HET Help on the Web (WWW)

Browsers...

• Netscape should work across platforms (i.e., in any of our machines).

• Konqueror is KDE's "kitchen sink" utility: it does it all, from URL's to file manager. To run it from your KDE window manager go to the little "K" icon on the lower left corner of your screen and click on it. Then, go to "Internet" and click on "Konqueror Web Browser". That should do it.

• Finally, Mozilla is probably the fastest one among the three of them. However, it will only run on GNU/Linux boxes. So, be sure to be in one of them before you try to run it. Typing |prompt> mozilla should get you going.

• Now, for those of you who manage your own boxes, I recommend trying Opera. It is a lot faster than any of the above and has lots of features. It even imports your bookmarks from Konqueror, Netscape and Internet Explorer(R)! (See the links below.)

• And, last but not least, for those of you who are not so fainted of heart, are using GNU/Linux and like the text terminal (aka console): "Have you tried either lynx or w3m lately?" Even better, you can use them within pine! Just go to pine's configuration screen (press "M", "S", "C") and look for url-viewers. Then, you can choose: Either w3m or lynx -dump should do the job.

Proxies...

(0) Standard internet connection (NO proxies):

  your box     The World!
+---------+   +----------+
|         |   |          |
| browser-+---+-Internet |
|         |   |          |
+---------+   +----------+


(1) One possible proxy topology (you run your own proxy server!):

    your box                The World!
+--------------+          +------------+
|              |          |            |
|   browser----+---+      |            |
|              |   |      |            |
| +...proxy....+---+      |            |
| :            |          |            |
| +............+----------+--Internet  |
|              |          |            |
+--------------+          +------------+


(2) Another possible proxy topology (I run the proxy server for you!):

    your box         my box      The World!
+--------------+   +-------+   +------------+
|              |   |       |   |            |
|   browser----+---+-proxy=+===+--Internet  |
|              |   |       |   |            |
+--------------+   +-------+   +------------+

So, as you can see, it is potentially VERY useful... you just have to know how to use it properly! >:-) Here are some examples and tricks:

• JunkBuster: If you are running [ask your SysAdmin/Local Guru] this proxy (see the link below), you can configure your browser to use it (case (1) in the diagram above). And, if you know enough to be running it, you don't need further explanations (just connect to port 5865 of your localhost and you should be all set)! >;-)
  However, if you don't quite know what i'm talking about, then, you'll be under case (2) of the above diagram, i.e., I run the proxy server and you just connect to the internet via it! In this case, you should look for the proxy configurations in your browser and do the following:

  Proxy Server: olympus.het.brown.edu
Port: 5865

  Now you can browse the internet and lots of "junk" will be unable to reach you ("junk": cookies, pop-ups, ads, etc, etc, etc...). Give it a try and get back to me on how confortable you feel with it.

• SSH port-forwarding: Now, this one trick is particularly sweet! >:-) Say you are at your house, brownsing the network... and, all of a sudden, you remember that paper... that article that you've been wanting to read for quite some time now. What can you do: You cannot access the journal URL (because one has to pay for it) and, on the other hand, Brown subscribe to all those journals?! My, oh my... Well, as usual, there are two ways out of this: the easy and dirty and the not-so-easy and very elegant! You pick your choice! >;-) Here are they:
  1. X11 Forwarding (quick'n dirty): You can open a ssh connection with the option -X and, then, set up the proper $DISPLAY variable [this is quite intricate, because you will have to know which IP number your ISP gave you!] and open your favourite browser. This will run your browser on the remote machine and display it on your local screen. Thus, you are effectively running from within the Brown [HET] network. See the example below:

         |local prompt> xhost +now.het.brown.edu
         |local prompt> ssh -X luser@now.het.brown.edu
           luser's password:
           Authentication successful.
         |now prompt> setenv DISPLAY pool-75-333-48-246.prov.east.verizon.net
         |now prompt> netscape &
         

  2. Port Forwarding (elegant): Now... the cool trick works like this: You tell your local [home] box to run ssh with the -D number option, where number is in the range [1024,65536]. For our purposes, let's choose 12345 as our number. [For the curious luser, this number means a port number; a port that will be opened on your local box.] Then, you just need to tell your browser to use proxy and configure it such that you proxy your connections through port 12345 of your box (aka localhost). The example is as follows:

         {set up your [local] browser to use localhost:12345 [i.e. localhost port 12345] as a proxy}
     
         |local prompt> ssh -D 12345 luser@now.het.brown.edu
           luser's password:
           Authentication successful.
         |now prompt>
         

     At this point all of your brownser's "internet" connections should be going through the proxy (which is ssh-encrypted! >;-) and, as far as the outer world is concerned, your browser is connecting from the HET network!

Note that, all of the above can be done from any kind of machine running any kind of operating system! You just need to know how! >;-) Basically, for any kind of *nix box, the procedure above is what has to be done. And, for a MS Windows(R) box, you will need to use a SSH client [program] that enables port forwarding. For more information on this (basically, you'll need to run PuTTY with the appropriate settings), take a look at the HET Help on SSH. If you need any help setting this up [or with anything else, for that matter!], you know what to do! >:-) (Can't you see the email address at the bottom of this webpage?!!!)

Browsers:

• Opera.
• Mozilla.
• Netscape.
• Konqueror.
• W3M.
• Lynx.

Proxies:

• JunkBusters.