IP address has been changed or not.