windows store apps on proxy

7/21/2019 Windows Store Apps on Proxy

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Making Windows® Store® Apps to work

on IIT Bombay’s proxy server

Pratyush Nalam

http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~pratnala






Pratyush Nalam.

Technology. Environment. Inclusive Society.

https://www.facebook.com/pratnala https://twitter.com/PratNala http://in.linkedin.com/in/pratyushnalam

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Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 3

2. Why is this suddenly a problem? .................................................................................... 33. How do we solve it? ....................................................................................................... 3

4. Procedure ...................................................................................................................... 4

5. Limitations ................................................................................................................... 12

6. Troubleshooting ........................................................................................................... 12

7. Some Tips ................................................................................................................ 14

8. Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 15

9. More questions? Feedback? ........................................................................................ 15

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Pratyush Nalam.


http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~pratnala http://pratnala.wordpress.com [email protected]

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1. Introduction

Internet access in IIT Bombay is through netmon.iitb.ac.in, a squid-proxy server with

basic authentication. Proxy servers are routinely employed in enterprise and education setups

for various reasons (blocking nefarious sites being one of the most important ones). Netmon

is an HTTP proxy on port 80 which allows network traffic only through the ports 80 and 443

which are for HTTP and HTTPS traffic respectively. All other protocols like NAT, RTSP and IMAP

etc. are blocked. This is the very reason why apps like iMessage®, FaceTime®, Microsoft®

Outlook®, IRC clients etc. don’t work.

2. Why is this suddenly a problem?

Historically, this has never been much of a major issue at IIT Bombay. Students have

used workarounds like their smartphone’s 3G connection which don’t redirect network traffic

through a proxy server. However, this has become a major issue now due to the release of

Microsoft®’s latest operating system, Windows® 8. More specifically, it is not the whole ofWindows 8 which doesn’t work but it is the Windows® Store® which is incompatible with a

proxy server using authentication. Lots of other things are also incompatible (they have been

and will continue to be) like cloud services (Microsoft® SkyDrive®, Google® Drive) and some

anti-virus softwares (Microsoft® Security Essentials®, McAfee® Internet Security®) for

instance. This also in many cases causes are IP to be blocked due to relentless pinging to

Netmon by these services without proxy authentication.

3. How do we solve it?

The solution is to set up a cascading proxy server. What a cascading proxy serveressentially does is it redirects all network requests (how we make it happen is described later)

to itself, adds the authentication etc. and sends it to Netmon. Now, Netmon has got the

authentication it requires and is at peace with your system. A small caveat. Things like

iMessage®, Microsoft® Outlook® and torrents won’t work even now as the protocols they use

itself are blocked by our beloved Netmon. However, cloud services and anti-virus suites

among others (even Windows® Store® Apps) which use the standard HTTP and HTTPS

protocols work flawlessly.


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4. Procedure

Step 1

This archive which you downloaded consists of 2 setup files in the “Setup Files” folder

– ccproxysetup7.3.exe and EnableLoopbackUtility.exe. Run ccproxysetup7.3.exe and installCCProxy 7.3. CCProxy is the software which makes your laptop into a cascading proxy server.

Open CCProxy by right-clicking in Start and selecting Run as administrator.

Step 2

CCProxy is actually a paid software but it is free for 3 users (what it actually means is

later in this manual). Once you have opened CCProxy, click on Options.












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Step 3

Now, click on Advanced. WARNING: Don’t change anything in this screen.

Step 4

Now, go to the Cascading tab, select the checkbox, “Enable Cascading Proxy”. Now,

input the values netmon.iitb.ac.in for Proxy Address, HTTP for Proxy Protocol, 80 for Port.

Then, select the checkbox, “Need Authorization”. Enter your LDAP username under User

Name, LDAP Password under Password and leave Domain as BLANK. Click OK twice and

come back to the main screen of CCProxy.












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Step 5

Now, click on Advanced.

Step 6

Once the Account Manager has opened, a bunch of options need to be configured

here. First up, select Permit Only under Permit Category and MAC Address under Auth Type.

MAC Address is a unique hardware address for your Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and any other

network adapter which is present in your system and shouldn’t be confused with Apple®’s

line of Mac® computers.












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Step 7

First, we’ll add your Ethernet adapter to the list of users. Connect your LAN cable and

click on Auto Scan as shown in the previous image. Enter your full IP address (10.8.70.39 in

my case) in both Low IP Address and High IP Address. Press Start and then press Close. You

will see one device added to the list. Disconnect your LAN cable now. We shall connect it later.

For your Wi-Fi adapter to be added, follow the same steps. Once you’re connected to

a Wi-Fi network (IITB-Wireless for example), find out your IP Address from Network and

Sharing Center and repeat the same process as above. Then, disconnect from the Wi-Fi

network. We shall connect to it later. Click OK and exit. Press Hide to minimise CCProxy to the

system tray.

Important Sidenote: Please read this before continuing

So what’s happening here? It is important to remember that CCProxy is a paid

software and the free version which we downloaded only allows 3 users. What does this

mean? It means that at a time, only 3 users can connect to the Internet through your proxy

server. I have added 3 users – one for Ethernet, one for Wi-Fi and one for my iPod touch (by

making my laptop into a personal hotspot). However, at any given time, only 2 are active

as obviously you can’t connect to the Internet through both Ethernet and Wi-Fi. So, still one

more user (i.e. device) can connect to the Internet through your proxy server (this can be

your tablet or e-book reader or anything else). Always remember that only 3 devices at once

can use CCProxy in the free edition. Despite this, CCProxy throws up an error sometimes

and then you have to disconnect one of the devices.

Also note that adding these adapters to your list of users is a one-time process. Even

if your IP changes when you connect to another Wi-Fi network or use the LAN in another

room, you don’t need to change anything because if you recall, we used MAC Address as

the authentication which is unique for the life of your laptop.












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Step 8

Right, so now we have successfully configured CCProxy to connect to the Internet and

your very own proxy server is running. Go ahead and have a celebratory cup of coffee if you

like. Done? So, what is next now? We have to instruct Windows® to use this proxy server

which you just created to connect to the Internet. Ready? Open Start and type Internet

Options. Click on Settings and it will be the first result. Click to open.

Step 9

Click on the Connections tab and go to LAN Settings.












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Step 10

Select the checkbox Use a proxy server for your LAN. Enter your IP Address under

Address and 808 under Port. Also, tick the checkbox for Bypass proxy server for local

addresses. Then, click on Advanced. Now, remember that the IP address changes according

to your connection so this is NOT a one-time setting.

Step 11

Select the checkbox which says “Use the same proxy server for all protocols”. And in

the exceptions list, add localhost and *.iitb.ac.in. *.local should already be present from

before. Remember to separate the entries with semicolons.












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Step 12

Now, Internet Options ensures the browsers know their proxy settings. To make it

apply system-wide, we need one more command. First, open Start and browse to Windows

System under All Apps. Right click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

Step 13

Once you have opened Command Prompt, type this command in its exact form: netsh

winhttp import proxy source=ie. Press Enter. Now, connect your LAN cable or connect back

to the Wi-Fi network.












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Step 15

Once it opens, click on Exempt All and then select Save Changes. Now, this ensures

all your Windows® Store® apps can connect to the Internet.

Important Sidenote: Please read this before continuing

Whenever you install new apps from the Windows® Store®, remember to repeat this

step so that the new apps can also redirect traffic to the local proxy server. If you don ’t,

you’ll experience app crashes and messages of “Please check your network connection”.

5. Limitations

As I mentioned earlier, those apps which use protocols other than HTTP and HTTPS

(like iMessage®, Outlook® and torrents) still won’t work this way. Also, whatever sites Netmon

has blocked (for example Rapidshare and Mediafire) still remain blocked because this isn ’t

doing anything special – just adding authentication to network requests.

6. Troubleshooting

In this section, I describe some common errors which can occur and how you can fix

them. And yes, they shouldn’t occur if you have followed all steps correctly

a. The proxy server is refusing connections

This is the funniest error if you ask me. Go, run CCProxy!












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b. CCProxy says “This program requires elevation to run”

Run CCProxy as administrator and this should be done.

c. The network icon shows an exclamation mark on the taskbar and Windows®

Store® apps say they are offline. However, desktop applications like Firefox canconnect to the Internet.

So, this is a very serious error for which the solution is on the lines of jugaad . We have

to fool Windows® into thinking that network connectivity is fine. Now, remember attempt

these steps only if the exclamation mark doesn ’t go after 2 or 3 minutes (that’s the time it

takes to realise the network is fine so have patience!).

NOTE: The following steps have been written from the perspective of an Ethernet

connection. For Wi-Fi, disconnect from the network and reconnect whenever it says the same

for a LAN cable.

First, try disconnecting and reconnecting the LAN cable. If this doesn ’t work, go to

Internet Options and put netmon.iitb.ac.in for Address and 80 as Port under LAN settings of

the Connections tab. Then run the netsh command in an administrative command prompt.

Again, disconnect and reconnect the LAN cable. Make sure CCProxy is running all this while.

Now, after some time, the exclamation mark will go away. When it does, change your

proxy address back to your IP address and 808 as Port. And, run the netsh command. But, this

time do NOT remove the LAN cable.

If this also doesn’t work, put netmon under proxy server address, run the netsh

command and restart your PC. Then, once the exclamation mark goes away, again change

your IP settings to your IP address with 808 as Port and run the netsh command.












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7. Some Tips

So, now you want to connect your phone/tablet to the Internet. CCProxy makes this

simple and avoids the hassle of configuring authentication on your mobile devices. So, if you

have Connectify (get it from http://www.connectify.me) you can make your laptop into a

personal hotspot. Once you have done this, connect your device to the hotspot. Then, find

out its IP from the Connectify screen like this.

See the IP in that box? Now, go to CCProxy’s account settings, and just as you added

your Ethernet connection to the list of users, add your device in the same way (refer Steps 6

and 7). Then, on your device’s proxy settings, enter the proxy server address the one

Connectify uses and not the one which your laptop is using to connect to the Internet. A short

cut is to enter your device’s IP but the 4th number is 1. So, in this example, it will be

192.168.68.1. And, enter 808 as Port. Voila! All done!

The image on the next page shows this for my iPod.







http://www.connectify.me/








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15 This can similarly be done on other iOS devices and Windows Phones. For Android,

you need to root it and use ProxyDroid.

Another thing is about IP getting blocked frequently by Netmon. You might haveobserved this a lot before using CCProxy. Well, CCProxy ensures your IP is never blocked. So,

you can use this on Windows® 7 too! Just omit the part of running Loopback Utility.

8. Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following people for letting me know of this method.

a. Rugved Likhite – for bringing this method to my notice in the first place without

which Windows® 8 was just like Windows® 7 in a fancy dress competition.

b. Youngzsoft® Inc. – for making this amazing software called CCProxy. Wish they

made it for Mac® OS X and Linux as well!c. Eric Lawrence – for making the other very vital utility – Loopback Utility – without

which everything we did would be useless.

Thank you once again!

9. More questions? Feedback?

If you further have some nagging doubts or issues, feel free to contact me at

[email protected], [email protected] or ping me on Facebook at

https://www.facebook.com/pratnala.



















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