• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 12:56
CEST 18:56
KST 01:56
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway122v2 & SC: Evo Complete: Weekend Double Feature3Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy9uThermal's 2v2 Tour: $15,000 Main Event18Serral wins EWC 202549
Community News
Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris1Weekly Cups (Aug 11-17): MaxPax triples again!10Weekly Cups (Aug 4-10): MaxPax wins a triple6SC2's Safe House 2 - October 18 & 195Weekly Cups (Jul 28-Aug 3): herO doubles up6
StarCraft 2
General
Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson has passed away #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time RSL Revival patreon money discussion thread Is it ok to advertise SC EVO Mod streaming here? 2v2 & SC: Evo Complete: Weekend Double Feature
Tourneys
Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) $5,100+ SEL Season 2 Championship (SC: Evo) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 487 Think Fast Mutation # 486 Watch the Skies Mutation # 485 Death from Below Mutation # 484 Magnetic Pull
Brood War
General
Flash Announces (and Retracts) Hiatus From ASL BW General Discussion [ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway ASL 20 HYPE VIDEO! New season has just come in ladder
Tourneys
Cosmonarchy Pro Showmatches [ASL20] Ro24 Group B [ASL20] Ro24 Group C [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting Muta micro map competition
Other Games
General Games
General RTS Discussion Thread Beyond All Reason Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Total Annihilation Server - TAForever
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI
Fan Clubs
INnoVation Fan Club SKT1 Classic Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
High temperatures on bridge(s) Gtx660 graphics card replacement Installation of Windows 10 suck at "just a moment"
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TeamLiquid Team Shirt On Sale
Blogs
The Biochemical Cost of Gami…
TrAiDoS
[Girl blog} My fema…
artosisisthebest
Sharpening the Filtration…
frozenclaw
ASL S20 English Commentary…
namkraft
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1612 users

Skype Proxy Service

Blogs > R1CH
Post a Reply
R1CH
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
Netherlands10340 Posts
October 01 2014 17:13 GMT
#1
I released a new service last night called instant-skype-proxy. I thought I'd blog a bit about it, how it works and how it can help the Dota community.

This blog is a technical background of the service - if you're looking to just get a proxy, head on over to https://instant-skype-proxy.com/ and follow the easy step by step instructions there!

Background
I'm sure everyone is aware of Dota matches being cancelled or postponed or teams receiving forfeit wins due to DDoS attacks. This occurs when someone is able to get the IP address of one of the players on a team and overwhelm their connection with a flood of traffic using a "booter" or "stress test" (read: paid DDoS) service.

The number one way to prevent this from happening is to avoid people finding your IP. If there's no target to attack, then the attacker can only try and hit the entire ISP, and taking down an internet service provider is of course a lot harder and much riskier than trying to attack a single user.

How Does Skype Fit Into This?
Skype is used by almost everyone in the esports scene, primarily as an instant messaging application. This is because of the widespread penetration of Skype - almost everyone has an account already, so it's the easiest thing to use.

Unfortunately due to Skype's design as a peer to peer application, once you sign into the Skype network, your IP address becomes associated with your Skype name. This is necessary so that when someone wants to contact you, they are able to reach the Skype program running on your PC.

This obviously has a lot of privacy and security risks - once your Skype name becomes known, anyone can find out your IP address. There are many websites called "skype resolvers" that will help people find an IP from a Skype name with no technical skill required.

Closing Skype also won't protect you - the directory servers maintain a list of recent IPs used by each name. The option inside Skype to only allow direct connections to your contacts is also ineffective as it does not prevent your IP from being exposed.

How To Fix It
You can hide your IP address when using Skype by routing the program through a 3rd party server. This way a skype resolver only shows the IP of the 3rd party server, not your IP. If the 3rd party server is attacked, the worst that can happen is your Skype will go offline.

There are several guides that let you configure Skype to use an open proxy, however open proxies are often very slow and unreliable as they are abused by spammers and such.

I created instant-skype-proxy to make it super easy to set yourself up with a private, non-shared proxy server that runs on professional hosting at DigitalOcean, a low cost VPS provider. After a few clicks, you'll be presented with a file that imports the proxy settings into Skype. After closing Skype, importing the proxy and changing your IP, your IP address will remain private and protected. DigitalOcean charges $5/month for their most basic server.

The proxy settings can be shared with teammates and friends, but be careful how many people use a single proxy as DigitalOcean does impose bandwidth limits. If the proxy experiences issues, everyone using it will lose connectivity to Skype.

Technical "How It Works"
I chose DigitalOcean as a server provider because they provide an extensive API (https://developers.digitalocean.com/v2/) with OAuth2 support. This lets me create an app at digitalocean to handle the setup.

Once the user approves the app, the service creates a Debian x64 Linux server ("droplet") at a chosen location, imports an SSH key and then uses SSH to perform various tasks such as configuring automatic security updates, removing unneeded services and security hardening. Finally, the service generates a random username and password, installs the 3proxy proxy server and configures it on a random port.

After the server is configured, a registry file is generated into a simple download that allows the user to import the proxy settings into Skype. For advanced users, a Windows Firewall script is also made that blocks Skype from accessing anything other than the proxy IP as an additional layer of security (note: this blocks the "Skype Home" feature).

A management page allows the user to reset the configuration should their login info become compromised in some way, as well as destroy the server should they wish to cancel the service.

Questions?
It's my hope that this makes it easy for teams and players to protect themselves so that tournament games are no longer disrupted due to attacks. If you have any questions or feedback about the service, please let me know!
AdministratorTwitter: @R1CH_TL
Rho_
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
United States971 Posts
October 01 2014 17:24 GMT
#2
What a hero. Thanks, sir!
YourGoodFriend
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States2197 Posts
October 01 2014 17:25 GMT
#3
This is awesome, I was wondering when someone was going to do something like this. R1ch the wizard doing it up again and saving esports!
anonymous is the most famous author that anyone can be
Grettin
Profile Joined April 2010
42381 Posts
October 01 2014 17:25 GMT
#4
Based hero.
"If I had force-fields in Brood War, I'd never lose." -Bisu
peanuts
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
United States1225 Posts
October 01 2014 17:41 GMT
#5
The wizard saves esports yet again.
Writer"My greatest skill is my enjoyment of the game" - Grubby | @TL_Peanuts
Comeh
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
United States18918 Posts
October 01 2014 18:02 GMT
#6
Sounds like every pro team / organization should get a proxy server or two and share them.

Thanks r1ch, hopefully this will cut down on DDoS attacks
ヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノDELETE ICEFROGヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(⌐■_■)ノヽ(
OuchyDathurts
Profile Joined September 2010
United States4588 Posts
October 01 2014 19:16 GMT
#7
Do the newer Skype replacements like Bleep have the same problem with being IP pinatas?

Hopefully people at least use this if they're not inclined enough to do the Destiny thing. Shit is really annoying.
LiquidDota Staff
Rainling
Profile Joined June 2011
United States456 Posts
October 01 2014 19:47 GMT
#8
You're the best
Froadac
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States6733 Posts
October 01 2014 20:01 GMT
#9
On October 02 2014 04:16 OuchyDathurts wrote:
Do the newer Skype replacements like Bleep have the same problem with being IP pinatas?

Hopefully people at least use this if they're not inclined enough to do the Destiny thing. Shit is really annoying.

I'm not sure. The information is shared but I'm not sure how easy it would be to get access to.
synapse
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
China13814 Posts
October 01 2014 20:37 GMT
#10
based R1CH saving E S P O R T S once again
:)
icystorage
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
Jollibee19350 Posts
October 02 2014 00:07 GMT
#11
saved bw before, now saving dota2, WHATAWIZARD
LiquidDota StaffAre you ready for a Miracle-? We are! The International 2017 Champions!
TheEmulator
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
28090 Posts
October 02 2014 00:23 GMT
#12
R1CH is the coolest. Just saying.
Administrator
haduken
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
Australia8267 Posts
October 02 2014 10:33 GMT
#13
I really wonder how much liquid pays based R1CH to do this. He can easily work for some of the big tech dogs and urn reel $$
Rillanon.au
TheEmulator
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
28090 Posts
October 02 2014 16:08 GMT
#14
On October 02 2014 19:33 haduken wrote:
I really wonder how much liquid pays based R1CH to do this. He can easily work for some of the big tech dogs and urn reel $$

I have no idea what he makes, but I highly doubt it's anywhere near what he could be getting in the tech industry. The love of esports is real with him.
Administrator
theaxis12
Profile Joined March 2011
United States489 Posts
October 02 2014 19:55 GMT
#15
<3
Shut your mouth and put your head back in the clouds.
Geo.Rion
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
7377 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-10-04 16:35:16
October 04 2014 16:35 GMT
#16
On October 03 2014 01:08 TheEmulator wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 02 2014 19:33 haduken wrote:
I really wonder how much liquid pays based R1CH to do this. He can easily work for some of the big tech dogs and urn reel $$

I have no idea what he makes, but I highly doubt it's anywhere near what he could be getting in the tech industry. The love of esports is real with him.

is TL his primary occupation? i thought this is more like a side project for him
Great job once again btw
"Protoss is a joke" Liquid`Jinro Okt.1. 2011
TheEmulator
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
28090 Posts
October 04 2014 20:22 GMT
#17
On October 05 2014 01:35 Geo.Rion wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 03 2014 01:08 TheEmulator wrote:
On October 02 2014 19:33 haduken wrote:
I really wonder how much liquid pays based R1CH to do this. He can easily work for some of the big tech dogs and urn reel $$

I have no idea what he makes, but I highly doubt it's anywhere near what he could be getting in the tech industry. The love of esports is real with him.

is TL his primary occupation? i thought this is more like a side project for him
Great job once again btw

TL is his full time job. He does side stuff like this and OBS though.
Administrator
dravernor
Profile Blog Joined May 2013
Netherlands6183 Posts
October 06 2014 19:01 GMT
#18
Wow, awesome! Thanks R1CH, super cool!
<3
Nopeudon
Profile Joined March 2012
172 Posts
October 09 2014 06:59 GMT
#19
Wow it blows my mind what someone this good at programming can do.
Snerd
Profile Joined October 2013
United States125 Posts
October 13 2014 22:52 GMT
#20
Awesome! I hope this program will stop all the DDoS ing going on.
神の手
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 7h 4m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Hui .241
SpeCial 226
Codebar 116
ProTech77
BRAT_OK 56
MindelVK 12
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 43087
Bisu 3026
Jaedong 1399
EffOrt 749
firebathero 656
BeSt 506
ZerO 405
Stork 314
Light 284
ggaemo 224
[ Show more ]
hero 210
Barracks 176
Dewaltoss 121
Mind 120
Rush 115
Snow 97
Movie 60
Hyun 48
TY 45
Backho 25
Aegong 25
sas.Sziky 23
sorry 22
Rock 17
Sacsri 16
Terrorterran 14
scan(afreeca) 13
HiyA 9
IntoTheRainbow 6
Dota 2
Gorgc9414
qojqva2981
syndereN446
XcaliburYe226
LuMiX2
League of Legends
Reynor117
Counter-Strike
zeus587
oskar152
edward43
Other Games
FrodaN1638
B2W.Neo851
Beastyqt711
KnowMe156
ArmadaUGS135
QueenE71
markeloff55
Trikslyr53
ZerO(Twitch)11
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• davetesta28
• Kozan
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• intothetv
• IndyKCrew
StarCraft: Brood War
• HerbMon 28
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 3009
League of Legends
• Jankos1122
• TFBlade818
Counter-Strike
• Shiphtur136
Other Games
• WagamamaTV278
Upcoming Events
Online Event
7h 4m
The PondCast
17h 4m
WardiTV Summer Champion…
18h 4m
Zoun vs Bunny
herO vs Solar
Replay Cast
1d 7h
LiuLi Cup
1d 18h
BSL Team Wars
2 days
Team Hawk vs Team Dewalt
Korean StarCraft League
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
SC Evo League
2 days
WardiTV Summer Champion…
2 days
Classic vs Percival
Spirit vs NightMare
[ Show More ]
CSO Cup
2 days
[BSL 2025] Weekly
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
SC Evo League
3 days
BSL Team Wars
4 days
Team Bonyth vs Team Sziky
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Queen vs HyuN
EffOrt vs Calm
Wardi Open
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Afreeca Starleague
5 days
Rush vs TBD
Jaedong vs Mong
Afreeca Starleague
6 days
herO vs TBD
Royal vs Barracks
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Jiahua Invitational
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
HCC Europe

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Qualifiers
ASL Season 20
CSL Season 18: Qualifier 1
SEL Season 2 Championship
WardiTV Summer 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025

Upcoming

CSLAN 3
CSL Season 18: Qualifier 2
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
BSL Season 21
BSL 21 Team A
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
EC S1
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
Roobet Cup 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.