IRC on port 80?

July 9, 2005 12:36 PM

I want to use an IRC client from work, their proxy won't let me.

I write software for a big bank. We're forced to use their proxy to communicate with the outside world and only port 80 is exposed. Is there any way to use IRC over port 80? The closest thing I've seen so far is running a proxy server from home, I've got a WinXP Pro box serving ftp and http at home but using it as a proxy would conflict with the http. Any suggestions?

posted by furtive to computers & internet (9 comments total)

This one works well. If it doesn't, you should be able to use one of these irc.cgi proxies.
posted by cmonkey at 12:48 PM on July 9, 2005

Do they allow AOL Instant Messenger? I have the same situation at work, and I wrote up a little program to connect from AOL to IRC, that runs at my house on a separate screen name. So basically I chat with myself at home, which connects me to IRC.
posted by knave at 1:04 PM on July 9, 2005

(By the way, I am forced through a proxy at work, and AIM works over the proxy.)
posted by knave at 1:05 PM on July 9, 2005

cmonkey: That first link works great, although I'll have to wait and see if they block the site from work.

Knave: I haven't tried AOL but MSN wouldn't work. I have a solution similar to the CGI proxy that I am in the process of whipping up using AJAX as a frontend to the Pirc java bot, but it takes time and this may be more than enough for now.
posted by furtive at 1:10 PM on July 9, 2005

Also, you could SSH to a Unix webserver (if you have access to one) and run a console IRC client. Or use VNC to connect to your Windows/Mac at home, and run it remotely there.
posted by waxpancake at 8:39 PM on July 9, 2005

waxpancake, those things are not an option because everything but port 80 is blocked. You need a protocol that works over an HTTP proxy, like a web site or my example, AOL IM.
posted by knave at 10:11 PM on July 9, 2005

there's nothing that says SSH can't be run over port 80.
posted by devilsbrigade at 11:42 PM on July 9, 2005

I was about to disagree with you, because it's not just the port problem, it's that it has to be capable of running through an HTTP proxy, which seems like something SSH can't do. That is, until I found this very interesting page. It describes how to run any TCP application in this precise situation! It looks really impressive, but I bet it's pretty damn slow. I might have to try this one...
posted by knave at 9:05 AM on July 10, 2005 [1 favorite]

Many clients (PuTTY included, which is the de-facto Win32 ssh client) have an option to use an HTTP proxy. In PuTTY it is located in Connection->Proxy->HTTP Proxy.
posted by devilsbrigade at 9:57 AM on July 10, 2005