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I'm a fuddling level computer user (do everything myself for friends and family)

I'm thinking about setting up an old Mac Mini to act as a distant proxy/vpn server.

What I'm not clear about is; does all traffic pass through a proxy server? In other words, if I connect to my proxy server then browse the internet via a wifi hotspot somewhere, is all the traffic passing through the proxy server, prior to being passed on to me? So would the speed of the connection be dependant on the upload speed of the proxy server?

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

Grant

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  • which is it, a proxy or a VPN tunnel endpoint (or both)?
    – Frank Thomas
    Commented Aug 15, 2016 at 12:47
  • I would most likely use/try both a proxy and a VPN.
    – gfs
    Commented Aug 15, 2016 at 14:57
  • by all traffic do you mean literally "all traffic" or even "all traffic to the Internet", or do you mean "all http/https traffic"?
    – Frank Thomas
    Commented Aug 15, 2016 at 15:43

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A proxy server is essentially the middle man. You request data, that goes through the proxy server to your isp. Your isp sends that data back to your proxy server then your proxy server sends it to you.

So yes, all data will go through the proxy.

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    Thanks for that. This is really what I wasn't sure about.
    – gfs
    Commented Aug 16, 2016 at 19:37
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Proxies are protocol specific, and even with SOCKs proxies, some protocols and applications cannot be configured to use a proxy server, so by themselves, no a proxy will not carry "all traffic". In particular DNS requests are notorious for leaking information about sites visited to ISPs and other adversaries.

Not all VPNs are created equal, but if the VPN client software deployed on the clients uses a virtual network adapter, you can force all traffic through it into the VPN tunnel.

As for your question about uplink, understand that for most people, Internet usage is asymmetric, in that very little information is flowing upstream, and the bulk of it is a downstream flow. For instance by sending a webserver the text "GET / HTTP\1.1" (about 15 bytes), you can retrieve a webpage that weights hundreds of Killobytes. That means that from your local networks perspective, the upstream is not very important. The upstream from the VPN/Proxy box however will have a big impact on your overall throughput.

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Yes.

One of the advantages of VPN suppliers :)

When considering the cost of one, a mac mini uses ~30W. Here in the UK that would cost ~£30 a year, which is more than some commercial VPN solutions.

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