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SOCKS - A Firewall software that establishes a connection from inside a firewall to the outside when direct connection would otherwise be prevented by the firewall software or hardware (for example, the router configuration).
Socks 5.x
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SOCKS5.x is a protocol that relays TCP sessions at a firewall host to allow application users transparent access across the firewall.
Because the protocol is independent of application protocols, it can be used for many different services, such as telnet, ftp, finger, whois, gopher, WWW, etc.
When to use Socks5.x?
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Socks5.x may also be used if the firewall blocks the bi-directional TCP connections, the program will communicate with its server but users will not be able to communicate between themselves.
If your firewall does not allow for open listening port, your program will work but the users will not be able to communicate with other users that are behind a firewall with the same configuration. This is where Socks5.x comes in. It is designed to open a listening port on the Socks.x server, and redirect users to the client computer, and redirect the TCP packets from the client computer to the Internet.
Access control can be applied at the beginning of each TCP session; thereafter the server simply relays the data between the client and the application server, incurring minimum processing overhead.
Socks 4.x
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SOCKS4.x is a protocol that relays TCP sessions at a firewall host to allow application users transparent access across the firewall.
Because the protocol is independent of application protocols, it can be used for many different services, such as telnet, ftp, finger, whois, gopher, WWW, etc.
Access control can be applied at the beginning of each TCP session; thereafter the server simply relays the data between the client and the application server,
incurring minimum processing overhead.
When to use Socks4.x?
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Socks4.x may be used if your firewall blocks bi-directional TCP packets or does not allow an opened listening port. Socks4.x. may also be used if the firewall blocks the bi-directional TCP connections, the program will communicate with its server but users will not be able to communicate between themselves.
If your firewall does not allow for an open listening port, the program will work but users will not be able to communicate with other users that are behind a firewall with the same configuration. This is where Socks4.x comes in. It is designed to open a listening port on the Socks server, and redirect users to the client computer, and redirect the TCP packets from the client computer to the Internet.
Important:
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-The Socks4.x.server must have the ability to communicate with the Internet and your LAN freely, including the ability to open listening TCP port. In most cases this type of server has more than one LAN interface, one of them to the Internet, the others to the LAN. Your Socks server will behave as a gateway to the Internet.
-The main difference between Socks4.x and Socks5.x is that Socks5.x offers more features such as in the area of security, ftp and more.
Edited by T Rex, 20 August 2004 - 03:28 PM.
