Shadow Shock Proxy
Shadowrocket Integration With Oxylabs Proxies – Blog
3rd party tools like Shadowrocket can help you efficiently manage proxies on a day-to-day basis for your specific use cases. Luckily, Oxylabs Residential Proxies can be easily integrated with the Shadowrocket application. In this blog post, we will go step-by-step and with visual explanations on how to integrate our Residential Proxies with Shadowrocket.
What is Shadowrocket? Shadowrocket is a free and open-source encryption protocol app that secures your online browsing via proxies.
Downloading Shadowrocket
Please note that Shadowrocket is best used with iPhone and iPad. Unfortunately, there is no Shadowrocket for Mac or Shadowrocket Windows. To install Shadowrocket, go to your AppStore and download the app to your iPhone or iPad.
Shadowrocket setup with proxies
To use our Residential Proxies with Shadowrocket, first, open the Shadowrocket application and then click on Add Server.
In the following window, click on Type.
Choose HTTPS and go back to the previous screen.
Enter proxy and authentication information. Under Host type in Use port number 7777 to use our backconnect entry. Do not forget to type in your credentials under User and Password. And do not forget to add customer- before your given username. Once you are done, go back to the previous screen by pressing the back arrow.
Country-specific entries
You can also use country-specific entries. For example, if you put under Host and 10001 under Port, you will receive a US exit node with a sticky session.
For a full list of country-specific entry notes, please refer to our documentation.
After filling out the proxy details, you will be able to turn the proxy on. To do that, activate a toggle under Not Connected.
If that is your first time using Shadowrocket, you will get an iOS prompt to add Shadowrocket to your VPN configurations. Click Add. You will need to enter your iPhone passcode to confirm.
And that is it. The toggle at the top of the app should now be activated.
You can easily test if the proxy is working by visiting
Conclusions
Together with Oxylabs proxies, Shadowrocket provides an added level of security and privacy to your iPhone or iPad.
Shadowrocket proxy integration with Oxylabs Residential Proxies is fast and easy, so you can start working on your projects right away. If you have any questions about integrating Oxylabs proxies, please contact us at any time.
Gabija Fatenaite is a Product Marketing Manager at Oxylabs. Having grown up on video games and the internet, she grew to find the tech side of things more and more interesting over the years. So if you ever find yourself wanting to learn more about proxies (or video games), feel free to contact her – she’ll be more than happy to answer you.
All information on Oxylabs Blog is provided on an “as is” basis and for informational purposes only. We make no representation and disclaim all liability with respect to your use of any information contained on Oxylabs Blog or any third-party websites that may be linked therein. Before engaging in scraping activities of any kind you should consult your legal advisors and carefully read the particular website’s terms of service or receive a scraping license.
Shadowsocks vs. VPNs — Everything You Need to Know
If you have ever taken interest in the Great Firewall of China, you have probably heard of Shadowsocks. It is often mistaken for a VPN-based technology — but while some of the functions overlap, Shadowsocks and VPNs are two completely different things.
This article will help you understand the different aspects of the two technologies. We will also give you a rundown of each one’s benefits, complete with scenarios where Shadowsocks may be more suitable than a VPN, and vice versa.
What Is Shadowsocks?
An open-source SOCKS5-based proxy project, Shadowsocks is an intermediary that is mainly designed to bypass censorship. It was first released in 2012 by its creator, a Chinese programmer under the pseudonym “clowwindy”.
In 2015, the programmer announced that they were retiring from the project due to pressure from the Chinese police. Since then, Shadowsocks has remained open source, maintained and improved by many collaborators.
How Is Shadowsocks Different from VPN?
There is one major similarity between VPN and Shadowsocks — their ability to connect you to certain websites that are normally off-limits due to government censorship, geoblocks, or otherwise.
Given its original objective of bypassing the Great Firewall of China, Shadowsocks focuses on circumventing traffic restrictions. It utilizes HTTPS, thus disguising traffic so that it can move past the censorship measures in place.
Unlike VPN, Shadowsocks isn’t designed for privacy and anonymity. While both VPN and Shadowsocks encrypt data, Shadowsocks is much more lightweight. VPN uses many layers of military-grade encryption protocols to completely hide the traffic on its servers. Shadowsocks makes data ‘blank’ to look more like HTTPS traffic, so that it can move around unrestricted. It is not hidden, like on VPN, just disguised.
Due to its use of SOCKS5 proxies, Shadowsocks doesn’t send all your traffic through a server, as opposed to VPN. And in contrast to traditional ssh SOCKS5 proxies, Shadowsocks works with multiple TCP connections. The result is much faster speeds compared to the alternatives.
Benefits of Shadowsocks
The biggest advantage of Shadowsocks is its easy setup. The technology is a simple and capable proxy that doesn’t take long to set up and is perfect for accessing restricted content. Shadowsocks is also completely open source, with contributors making improvements regularly.
Another benefit of Shadowsocks is its selective disguising of traffic. You can choose which part of your traffic is affected by Shadowsocks — this makes it possible to access restricted content both inside and outside of your location.
Take the following scenario for example: you are in China and you want to access Gmail. By using Shadowsocks, you can choose the Gmail traffic to be “camouflaged”, thus bypassing the Chinese government’s block.
However, you will still be able to access the China-only websites. By contrast, a VPN would encrypt all traffic to your chosen server, thus making China-exclusive sites unavailable on the same device.
Last but not least, Shadowsocks is very difficult — if not impossible — to detect and block. The masking of traffic to make it appear as HTTPS is the main reason for that.
On the other hand, VPN’s modus operandi and its immense popularity have made it easier for governments and platforms to block the technology or force major corporations to remove VPN products from their stores (Apple removing VPN apps from the Chinese App Store is an example).
Understanding the Threat Model
While Shadowsocks is a great technology for bypassing content restrictions, its functionality beyond that is limited. As such, this superproxy is a viable option only if it fits a certain threat model — your ISP.
What is a threat model? Simply put, it is the reason you are looking for a VPN, VPS or DNS proxy in the first place. There are many aspects of the Internet that may demand a higher level of security — examples of threat models are public Wi-Fi hotspots, ISP-related issues such as data monitoring and logging, keeping your online identity hidden, etc.
Shadowsocks does not help your online privacy and security. You should use it only if your main concern is working around censorship.
Other threat models, which involve keeping your identity well-hidden on the Internet, are areas where Shadowsocks falls short. One could argue that it wasn’t designed for such functionality, and we agree. This is where VPN outshines Shadowsocks.
When Is VPN the Better Choice?
When compared to Shadowsocks, VPN is the “mainstream” technology. It’s widespread and its effectiveness is well-documented and indisputable.
If you are looking for something that will protect your identity online while fully erasing your digital footprint, VPN is your go-to tool. It goes without saying that not every VPN out there is perfect — the sheer number of providers is proof enough that there are both solid and lackluster VPN services on the market.
However, with some research, you can ensure you make the right choice. We reviewed some of the best VPNs currently available, and we made a list of the most reliable providers for your guaranteed privacy, security, and accessibility on the Internet.
The bottom line is that a quality VPN will provide you with everything you need for safe, anonymous, and unrestricted web surfing.
While VPN blocks still exist (and we don’t see them going away in the near future), there are multiple providers out there who have proven that they will continue to find ways to give users around the world what they want, whether it’s access to geographically-limited platforms such as Netflix, HBO, and BBC, or a workaround for government censorships in countries like China and Russia.
If you want to learn more about VPN’s extensive capabilities, we recommend you check out our beginner’s guide.
To sum up, Shadowsocks is a great way of bypassing digital censorship. It was created in a country where this is a rather big issue, but today it has expanded globally thanks to its open-source nature and ease of use.
In the long run, however, VPN is a much more suitable option for you if identity protection and anonymity on the Internet are on your agenda.
To summarize, the best VPNs in 2021 are…
Privacy Alert!
Your data is exposed to the websites you visit!
The information above can be used to track you, target you for ads, and monitor what you do online.
VPNs can help you hide this information from websites so that you are protected at all times. We recommend ExpressVPN — the #1 VPN out of over 350 providers we’ve tested. It has military-grade encryption and privacy features that will ensure your digital security, plus — it’s currently offering 49% off.
Visit ExpressVPN
Shadowsocks Review 2021: Before You Buy, Is It Worth It? – WizCase
To connect to Shadowsocks, you need to either rent or buy a server from a third party. Shadowsocks was designed this way so everyone using it would have a different configuration because they would be renting servers from different third parties. This makes it harder for China’s firewall to detect your traffic. Server rental companies operate data centers all around the world and let you rent servers from them.
An app called Outline makes it easy to rent a server from several services and then connect to it with Shadowsocks. Outline automates the process of renting a server from DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, or Amazon Lightsail. Outline recommends using DigitalOcean because it is easy to set up and cost-effective.
The Outline client makes it easy to rent and run your own Shadowsocks-enabled server
These server rental firms don’t offer the features of a VPN, like zero-logs policies to hide your activities, streaming optimized servers, or lightning-fast speeds. You’re also limited to very few servers, which means you’ll be left with no alternatives if there’s a technical problem or your IP gets blocked. That’s why I recommend you try using Private Internet Access (PIA) to connect via Shadowsocks instead. With over 34400 super-fast servers, you have literally thousands of backups if one has a technical issue. Plus, PIA lets you connect with the Shadowsocks protocol. This gives you the advantages of a VPN and Shadowsocks all in one (for less per month than renting a server).
Shadowsocks will get you past strong firewalls but it isn’t guaranteed to keep you safe. Unlike VPNs, Shadowsocks only gives you a way of getting around censorship by disguising your traffic with HTTPS (a data transfer protocol that tricks government filters).
The Outline client makes it easy to connect using Shadowsocks, but it doesn’t have zero-logs policies or encryption to hide your data. That means server operators, ISPs, and other third parties might be able to see what you’re doing online when you use Shadowsocks. You’ll also be vulnerable to common online threats like phishing emails, malware, and scammers on public Wi-Fi networks. To defend against spying and cybercrime, you need a premium VPN.
Shadowsocks was built with the main purpose of bypassing censorship — privacy or anonymity have never been priorities for its developers. Your privacy will be mainly determined by which server you use with Shadowsocks but even if you rent a server that offers powerful encryption protocols, it might not be enough to protect your privacy.
Although Shadowsocks itself does not keep logs, some server rental services do while you use them or put your privacy at risk by partnering with third-party data firms. For example — while DigitalOcean promises not to log your online activities, it partners with SolarWinds to provide server analytics. When SolarWinds got hacked, millions of users (including DigitalOcean users and employees of US government agencies) had their data compromised. Incidents like this show that only a top-tier VPN with a proven no-logs policy and military-grade cipher can offer sufficient protection for your data from malicious third parties.
While it won’t encrypt your connection, you can torrent with Shadowsocks as long as the server you’re connecting to allows it. If you use a server with no encryption, torrent speeds will be faster than with a traditional VPN — but you also won’t stay anonymous. While you should never use torrent sites to violate copyright law, even accidental downloads of protected material could get you in legal trouble. If safety is a priority for you when torrenting I would not recommend Shadowsocks. I prefer a super-fast VPN that ensures I remain anonymous and keeps my data safe while torrenting.
Does Shadowsocks Work in China? Yes!
Created by an anonymous Chinese hacker calling themselves “clowwindy” to bypass internet blocks, Shadowsocks reliably works in China.
Recently, China has cracked down on VPNs that were previously able to bypass China’s strong firewall. Only a few VPNs work in China and they rely on well-known protocols to encrypt data. This has allowed Chinese censors to create machine-learning technology that can often identify these protocols and block the VPNs supporting them.
While a VPN is rerouting your traffic through a server in a different location, Shadowsocks is disguising the connection between your local computer and a proxy server. Shadowsocks relies on you renting, buying, or creating your own proxy servers. You will therefore have a different configuration to other Shadowsocks users who use other server providers. Its non-centralized system makes it less likely for officials to detect your traffic as each Shadowsocks connection looks a little different.
Although officials are aware of Shadowsocks and have attempted to block its use in China, it still remains one of the more reliable tools to circumvent censorship. This is because Shadowsocks is open-source and anyone can maintain, alter and release new versions of Shadowsocks if a version of it gets blocked.
If you are traveling to China and need access to your emails and other online accounts, the easiest way to rent servers and use Shadowsocks is through a third-party app. I used Outline to rent and connect servers to Shadowsocks. You can download Outline straight from its website, rent a server located outside China using Outline’s manager and connect to the open web.
Shadowsocks makes it easy to open up the restricted web in other countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, and UAE. Just take note that non-approved VPNs and using circumvention tools to bypass censorship aren’t legal in these countries. The protection of a VPN or circumvention tool doesn’t give you the license to break the law.
Frequently Asked Questions about shadow shock proxy
What is Shadowrocket used for?
Shadowrocket is a free and open-source encryption protocol app that secures your online browsing via proxies.Mar 26, 2021
Is Shadowrocket a VPN?
Unlike VPN, Shadowsocks isn’t designed for privacy and anonymity. … Due to its use of SOCKS5 proxies, Shadowsocks doesn’t send all your traffic through a server, as opposed to VPN. And in contrast to traditional ssh SOCKS5 proxies, Shadowsocks works with multiple TCP connections.
Is Shadowsocks VPN safe?
As long as you have a server you can use, Shadowsocks is a reliable proxy. It has given access to censored websites in China consistently for years, even as authorities have kept trying to block it. If you don’t own or rent a server, you’re better off using a VPN like ExpressVPN.Oct 4, 2021
