Using a Proxy on VM
 

Hi Guys.

I have noticed that VM are stating to use either a VPN or Proxy to deal with the youtube issue at the moment.

My question is what free proxies are there available that are non web based as in u don't have to go via another site.

VM did away with all their own proxies years ago.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

great, well they either need to provide some free proxies through a 3rd party service or do the same for vpns then. This is nearly as good as recommending people use their own routers so they can set DNS servers other than VM's.

You have got to use a vpn connection to get reliable access to one of the most visited sites/services on the internet! What a joke :jk:

If it is such a big on going issue for them they need to put a permanent fix in place.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

The Proxy they did leave in place they removed because they stated it was "being misused" but i never read anywhere what VM meant by being misused.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

it was actually "being used" which VM weren't expecting. They set it up and kept their fingers crossed nobody was going to notice.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

They had a proxy? Is that the old webcache.virginmedia.com thing or something else? (I think that was the address).

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

Isn't the problem with Youtube down to VMs CDNs being a load of bull plop? A proxy is one way of bypassing them.

I seem to remember that blacklisting their CDNs IPs overcome a lot of the stuttering problem by forcing a direct connection.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

CDN, peering, both, who knows. There seems to be some debate about that.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

webcache.virginmedia.com port 8080

That was the proxy which used to exist but no longer does.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

That is indeed donkey's years old. Not surprised they took it down, it caused more problems than it solved.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

It wasnt taken down until about 12-18 months ago as it was the last remaining proxy they had and it was the one they would tell u to use if u were getting slow download speeds from the VM FTP they tell u to test speed on.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

I remember it being trained out, but I don't remember it ever really working very well for most things.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

No this is as good as saying "Use another company's internet service because ours is broken".

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

I started running my own proxy a few months ago. No more blocked pages. :)

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

As have I for several years. Simply having an external IP I can connect to remotely to check if any problem is caused my my local connection or ISP is useful enough.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

Similarly, it helps being a sysadmin at a company with a reasonable leased line. VPN all of the things.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

Pah, reasonable leased line? We have multiple 10 GigE links over dark fibre. xD [/my-company's-connection-is-bigger-than-your-company's-connection-epeen]

To be honest most companies would frown upon using corporate resources for personal YouTube watching at home hence I prefer having my own VPN/Proxy/Server(s). That, and how will you ever get your streaming fix if you get fired :P

Most end users would be better off just paying £5 a month to a proper commercial provider. They're not expensive.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

This is all very true and you are right about most companies. I'm fortunate that my boss is pretty sound and there's only one other guy at the company who has any idea how any of the systems work. And he's worse than me!

Of course, there's also a lesson in not taking the ****, either.

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

Open back door? I'm sure an SYSadmin can set up one of those ;)

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

Personally I have vpn services and also run my own on some servers.

Cgi proxies are easy for anyone to use without any prior setup, as you just go to a url and that alone can be enough to get around routing issues sometimes. Google and you shall find but as you never know who runs them it's not good to login to sites using them.

You can make your own proxy using google servers if you have a google account, using their app engine. A lot of cgi proxies are appearing this way now as it's free, good servers and unlimited bandwidth. For those who want to make their own and can follow instructions: http://techblogcloud.com/make-web-proxy-server/

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

I thought CGI proxies only worked for static web content?

Re: Using a Proxy on VM
 

Most of them are actually php proxies these days but often listed as cgi proxies. Not something I often used but not had issues with dynamic content.

Some disable (or don't supposrt) POST requests so you can't use them to enter stuff in sites, only read. Something you would notice fairly quickly if you used one heavily.