Bypass proxy server.

Would I be able to set up my own proxy server?  If so, what kind of special hardware would I need?  Any good refrences?

Is it in the database of the proxy server that certain sites and ip addresses should be blocked?

Yes in theory you could setup your own anonymouse proxy using a machine on the Internet somewhere. I am not aware of any software to do it but it is not difficult so there is probably software available.
Probably some sort of Linux machine would be the best solution.

Note that an anonymouse proxy is typically a web based application. A proxy server (such as ISA server of Squid) is completely different.

The database of sites to be blocked is normally a plugin which interfaces to the proxy server.

I think the issue is that a company which blocks hotmail is likly to block the anonymouse proxys aswell (I Do :) ). The way around this is to setup a proxy yourself.

I do not wish to gain access to hotmail or go against my company policies.  I just wanted to educate myself on how this stuff works.  And if possible, how can I setup a similar system at my home-office.  I have 4 computers setup at home, and I wanted to do something simlar to what my company does.  But also, at the same time, be able to bypass the proxy rules with a password or something of that nature.

Your responses are valuable and important.  Please continue the feedback.  I'd like to learn more.

If you want to do something similar yourself I suggest you have a look at a proxy server such as Squid (http://www.squid-cache.org/) with a blacklist addon such as SquidGuard (http://www.squidguard.org/).

Once this is working all you do is configure Squid as a proxy server in the browser and disable every machine except the machine from running squid being able to access the Internet.

 Hello,
  If you want to learn how to set up and run a proxy server. You can check some free softs here:
http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/network/fwproxy.html
  If you want to learn how the proxy servers work, you can find more info here:
http://www.bol.ucla.edu/services/proxy/curious.html

  Tri

THANKS!!

 Your're welcome!

to use a proxy server I recommend to use netscape only -especialy if you use a dialup connection-  because Internet Explorer doesnt accept and access proxys directly. IE doesnt support proxy connections to the wild with dialup either. So should you fail to connect to any anonymous proxy with IE I recommend to use netscape. Other browser may work as well but I didnt check that.

regards

razorwolf

Besides using your own proxy, you can use port forwarding techniques to create tunnels via SSH. But you have to have the SSH server running on a port that your company has open. It works quite well.

Just what I think your looking for
http://www.buzzsurf.com/surfatwork/

This is exactlery what you are looking foor (i had the same problem for the past 2 mounths ) :))    
http://www.obome.de/

Aloso there is a gr8 list of anonimizers on the net try to search google for a gr8'er list ...


G'luck

Some proxies at work only block domain names, amazingly enough.  I work in consulting and have worked at over 50 large companies who always have proxies so I have tried lots of tricks :)  I have often had success just going to a DOS prompt, do a IP lookup for a domain name such as:

C:\>nslookup hotmail.com
Server:  ns-sgo.dns.sony.com
Address:  43.130.1.11

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    hotmail.com
Addresses:  64.4.33.7, 64.4.32.7

Then just put the IP into the browser and viola, you can get your email.  This may not work though, only if your company has noobs in their IT department who don't block the IP's.  Also some websites don't function properly using IP instead of domain name.