Hi badtz,
Although Skype on the windoze platform has a preference for proxy settings, as far as I have been able to determine, there is no way to get Skype to work over a proxy on the Mac. (maybe there is a way using Unix and a program called socat, but it is beyond my knowledge and experience)
What you can do is buy a SkypeIn number (10 Euro for 3 months) in the local call region of those who you want to reach while you are out of the country. Then you call your buddies with your Skype-out balance (1.7 eurocents per minute) for just a minute and have them call you back on your SkypeIn number. (no further charge after the 3 month setup). An added bonus is that you get free voicemail, so your buddies can also leave you messages if you are not on line.
One thing you might want to know is that Skype blocks access to its paid services in certain countries (I guess because it believes there is too much fraud from those places). So if your travels are bringing you to the third world, and you get a "9407" error when you try to call despite adequate balance, you will have to contact Skype support and after a few days and whatever they do to determine you are a legitimate user, they will turn on access. This should not be an issue if your destination is the first world, like most of Europe. Also you should load up with Skype out credits before you leave. Skype/ eBay is absolutely paranoid about fraud and if you try to purchase credits from an ip address in Country A but your credit card (or Paypal account) is from Country B, it may reject your payment. So be prepared before you leave.
For web browsing (or other programs that will allow a socks 4 proxy), you can set up a proxy on your home Mac with SSH (secure shell).
First setup your home Mac:
1.Make sure you set up a user account on your home Mac, and that all user accounts have a strong password
2. turn on "remote access".
3. If your home Mac is behind a router, you will also need to give it a manual internal IP address and to set up port forwarding on your router to forward port 22 to that manual internal IP address.
4. You will need to leave your home Mac running (turn off sleep and set it to restart if there is a power failure).
5. You will need to know the external address of your home Mac, so note it, and if your isp regularly changes it, you will need to purchase a service that regularly informs you of your home Macs current IP address.
Once set up as above, you start up the proxy from your remote Mac using the terminal application and the command:
ssh username@xx.xx.xx.xx -D 2001
where username is your short username and xx.xx.xx.xx is your home Macs external ip address. You will need to enter your password.
Now set Firefox to use a socks 4 proxy on port 2001, and you can use
www.showmyip.com to verify your proxying through your home Mac.
Now your web traffic will be proxied and encrypted between your remote and home Mac. (useful if your remote Mac will be accessing the web through insecure means like a wi-fi network or internet cafe)
There is some risk in having remote access setup on your home Mac which is constantly on the internet. Strong passwords can help deter hackers, but for further security, there are ways to change the port that remote access uses, or to disable passwords and use only encryption keys for access, but those are rather complicated, and you might want to ask about that to the gurus in the UNIX forum.
If you need to send or receive FAXes while you are away, I can recommend eFAX's service where you get a FAX number that will forward to your email, and the ability to easily FAX to USA FAX numbers. Handy.
Happy travels,
rjt1000
Top
