Installing PHP-Proxy on Linux Mint

PHP-Proxy is a free and open source web proxy script written in PHP. It allows you to bypass internet filters and firewalls while also keeping your browsing activities private. In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install PHP-Proxy on Linux Mint.

Prerequisites

Before we start the installation process, you will need to make sure you have the following prerequisites:

Step 1: Downloading PHP-Proxy

The first step is to download the PHP-Proxy package from their official website. You can download it by clicking on this link: https://github.com/Athlon1600/php-proxy-app/archive/master.zip

Once the download is complete, extract the contents of the .zip file to a location of your choice.

Step 2: Configuring PHP-Proxy

Before we can install PHP-Proxy, we need to make some configuration changes. To do this, we need to edit the config.php file located in the includes folder of the extracted files.

Open the config.php file in your favorite text editor, and modify the following values:

define('PROXY_START_TIME', microtime(true));  
define('PROXY_DIR', dirname(__FILE__));  
define('PROXY_LIB_DIR', PROXY_DIR.'/lib');  
define('PROXY_CACHE_DIR', PROXY_DIR.'/cache');  
define('PROXY_TMP_DIR', PROXY_DIR.'/tmp');  
define('PROXY_ETC_DIR', PROXY_DIR.'/etc');  
define('PROXY_JS_DIR', PROXY_DIR.'/js');  
define('PROXY_CSS_DIR', PROXY_DIR.'/css');  
define('PROXY_PAGES_DIR', PROXY_DIR.'/pages');  
define('PROXY_MODULES_DIR', PROXY_DIR.'/modules');  
define('PROXY_TEMPLATES_DIR', PROXY_DIR.'/templates');  
define('PROXY_PHP', 'php');  
define('PROXY_URL_PREFIX', '');  

You will need to modify the following values:

Save your changes to the config.php file.

Step 3: Creating a MySQL Database

PHP-Proxy requires a MySQL database to store the proxy settings and cache. To create a database, open up a terminal window and log in to MySQL:

$ mysql -u root -p

You might be asked for a password if one has been set. Once you're logged in, execute the following SQL command to create a new database:

CREATE DATABASE php_proxy;

After creating the database, create a new user and grant them access to the new database:

CREATE USER 'php_proxy_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON php_proxy.* TO 'php_proxy_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Make sure to replace password with a secure password of your choice.

Step 4: Importing the MySQL Schema

PHP-Proxy comes with a SQL schema file in the /sql folder. To import it, run the following command from the terminal:

$ mysql -u php_proxy_user -p -D php_proxy < /path/to/php-proxy-app-master/sql/schema.sql

Make sure to replace /path/to/ with the actual path to the PHP-Proxy folder on your system.

Step 5: Configuring Apache

To configure Apache to work with PHP-Proxy, we need to create a new virtual host configuration file. Open up your favorite text editor and create a new file called php-proxy.conf in the /etc/apache2/sites-available/ directory.

<VirtualHost *:80>  
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost  
    DocumentRoot /path/to/php-proxy-app-master  
    ServerName example.com  
  
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/php-proxy-error.log  
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/php-proxy-access.log combined  
  
    <Directory "/path/to/php-proxy-app-master/">  
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks  
        AllowOverride All  
        Order allow,deny  
        Allow from all  
        Require all granted  
    </Directory>  
</VirtualHost>  

Make sure to replace /path/to/php-proxy-app-master with the actual path to the PHP-Proxy folder on your system, and replace example.com with your own domain name or IP address.

Save the file and exit the text editor.

Next, enable the new virtual host configuration by running the following command:

$ sudo a2ensite php-proxy.conf

Finally, restart Apache to apply the changes:

$ sudo service apache2 restart

Congratulations! You have successfully installed PHP-Proxy on your Linux Mint system.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we covered the steps necessary to install PHP-Proxy on Linux Mint. With PHP-Proxy, you can bypass internet filters and firewalls while keeping your browsing activities private. We hope that this tutorial has been helpful in guiding you through the installation process, and we wish you the best of luck in your browsing endeavors!

If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!

Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!