"Socksify" button and intagration with TorCap

[anonymous]

Hi,

I think great enhancement would be the intagration of "TorCap?" with Vidalia to make socksifying programs easy:

1.) It should be rather trivial to add a "Socksify" button to Vidalia that when clicked could bring up a search window.

2.) The end-user could then navigate to the program they wish to socksify and select the .exe.

2a.) An 'Address:Port' text input box would be nice for those end-users not using 127.0.0.1:9050.

3.) When the program is selected Vidalia could copy over the program's icon into a second window that lists the "currently socksified programs".

4.) Vidalia could then create a command to make TorCap? run the program when the end-user starts the program via. the Vidalia GUI.

4a.) Some type of 'signifyer' showing that the program is actually beinging sockisfied would be appreachiated by many. For example, the program's icon in the Vidalia's "currently socksified programs" window could change color/location/size/etc when the program is running and being routed through Tor via. Vidalia and TorCap?; (maybe add a little Vidalia onion icon to the program's icon?).

Note: I think a message/warning window should launch when a program is socksified for the first time. The window should explain what DNS is, what the possibilities are of a DNS leak and what a DNS leak will reveal. Some protocols and programs are more prone to DNS leaks than others. Solutions to fix DNS leaks would be prudent. Both Tor-Resolve and TorDNS v.1.7-localhost run very well on my test system. Unfortunily, the Windows OS does not have many alternatives to fix DNS leaks.

Note: I would be *very* appreative if Vidalia could take a command line to run a program in it's "currently socksified program" list. I would like to make a batch file to run some programs and would like to lauch Vidalia and have it run the programs via. TorCap?.

E.g. "Vidalia <Program On 'Currently Socksified Programs' List>"

Note: When Vidalia saves the socksified programs please use an .ini (or equivalent) located in either Vidalia's program root folder or more favorably in "...\Owner\Appliction Data\...". Please do not use registry entries as this would make Vidalia more portable and reduce the registry size.

Note: I have found that TorCap? does not run Stunnel on my Win XP Home SP2; I get connetion errors. The second generation "TorCap?2" can run Stunnel. TorCap?2 uses a GUI like I described above (search button & Address:Port text input). TorCap? does not take command line parmiters but the author is open to requests I am sure.

Thank you,

[edmanm]

This would be an interesting and useful addition, but there are a few techincal hurdles. Most notably, TorCap? and TorCap?2 are Windows-only applications and Vidalia is cross-platform. We would have to find and bundle similar applications for everywhere that Vidalia runs, such as all Windowses starting with Windows 95, OS X, various Linux distros, etc.

But, this really would be a great addition and improve Tor usability. We just have a few technical challenges first. :)