The assumption is that you already have a Skywire node setup and have access to your Skywire manager. It is important to note that, Internet Explorer, Edge and Brave Browser are not recommended for using the Skywire web interface. If you are still having issues with your Skywire Manager this may be because you run a lot of addons on your web browser. Addons including “No Script” or some more potent privacy addon’s (You should always run privacy addons) may interfere with the manager. It’s best to try and use a web browser with no or few addons if you’re having problems using the Skywire Manager.
Once logged into the manager, pick a node and click on it to open up the settings interface. There is a lot of side things on this window that are useful to take note of. You can access the terminal for your nodes through the interface here, to run software updates or check IP address, as well as rebooting your node. Back on topic, the setting that we want is called “Connect to Node” and looks like a gray GPS arrow.
Once clicked, it opens up a pop-up window with two options, “Search services”, or “Enter the key for node an app”.
- The Enter the key for node an app option is what you will connect to if someone is offering for you to use their node. For example, if I lived in the USA and I wanted to watch Netflix with someone using my node, the information I give them would be for this option.
- The Search Services option is the one that we will be using today. This allows us to pick where in the world we want to connect to. Go ahead and click on the Search Services Option.
This will open up a menu that shows you all the nodes across the world. Not just what country, but also what state within that country. You can choose where in the world you want your connection to pop out. Pick a Node to connect to.
For the purpose of this tutorial I will pick the USA.
This is how your menu looks when your connected to a node. This node is now in a VPN with the node I picked in the USA. Your node is now up and running exactly as it needs to. Now what we do from here on out is get your PC or Web Browser running its connection through the node to tunnel your own traffic through to the country in question. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will route your web browsers traffic. We need to know what the Local IP of the node that's working as a VPN. Click on the “Terminal” option, press yes and type “hostname -I”
Now that the Node is routed through to the location in the world we want and we know the IP of said node, we can move onto the other section of this guide. By the way, you will need to install FoxyProxy to follow the rest of this guide.
Security Note: Your network connection will be running out of a node run by and owned by someone else. HTTPS Everywhere is a really good idea to make sure your web data is always encrypted. Addons to your browser:
REQUIRED :
Recommended
HTTPS Everywhere
Privacy Badger
DuckDuckGo
Once your FoxyProxy is installed you will notice it being active in the top corner of your Firefox web browser. Click on it and you will get a drop down menu. Pick the bottom Option called “Options”.
The Options menu will open in a new window and will look like the below image. Simply click on the “Add” button in the top left corner.
In the new window that opens up you will have to apply these settings:
Proxy Type: SOCKS5
Title: Whatever you want to call it
IP: 192.168.X.X (The IP address of the Node your Using)
Port: 9443
Once you have hit Save and applied the changes you will be brought back to the main menu screen. You will see your Node Name and Node IP address.
Now go back to your FoxyProxy menu in the top corner and pick the option “Use Enabled Proxies By Patterns and Priority”
That’s it!
Congratulations! Now the node is up and running and all your web traffic with that browser is being routed through the location you have picked.
Issues:
Sometimes some nodes are flaky, make sure you have a network connection. If you don’t have a network connection, simply pop into your node and change the one you’re connected to, to another connection. I suggest also doing a speed test at speedof.me to make sure that the person you’re connected to is able to handle what you’re demanding.
Notes:
The developers have said they are working on a way to opt out of being an exit node for when the “Tor like functions” of the network go live. For now that is not an option. You can’t opt out of being a VPN currently either. I am next working on how to set up DHCP filtering on your network connection. I hope you stay tuned and enjoy my content. I am new to doing content like this so all feedback is welcome.
