Proxywise

Proxywise is a tool that can be used to redirect all outgoing connections through a given proxy.

There are software that have proxy settings in them such as web-browsers. But there are other software that are not proxy aware such as 'Ubuntu Software Center' and other package managers.

To add to the problem, there is a bug in version of 'libproxy' included in Ubuntu-14.04 due to which  torrent clients such as 'QBittorrent' are unable to download via proxy.

Using Proxywise, all connections can be redirected through the proxy.
Presently it diverts all connections of protocol tcp, and icmp.

On the underlying layer it uses redsocks, that works well for tcp and icmp protocols but it returns "truncated answer" to every query via UDP. RFC-compliant resolver should repeat same query via TCP in this case - so the request can be redirected using usual redsocks facilities.


If you find any issues while using it please comment below.

---

Proxywise is presently available for Ubuntu-12.04 and Ubuntu-14.04. Other linux users may install manually and try the terminal interface.


Adding the repository and installing
Do a no-proxy login from browser and issue following commands

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:anandogc/proxywise
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install proxywise

Setting up the profiles

Upon successful installation click the dash ( ) and launch 'Proxywise'. A 'P' logo will appear on the panel.
Click on it and open 'Configure'


The 'Proxywise Configuration Tool' will open.
Using this tool you can add various profiles.
Note: You may choose not to store 'Username' and/or 'Password' when you are using a shared computer. Then it will ask you credentials every time you apply a profile.

Ignore Hosts
Typically the IP addresses within the campus can not be accessed through proxy server. Hence these set of IP addresses must be ignored by Proxywise. Three IPv4 ranges are used in Private Network: 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16.

'Ignore Hosts' list can contain

1. Server name, e.g. blogger.com
2. IP address, e.g. 216.58.220.46
3. Subnet Mask e.g. 10.0.0.0/8

The default values in 'Ignore Hosts' tab should work in most cases.

Cheers
Now we are ready to activate Proxywise. Just click on the 'P' icon on the panel and activate the profile of your choice.




Terminal interface
To open the 'Proxywise Configuration Tool' type

$ proxywise-config

and fill it up as described above.

Upon adding the profiles and setting 'Ignore Hosts' using 'Proxywise Configuration Tool', the 'proxywise' command can be used to activate a profile.

$ proxywise --help
usage: proxywise [-h] [-l] [-a] [-n] [{bsnl,nkn,proxy}]

positional arguments:
  {bsnl,nkn,proxy}  profile to be activated

optional arguments:
  -h, --help        show this help message and exit
  -l, --list        list available profiles
  -a, --activate    activate last used proxy
  -n, --no-proxy    disable active profile

To activate the 'nkn' profile, just type

$ proxywise nkn
nkn activated.

To get the active profile, just type

$ proxywise
nkn is active.

To deactivate any active profile, type.

$ proxywise -n
Active profile disabled.

Bash completion is also supported, it will show you suggestions

$ proxywise [tab][tab]
bsnl   nkn    proxy

After a computer restart, use '-a' to activate the last used profile.

$ proxywise -a

Where are the credentials stored?
All profile details are stored in Gnome-Keyring. This encrypts all details using your login password. Hence they get decrypted and become available only when you log in to your account.