How to create a VPN for secure web browsing using Hamachi.


Do you feel insecure when browsing the internet over an open unsecured wireless access point?  

83 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you feel insecure when browsing the internet over an open unsecured wireless access point?

    • Yes
      52
    • No
      31


Recommended Posts

How to create a VPN for secure web browsing using Hamachi.

Do you feel insecure when browsing the internet over an open unsecured wireless access point? Well some people do, myself included. In this guide I will explain how to create a VPN for web browsing using Hamachi in combination with privoxy.

For this to work its best to use a computer that is always turned on and never goes to sleep. I prefer setting it up on an old low end computer that you just put in a corner and forget about. (except for installing updates on of course)

Step 1: Installing Hamachi

Go to the following address http://files.hamachi.cc/HamachiSetup-1.0.3.0-en.exe to download and install hamachi. They have a paid version and a free version. For what we need it for, the free version will work just fine. During the install tell hamachi to start with windows.

Step 2: Creating a new Hamachi network.
This will be the account that your laptop will connect to.

1) Click the triangle icon in the bottom right of hamachi.
2) Click "Create a new network"
3) Type in a network name. For the password I'd recommend going to https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm. On the page are 3 different sets of 64 character passwords. Every time you refresh the page a new set will be generated. Copy and paste one into the password field of hamachi. I'd also recommend you paste the same password into notepad and save it so you can copy and paste it later to connect to this account.

Hamachi is now ready to go. Next we will setup the proxy server portion. For this guide we will be using privoxy http://www.privoxy.org/. I'm sure there are other ones that will work too, but this one is free and it gets the job done.

Step 3: Setting up and configuring privoxy.

1) Download and install privoxy from http://www.privoxy.org/. You'll also want to put a copy of the privoxy icon in your startup folder.
2) Launch the application
3) Click Options / Edit Main Configuration. This will open up a notepad document. Search the document for "listen-address 127.0.0.1:8118. You want the one that does not have an asterisk in front of it. Replace the 127.0.0.1 with the 5.x.x.x number that is displayed on the top of hamachi.
4) Exit and save the document. You may have to restart the application for the change to take in effect.

Step 4: Setting up the VPN on your laptop.

1) Install hamachi on your laptop and create another new account.
2) Click the triangle in the bottom right of hamachi. This time choose "join an existing network".
3) Type in the name and password of the server you created in step 1 #3. Copying and pasting the password usually works the best.

Step 4: Setting up your web browsers to feel the proxy love.

This step is pretty simple. Go into the proxy options of your web browser. When it asks for an IP address give it the hamachi IP address of the server. When it wants a port number give it 8118.

That's it. You're done! Now when you are in a public access point and connected to hamachi all your web browsing traffic should be encrypted. Now lets test it to see if everything is working. Open the web browser that you just configured to go through a proxy server. Go to a website that displays your internet IP. If everything is working you should get the IP of your internet connection at home. Of course if you are testing this at home, it really won't do much good. You could always mooch off someones wireless access point just long enough to see which IP the site is giving you.

Note: Just remember if you have multiple web browsers on your computer, only the ones with their proxy settings configured will be encrypted.

Edited by warwagon
  BudMan said:
^ yeah lots of people are not aware of how to circumvent browsing policies at work or school.. This is a great guide on how to do exactly that.

This _mostly_ won't work for circumvention if the network and policies are set up properly, and I don't think the guide is meant as such. It's a way to safe surf encrypted in a public environment.

  BudMan said:
^ yeah lots of people are not aware of how to circumvent browsing policies at work or school.. This is a great guide on how to do exactly that.

My intent in writing this guide was to give people (like shockz) a more secure way of browsing the internet on an unsecured wireless network. (Example: Starbucks or the local hospital) Nothing more. I hadn't even thought of the workplace and school ramifications. What workplace or school allows 3rd party installation of programs like Himachi? They have a lot larger problem if they are that unsecured.

Edited by warwagon

im pretty sure you need admin rights to install hamachi because it installs a driver. most schools wont let you do that type of thing, probably :p

nice guide tho, although i find hamachi a bit slow sometimes, i just use putty and stunnel (takes a bit more setting up though :p )

  Colin-uk said:
im pretty sure you need admin rights to install hamachi because it installs a driver. most schools wont let you do that type of thing, probably :p

nice guide tho, although i find hamachi a bit slow sometimes, i just use putty and stunnel (takes a bit more setting up though :p )

ya this one is pretty much, click click type type and done. Only reason I didn't port forward some ports in from the router instead of using hamachi is, I don't like to have to open ports on my server if I don't have to. because even if you couldn't install hamachi you could always port forward 8118 on your server. Then just use your IP address assuming it doesn't change. Though the school really should have all the ports locked down other than whats needed like port 80.

  • 2 weeks later...
  warwagon said:
My intent in writing this guide was to give people (like shockz) a more secure way of browsing the internet on an unsecured wireless network. (Example: Starbucks or the local hospital) Nothing more. I hadn't even thought of the workplace and school ramifications. What workplace or school allows 3rd party installation of programs like Himachi? They have a lot larger problem if they are that unsecured.

with Putty you can set up a tunnel and in firefox set it to use the tunnel (proxy settings). Both these programs can be used without having to install them

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...
  On 01/09/2010 at 16:01, Sawyer12 said:

Do I need to forward port 8118 to get this to work outside?

Not if you connect via hamachi. Once connected with hamachi it's like both computers are on the same internal lan.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • VirtualBox 7.1.10 by Razvan Serea VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, it is now the only professional-quality virtualization solution that is also Open Source Software. Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Solaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, 7, 8, Windows 10 and Windows 11), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4, 2.6, 3.x, 4.x, 5.x and 6.x), Solaris and OpenSolaris, OS/2, OpenBSD, NetBSD and FreeBSD. Some of the features of VirtualBox are: Modularity. VirtualBox has an extremely modular design with well-defined internal programming interfaces and a client/server design. This makes it easy to control it from several interfaces at once: for example, you can start a virtual machine in a typical virtual machine GUI and then control that machine from the command line, or possibly remotely. VirtualBox also comes with a full Software Development Kit: even though it is Open Source Software, you don't have to hack the source to write a new interface for VirtualBox. Virtual machine descriptions in XML. The configuration settings of virtual machines are stored entirely in XML and are independent of the local machines. Virtual machine definitions can therefore easily be ported to other computers. VirtualBox 7.1.10 changelog: VBoxManage: Fixed a crash when running 'guestcontrol run' on Windows hosts (bug #22175) Audio: Fixed device switching on Windows hosts (bug #22267) Windows host installer: Fixed multiple installation entries in the 'Add or remove programs' dialog and upgrade issues Linux host: Fixed issue which caused VM Selector process crash due to missing libdl.so and libpthread.so libraries (bug #22193) Linux host: Removed libIDL as a build time dependency when building VirtualBox from source code (bug #21169) Linux guest and host: Added initial support for kernel 6.15 (bug #22420) Linux guest: Added initial support for kernel 6.16-RC0 Linux guest and host: Fixed issue with building modules for UEK8 kernel on Oracle Linux 9 distribution RDP: Fixed issue when it was not possible to paste clipboard buffer into a guest over RDP remote session Download: VirtualBox 7.1.10 | 119.0 MB (Open Source) Download: VirtualBox 7.1.10 Extension Pack | 21.9 MB View: VirtualBox Home Page | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • I think the reason is, it is cross platform.
    • Sure, Linux is a great alternative for productivity purposes and actual work. But the only way I'd consider Linux is after an extensive review of top Windows games support. Neowin is definitely working on such an article, right? ::wink wink::
    • I think AI wouldn't have so many run-on sentences.
    • Yes, doing it only Microsoft's way which 90% of users seem to hate is a much better way to go. The comment you replied to didn't even mention user friendly.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      jrromero17 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      jrromero17 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Conversation Starter
      johnwin1 earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • One Month Later
      Marwin earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Year In
      fred8615 earned a badge
      One Year In
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      235
    2. 2
      snowy owl
      156
    3. 3
      ATLien_0
      139
    4. 4
      Xenon
      131
    5. 5
      +FloatingFatMan
      128
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!