sower

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The sower is a cross-platform intelligent transparent proxy tool.

The first time you visit a new website, the sower will detect if the domain is accessible and add it in the dynamic detect list. So, you do not need to care about the rules, sower will handle it intelligently.

Sower provider both http_proxy/https_proxy and DNS-based proxy. All these kinds of proxy support intelligent router. You can also port-forward any TCP request to remote, such as SSH / SMTP / POP3.

You can enjoy it by setting http_proxy or your DNS without any other settings.

If you already have another proxy solution, you can use it's socks5(h) service as a parent proxy to enjoy the sower's intelligent router.

Installation

To enjoy the sower, you need to deploy sower on both server-side and client-side.

The installation script has been integrated into the sower. You can install sower as system service by running ./sower -install 'xxx' in terminal on the three most popular operating system platforms: Linux / Windows and masOS.

Server

If you already have another proxy solution with socks5h support, you can skip server-side.

At the server-side, the sower runs just like a web server proxy. It redirects HTTP requests to HTTPS and proxy https requests to the upstream HTTP service. You can use your certificate or use the auto-generated certificate by the sower.

What you must set is the upstream HTTP service. You can set it by parameter -s, eg:

# sower -s 127.0.0.1:8080

Client

The easiest way to run it is:

# sower -c aa.bb.cc # the `aa.bb.cc` can also be `socks5h://127.0.0.1:1080`

But a configuration file is recommended to persist dynamic rules in client side.

There are 3 kinds of proxy solutions, they are HTTP(S)_PROXY / DNS-based proxy / port-forward.

HTTP(S)_PROXY

An HTTP(S)_PROXY listening on :8080 is set by default if you run sower as client mode.

DNS-based proxy

DNS-based solution is not recommanded now, for incompatible with TLS 1.3 esni extention. DNS flush logic has been dropped, you should flush your dns cache manually in Windows and macOS.

You can set the dns_serve_ip field in the configuration file to start the DNS-based proxy. You should also set the value of dns_upstream as your default DNS in OS.

If you want to enjoy the full experience provided by the sower, you can take sower as your private DNS on a long-running server and set it as your default DNS in your router.

port-forward

The port-forward can be only setted in configuration file, you can set it in section client.port_mapping, eg:

[client.port_mapping]
":2222"="aa.bb.cc:22"

Architecture

  relay   <--+       +-> target
http service |       |   service
     +-------+-------+----+
     |    sower server    |
     +----^-------^-------+
          80     443
301 http -+       +----- https
to https          |     service
               protected
                by tls
          socks5  |
 dns <---+   ^    |  +--> direct
relay    |   |    |  |   request
     +---+---+----+--+----+
     |    sower client    |
     +----^--^----^---^---+
          |  |    |   |
    dns --+  +    +   +-- port
            80  http(s)  forward
           443  proxy