Austin Heap » Iran

‘Millions’ Out in Support of Government in Iran? Think Again

niteowl — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:36:23 +0000

Today, pro-government Iranians took to streets in Tehran and possibly other cities in a show of support for the Ahmadinejad government and for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. A report by CNN spoke of hundreds of thousands of people in Tehran alone and perhaps thousands more in “Tabriz, Shiraz, Arak, Gilan and Sistan-Baluchestan province.”

According to CNN, protesters chanted slogans against Mir Hossein Mousavi, America, Britain, France, Israel and the Green Movement’s protests on Sunday – Ashura. However, the CNN report while accurate in most respects, failed to mention some very key facts about the protests; facts that would show the true nature of the protests.

For starters, the CNN report and some other media reports do not mention the fact that dozens of Buses chartered by the Iranian government ran non-stop from villages and suburbs around Tehran and other cities, bringing in government supporters in hordes to the protest venues. The buses began their operation the day before, ensuring the protest looked large enough.

These protesters were then later dispatched to their homes outside Tehran and other cities by the same buses. So what seemed like tens of thousands of Tehranis was in reality a mix of Tehranis and non-Tehranis brought in specifically for the purpose of fooling the world into believing that Tehran and other cities fully supports Khamenei and Ahmadinejad.

And while government-run media claimed millions and CNN claimed hundreds of thousands and that Tehran was ‘packed’ with protesters, independent analyses show that the protest in Tehran was composed of no more than 20,000 people.

Secondly, they fail to mention the fact that the protesters were offered free refreshments at the expense of the government to keep them there and to boost their morale. Their banners, slogans and even the declaration they released denouncing the opposition was written, prepared and handed over to them by the government. Protesters received all their material needs from the government from the minute they boarded the buses to the minute they got back home.

Even so, the enthusiasm that Green Movement supporters show when they are out protesting was non-existent during this protest. People had simply brought their whole families out for a day out on the streets after being prepped up by the government to counter the popular movement that is shaking the core of the Islamic Republic.

And even the government’s own media announced that there were no protests in some of the other large cities. Mashhad, the second largest city saw almost nothing. Neither did Isfahan, the third largest city. And there was no independent confirmation of protests from the cities that the government-run media reported.

Finally, there was no riot police, Basij or IRGC members out with batons, cables, pepper spray, tear gas and bullets to disperse the people or stop them from chanting and gathering. Compare this to the millions of people who marched onto streets in June or the hundreds of thousands that marched on Sunday in the face of brutal repression and a government ban on their protests and you will clearly see the desperate attempts by the Iranian government to make the world believe it has significant support among the populace.

If the government lifts bans on opposition protests, does not cut off telecommunication systems to disrupt planning, does not arrests hundreds and kill dozens, then we’ll see millions out on Iran’s streets every day.

The truth is, if the government did have support among the people, the crowds on Ashura would have been split between the Green Movement and the supporters of the Islamic Republic. On that day, it was an overwhelming show of support for reform and a clear rejection of the Islamic Republic – plain and simple. The ‘Tehranis’ the government showed the world today were huddled up in small pockets on that day or sitting at home in their villages, watching government propaganda on TV.

Protests like today’s may make the government feel a bit less insecure about its prospects of survival, but it is in no way going to change the resolve of the Iranian people or the perception of the government’s brutality and weakness in the minds of foreigners.

(This post originally appeared on The Daily NiteOwl by Josh Shahryar.)

We met online, after the election

Austin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:50:41 +0000

The events of the Iranian election in June had us unrepentant Twitter addicts enthralled. With traditional media controlled by the government, the opposition organized using mobile phones and the Internet. As never before, the whole world could cheer alongside protesters demanding their rights while sharing in the terror and heartbreak of seeing them brutally crushed — all in real time, on Twitter and YouTube.

Outraged at seeing a movement and a generation muzzled, a group of us got together and started developing anti-censorship tools. We believe everyone, everywhere should be able to freely communicate. The system we designed, “Haystack,” provides completely uncensored access. There are no more Facebook blocks, no more government warning pages when trying to read BBC news — just unfiltered Internet. It’s an improvement to the state of the art in anti-censorship technology. It’s a necessary one too: Iran’s filtering is quite advanced, and it’s one of two countries to censor the Internet using domestic hardware and software. (The other is China.) Imagine a postal service that opens each piece of mail and uses machine learning algorithms to detect subversive correspondence. That’s Iranian digital censorship.

This kind of filtering is called “deep packet inspection.” It allows the government to block, read, and even change messages sent over the Internet, including emails and tweets. Iran purchased equipment from Western companies like Nokia and Siemans for this censorship, and is rapidly deploying homegrown equivalents over which it can exert more control.

Still, we were able to identify weaknesses in Iran’s approach and develop countermeasures. On a tecnología-e-tecnología basis, censors will always lose as long as any information at all can get out.

After coding night and day since the election we tested a beta version of Haystack in early July by bouncing traffic through Iran. It worked. When we saw that the government had improved its filtering methods in preparation for the Qods Day celebration in September, we were briefly worried. But we couldn’t help but cheer as Haystack cut through even the improved filtering. We couldn’t have been more excited.

In retrospect, we shouldn’t have been surprised. Traditional anti-censorship systems divert blocked traffic to servers located outside of the country. Haystack goes one step further: it uses innovative techniques to make blocked traffic look benign, rendering a user’s activity virtually undetectable. Haystack also has a cryptographic component which ensures that our users’ communications remain safe even if detected. The only way to block Haystack, we like to say, is to shut down the internet.

Deploying Haystack has hardly been a walk in the park, however. The problems are not merely technical. Under United States law, one can be put in jail for ten years just for sending an iPod to Iran. The legal clearance necessary to distribute Haystack has been a tall hurdle to jump. We’ve shuttled back and forth to Washington, D.C, and from coast to coast. We’ve written dozens of pages worth of legal forms and, because we’re committed to a sustained effort to end censorship, we’ve even founded a non-profit, the Censorship Research Center, through which we hope to tackle the filtering schemes of other countries as well.

There is something strangely ironic about the events that brought us to this point. We learned about Iran through Tweets, YouTube videos, and photos posted on Facebook. These same media which we are told pull people apart, away from the personal contacts that make life meaningful, brought us closer to a people, and a movement that we would have not otherwise known. These same media that were supposed to create a generation of apathy, in fact, gave a generation its voice. The courage displayed by the Iranian people inspired us to help them, and to help others. We refuse to allow their courage and the courage of those like them to be in vain.

(This article originally appeared at PBS FRONTLINE’s Tehran Bureau.)

Building the ‘stack

Austin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:43:58 +0000

Sorry I’ve been AFK on the blog front lately. I know it looks quiet, but that certainly doesn’t reflect what’s going on behind the scenes. So, here’s a quick recap of what’s happened, what’s going on, and what’s to come.

Also, I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone who has made this project possible. From the Twitter support, to the incredibly supportive donations, to private organizations volunteering, people donating their time in real life to help this come together — I’m just amazed at the willingness of people to come together to make this project a success <3

Weeks before Haystack was even announced, we were feverishly working out the technical details, trying to layout what the network would look like, and procuring the first servers we would test our anonymous, anti-censorship tool for Iran with.

A few days after it was announced, we realized that the tech side wasn’t the hardest part. As the Iranian government cracked down on citizens and stepped up Internet filtering, the new challenge would be distribution. We needed to get people together — and fast — to figure out how both parts of the Haystack network would roll out. So we reached out for the first time to the Internet & Twitter to make sure this could happen — and support Haystack you did! Less than a week later we had our first successful test of Haystack from inside of Iran.

The dialogue that came out of our meet-up propelled Haystack beyond my wildest expectations. Since then, we’ve been putting the parts of the plan that came out of that dialogue in place.

On the Haystack front we’ve been building out capacity, testing the network, improving on the Haystack protocol, and meeting with specialists to review our strategy and network security principles. On the organizational front, there’s a non-profit being formed! This will serve to provide the necessary support and legal structure around Haystack. In the future we hope to support human rights and free speech with technology throughout the world. While very exciting, this adds lawyers, banks, accountants, and a whole bunch of other things into the mix. And a huge thanks to everyone donating their time, energy, and hard earned money to make this possible.

Then there’s the PayPal fiasco…

On Monday, I got a notice from PayPal saying that my account was under review and they needed some clarification for what it was for. Great, that’s fine! So I faxed over a letter stating what I was working on, and pointing them to relevant media about Haystack and my past work in the Iran election technology circle.

Somehow they decided that meant I wanted to have my account changed to non-profit status and asked for proof. I call them up and, after getting transfered four times, am told that there’s a problem with the account being in compliance of these laws that pertain to non-profit, tax exempt organizations. Wha? We never represented to paypal or any donors that we were already non-profit. I explain what I’m doing and the service rep tells me I have 14 days to provide documentation to prove the 501(c)(3) status of a non-profit that does not yet exist. We’ve been moving so quickly to get everything done, but changing how quickly the government grants non-profit status is one thing that is totally our of our hands.

So much has happened and yet so little time has gone by.

In the upcoming weeks as we continue to test the platform, we’ll also be gearing up for the launch of Haystack 1.0 and introducing our non-profit more formally, so stay tuned. If you’re going to the rallies in San Francisco or Los Angeles (and possible NYC!), swing by the Haystack booth and say hi!

State of the Iran Proxies

Austin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:15:29 +0000

So there’s been good news and bad news from launching proxyheap. (Btw, you can check it your proxy is working here.)

The good news? We have lots of support! The bad news? There’s a HUGE chunk of proxies misconfigured… rendering them useless. There’s also a bunch of proxies on un-reliable connections — we pass these out to people in Iran and when they’re down, it just makes things harder.

That said, special thanks to r3boot (the original author) and esr (who put all the pieces in place) for putting together a reliable Squid configuration file for those in Iran seeking unfiltered Internet access.

To quote from the config file:

# 0. Do this installation only on a non-essential machine, as the host may be # targeted for serious denial-of-service or cracking attempts. For maximum # security, run it inside a virtual machine. # # 1. Install squid on your system. You will need to be root for this. # Under Ubuntu, do "apt-get install squid" # Under RedHat, Fedora, and Centos do "yum install squid" # Under Gentoo, do "emerge squid" # Under OpenBSD, do "pkg_add PKG_PATH=ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/{version}/packages/i386/squid" # Under FreeBSD, do this: # wget http://www.squid-cache.org/Versions/v2/2.7/squid-2.7.STABLE6.tar.gz; # tar zxvf squid-2.7.STABLE6.tar.gz # cd squid-2.7.STABLE6 # ./configure '--sysconfdir=/etc/squid' '--enable-storeio=diskd,ufs,aufs' '--enable-delay-pools' '--enable-pf-transparent' '--enable-ipf-transparent' '--disable-ident-lookups' '--enable-removal-policies' # make # make install # Under NetBSD, do "cd /usr/ports/www/squid; make install clean" # # 2. Red Hat and CentOS only: # * Edit the iptables via system-config-securitylevel. As root, run # /usr/bin/system-config-securitylevel # * Set SELinux: to either Permissive(slightly better) or Disabled. # Note, this is a crude solution. Someone with more SELinux # knowledge might be able to write a pass-through rule. # * Now go into Customize. In Other Ports, set it like this: # portnum:protocol (eg. 42342:tcp, 42343:tcp, 42344:tcp). # Do this for all of your nonstandard ports. Hit OK->OK # # 3. Replace your squid configuration with this file. It is likely # to be in /etc/squid/squid.conf, but could be in /etc/squid.conf # as well. # # 4. Fix the "visible_hostname" line in /etc/squid.conf: it should declare # your machine's hostname (i.e. the part following "userid@" in your # terminal prompt) # # 5. Choose a nonstandard port number to listen on, or better yet # about a dozen of them. Fix the http_port line in /etc/squid.conf. # Add more lines as needed. # # 6. Specify the IP of a machine where you have login privilages on the # "acl remote_test" liner below. You will use this to verify that your # proxy is working, and can remove it afterwards. # # 7. Type "sudo adduser squid" and specify a password # # 8. Restart squid by typing: "/etc/init.d/squid restart" # # 9. Stop the service by typing "/etc/init.d/squid stop" # # 10. Test it in debug mode by typing "squid -z" (which creates the cache files) # # 11. Type "squid -NCd10" to test squid in debug mode and leave it running. # # 12. Open Firefox and type the URL localhost:3128 It will fail to retrieve a # page, but at the bottom it should confirm that the error is generated # by squid. (To be extra-sure, re-do this test using one of the # non-standard ports you declared in step 4.) # # 13. Back at the Terminal type CTRL-C to cancel the debug mode # # 14. Start squid for real with "/etc/init.d/squid start". It will start # automatically from now on. # # 15. If your squid host is sitting behind a hardware router with firewalling # capability, you must set up port forwarding of all your nonstandard # ports to the squid host machine. The procedure for this varies # depending on your router, but is most likely to involves pointing your # browser at 192.168.1.1 and navigating to a "Port Forwarding" page. # # 16. The easiest way to test that your proxy server is working is to # use the proxy tester at austinheap.com: # # If it says "Fatal error: couldn't connect to host", then your # squid instance probably isn't running; check for possible fatal # error in the configuration parse, and if you don't see that make # sure that you have correctly configured your ruter or firewall # to pass through packets. If it says "Your proxy is not accepting # connections from the validation servers.", you're at least # reaching squid, but your allow/denies aren't right or you # configuration file doesn't live where you think it does. # # 17. Register your proxy server with proxyheap at # # You'll have to do this once for each listener port you declared. # You will receive an email notification from the proxyheap # verification servers if all is well. Otherwise, email will tell you # that your server could not be verified and drop the entry from the # proxyyheap database. Once you are successfully registered, # the Iranian revolutionaries can begin using your proxy with # no further action required on your part. # # 18. Death threats have already been made against cooperating # hackers. If you receive such a threat, report it to your local # police immediately. Do not assume that your cooperation is unknown # to the Iranian regime or their agents, and do not assume you will # have warning if they act on their threats. If you are not already # armed and prepared to defend yourself, fix both of these bugs.

I think this is a very good starting point for getting this effort organized and effective.

HOWTO: Treat Broken Bones

Austin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:47:58 +0000

* Stop any bleeding. Hold a clean, preferably sterile, absorbent material over the injury and apply gentle yet direct pressure (without applying over the break).

* Do NOT straighten the extremity if it is deformed – keep it in the position found.

* Do not move a person with a hip or pelvis fracture. If they must be moved, however, strap the legs together with a towel or blanket in between them and place the person gently on a board.

* Splint an injured bone by tying it gently to a rigid object, such as a board or stick, or even a rolled up newspaper. Cushion the object with clothing or other soft padding if available. Fasten the splint with a bandage if available. Secure the splint on both sides of the injury, above and below the break, but not on it.

* If a wrist, hand, or arm is injured, remove all watches, bracelets, and rings promptly.

* Check blood circulation. Press your fingertips firmly on the skin somewhere past the break (like the forearm, if the injury is in the elbow). If it doesn’t turn pink 2 seconds after you let go, circulation could be jeopardized. Also check for pale or blue skin, numbness or tingling, and loss of pulse. If, emergency care is not available quickly, try to realign the limb (not the head, neck, back, or hips) into a normal resting position so that tissues aren’t damaged due to lack of blood.

* Put ice on the injury. Never put the ice directly on the skin – put it in a bag first. After holding ice on the injury for about 20 minutes, take it off for 20 minutes.

* Prevent shock. Have the person lay down flat on their back and elevate their feet about 12 inches above the head. Cover him or her with a coat or blanket. Skip this step if the head, neck, or back was injured.

* Have the victim take painkillers to alleviate the pain.

HOWTO: Treat a Gun Shot Wound

Austin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:45:11 +0000

The days keep getting longer, harder and sadder. So I give you: How to treat a gun shot wound.

* Do not move the victim unless his or her safety is in jeopardy.

* Follow basic first aid. If the victim is unconscious but breathing, keep the airway open and clear. If the victim is not breathing, begin CPR.

* Control any bleeding.

* Seal gunshot wounds to the chest with some type of plastic to keep air from being sucked into the wound. This helps prevent the development of a collapsed lung. If the victim begins complaining of worsening shortness of breath, remove the seal.

* Let conscious victims sit or lie in a position most comfortable for them.

* Unconscious victims should be placed in the recovery position. To put the victim in the recovery position, grab the victim’s leg and shoulder and roll him or her towards you.

* Do not elevate legs to treat for shock if the gunshot wound is above the waist (unless the gunshot wound is in the arm). Gunshot wounds to the abdomen and chest will bleed more quickly once the legs are elevated, making it harder for the victim to breathe.

* Do not give the victim anything to eat or drink, including water.

Update (Thanks ASherbuck)

If a person has a CHEST WOUND (the round has punctured the lung), noticeable by air bubbles in the blood and an inability for the victim to catch their breath. You must IMMEDIATELY cover the wound in some type of square piece of plastic and seal three of the four sides.

One side must be left free, if you seal the entire chest wound the lungs will continue to fill with blood and the victim will drown. With one corner left open, when the victim inhales that blood in the lung will
be forced out the wound and through the unsealed portion of the plastic cover. When the victim inhales the three sealed sides will prevent the lungs from sucking more blood into them.

Best Proxy Practices (BPP!) and an update

Austin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:20:08 +0000

I just want to make a quick post about best practices when running a proxy to help those on the ground in Iran get access to social networks, the outside world, and their families. It is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE that this be a secure effort that is thought out and executed in the safest possible manner.

As a general rule, and I know I didn’t point this out in the original guides, all proxies should be setup with the following options in the Squid config file:

* Blocking of IRI government ipblocks [1]
* Allowing of Iran ipblocks [2]
* 10 random chosen inbound ports
* CONNECT support
* No X-Forwarded-For headers
* No client stats
* Logging to /dev/null
* Turn SSL off — it’s blocked from Iran anyway

If you’re running a proxy already, please change these settings. If you’re running a proxy on a default port (81/8080/8181/9090/3218) then change the port and shoot me off an e-mail at update@austinheap.com.

I will post a sample configuration file, as I know there have been a lot of concerns.

Also, I want to say sorry for not being able to respond to all the tweets and e-mails yet, although I’m going as fast as possible given all the other pressing demands! I’ve got thousands of emails to sort out, and the outpour of support and people helping out has been amazing. Together we’re capable of doing amazing things so thank you to everyone who is helping make a difference.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

#allmylove2iran

[1] Based on ripe data found on RIPE

[2] Based on Country IP data found on CountryIPBlocks

How to setup a proxy for Iran citizens (Virtual Machine Disk Format!)

Austin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:27:51 +0000

Update: Version v0.3 has been posted, thanks James!

Great news all — the wonderful user “xxxxxx” has contributed a Virtual Machine Disk Format to the proxy campaign!

All you need to do is grab a copy of the VMDK file with your favorite web browser (?) ~~BitTorrent~~ program and you’re good to go… pop the disk image on your favorite cloud/vps host and click start.

There are two accounts created on install (you can change both passwords):

(user:password) root:#iran iran:election

Could we make it any easier to help? Please tweet your proxies via *DM* @austinheap or e-mail them to me@austinheap.com.

THANK YOU XXXXXX (I don’t know if I can post your name yet, please e-mail me!)

How to setup a proxy for Iran citizens (for Windows!)

Austin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:13:24 +0000

If you’re using Windows, it’s pretty straight forward to setup a proxy and help give access to those in Iran who are being censored. If you’re running Redhat/CentOS, please use the linux instructions.

1) Download Squid for Windows
2) Extract that zip archive, and move the “squid” folder to the root of your drive (probably C:\).
3) After moving the squid folder, open “C:\squid\etc\squid.conf” in your favorite text editor (not Word).
4) Configure the DNS name servers on the line that says “dns_nameservers” to point at your ISPs DNS servers.
5) Now the fun part, locking access down the just the Iranian IP blocks.

Inside the text editor search (Control-W) for the line “http_access deny all” and change it to “http_access allow all”. This will make your proxy open and accessible to the world. If you would like to limit your proxy to Iranian IP blocks, you want to change “http_access deny all” to read “http_access allow TRUSTED” add a line (BEFORE the http_access line to setup an access control list [ACL]). This ACL line that defines TRUSTED should read:

acl TRUSTED src 62.60.128.0/17 62.193.0.0/19 62.220.96.0/19 77.36.128.0/17 77.77.64.0/18 77.104.64.0/18 77.237.64.0/19 77.237.160.0/19 77.245.224.0/20 78.38.0.0/15 78.109.192.0/20 78.110.112.0/20 78.111.0.0/20 78.154.32.0/19 78.157.32.0/19 78.158.160.0/19 79.127.0.0/17 79.132.192.0/19 79.170.144.0/21 79.175.128.0/18 80.66.176.0/20 80.69.240.0/20 80.71.112.0/20 80.75.0.0/20 80.191.0.0/16 80.242.0.0/20 80.253.128.0/20 80.253.144.0/20 81.12.0.0/17 81.28.32.0/20 81.28.48.0/20 81.31.160.0/20 81.31.176.0/20 81.90.144.0/20 81.91.128.0/20 81.91.144.0/20 82.99.192.0/18 82.115.0.0/19 83.147.192.0/18 84.47.192.0/18 84.241.0.0/18 85.9.64.0/18 85.15.0.0/18 85.133.128.0/17 85.185.0.0/16 85.198.0.0/18 86.109.32.0/19 87.107.0.0/16 87.247.160.0/19 87.248.128.0/19 89.144.128.0/18 89.165.0.0/17 89.221.80.0/20 89.235.64.0/18 91.98.0.0/15 91.184.64.0/19 91.186.192.0/19 91.206.122.0/23 91.208.165.0/24 91.209.242.0/24 91.212.16.0/24 91.212.19.0/24 91.212.252.0/24 92.42.48.0/21 92.50.0.0/18 92.61.176.0/20 92.62.176.0/20 92.242.192.0/19 93.110.0.0/16 93.190.24.0/21 94.74.128.0/18 94.101.128.0/20 94.101.176.0/20 94.101.240.0/20 94.139.160.0/19 94.182.0.0/15 94.184.0.0/17 94.232.168.0/21 94.241.128.0/18 95.38.0.0/16 95.80.128.0/18 95.81.64.0/18 95.82.0.0/18 95.82.64.0/18 95.130.56.0/21 95.130.240.0/21 188.34.0.0/16 188.93.64.0/21 188.121.96.0/19 188.121.128.0/19 188.136.128.0/17 188.158.0.0/15 193.189.122.0/23 194.225.0.0/16 195.146.32.0/19 212.16.64.0/19 212.33.192.0/19 212.50.224.0/19 212.80.0.0/19 212.95.128.0/19 212.120.192.0/19 213.176.0.0/19 213.176.32.0/19 213.176.64.0/18 213.195.0.0/18 213.207.192.0/18 213.217.32.0/19 213.233.160.0/19 217.11.16.0/20 217.24.144.0/20 217.25.48.0/20 217.64.144.0/20 217.66.192.0/20 217.66.208.0/20 217.146.208.0/20 217.172.96.0/19 217.174.16.0/20 217.218.0.0/15

6) Setup “visible_hostname” (normally just the public IP address).
7) Turn off logging by adding these two lines:

access_log none cache_store_log none

7) Setup the Squid cache by issuing the following command: “c:\squid\sbin\squid -D –z” (No quotes).
Setup Squid to run as a service by issuing the following command: “c:\squid\sbin\squid –i”

Please don’t run this on a machine that you’re worried about or is used for production sites; and take basic security precautions, ie: moving ftp off the default port, using a firewall package, etc.

Once your server is up and running please DM @austinheap and let me know! I will no longer posting proxies on the public list. If you set one up, please e-mail me@austinheap.com to contribute to the private one or e-mail me if your an Iranian that needs access!

Protected: Private Iran Proxies (E-mail me@austinheap.com to contribute or for access)

Austin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:24:37 +0000

How to setup a proxy for Iran citizens

Austin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:45:17 +0000

Update 4: There is now a recommended squid config file available.
Update 3: Here’s a guide for the Windows users out there.
Update 2: I will no longer posting proxies on the public list. If you set one up, please e-mail me@austinheap.com to contribute to the private one or e-mail me if your an Iranian that needs access!
Update: There’s a list of working Iran proxy servers over here.

If you’re using CentOS/Redhat, it’s pretty straight forward to setup a proxy and help give access to those in Iran who are being censored.

yum install squid nano -w /etc/squid/squid.conf

Inside the code editor search (Control-W) for the line “http_access deny all” and change it to “http_access allow all”. This will make your proxy open and accessible to the world. If you would like to limit your proxy to Iranian IP blocks, you want to change “http_access deny all” to read “http_access allow TRUSTED” add a line (BEFORE the http_access line to setup an access control list [ACL]). This ACL line that defines TRUSTED should read:

Turn off logging by adding these two lines:

access_log none cache_store_log none

Save the config file and as root issue the following command to start the Squid proxy server:

service squid start

Please don’t run this on a machine that you’re worried about or is used for production sites; and take basic security precautions, ie: moving SSH off the default port, using iptables, etc.

Once your server is up and running please tweet @austinheap and let me know!

Working Iran Proxy List

Austin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:17:52 +0000

Update 2: I will no longer posting proxies on the public list. If you set one up, please e-mail me@austinheap.com to contribute to the private one or e-mail me if your an Iranian that needs access!
Update: Do you have a server? Help us run more proxies for Iranians! Instructions for running a proxy to help have been posted!

Please tweet any additional proxies @austinheap, latest verified proxy at the top of the list. I’m updating this and reverifying them at least every 30 minutes right now…

84.121.125.10:80 98.142.210.231:3128 66.31.18.247:80 70.228.189.148:3128 (YouTube, FaceBook, and Twitter only) 97.107.137.80:3128 200.65.127.161:3128 202.94.144.73:80 129.82.12.188:3128 212.123.91.165:8080 71.48.222.54:11764 60.6.205.26:808 86.101.185.112:8080 86.101.185.109:8080 69.92.182.124:2100 128.112.139.28:3124 198.144.36.172:5555 88.198.85.229:80

Proxies no longer working are below…

88.191.16.126:8080 91.103.236.195:8080 193.30.164.3:8080 62.75.219.25:8080 213.41.71.164:8080 71.48.217.175:11764 119.148.106.35:8080 218.128.112.18:8080 218.206.94.132:808 218.253.65.99:808 219.50.16.70:8080