Re: [Tcllib-devel] SOCKS 5 Package

[Blair K. <bl...@th...>]

On Mar 12, 2012, at 3:43 PM, Andreas Kupries wrote:

> Can you tell us a bit more what SOCKS (5) is ?
> (Or provide links to some definitions)
> 
> I am a bit unclear on the background here, sorry.
> 
> Lastly, what (dis)advantages do you see in having this in tcllib, versus 
> keeping it in your own github repository ?

SOCKS is a protocol that allows you to connect to a proxy server and request your traffic be routed to an arbitrary third-party site.  SOCKS 5 is just the most recent version of the protocol.  Some businesses and schools do not permit direct connections to the Internet, instead forcing users to go through a proxy server for content filtering.  Many of these proxies use the SOCKS protocol.  Additionally, Tor (https://torproject.org) provides a SOCKS 5 proxy interface to permit client software to access the Internet through the Tor network, providing anonymity to an end user.

Wikipedia offers a more thorough definition at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socks_5.  Additionally, you can find the RFC at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1928.txt.

The reason I'm submitting this for inclusion in tcllib is that I believe it may be of use to the wider community, and I see tcllib as a collection of these types of features for easy distribution.  Maintaining the package on my github repository will make it harder to find for a developer.

---
Blair Kitchen
bl...@th...