Version:           3.5.7 ("release 47.1" openSUSE) (using KDE KDE 3.5.7)
Installed from:    SuSE RPMs
OS:                Linux

Lately I'm forced to use a "Socks" proxy quite often in order to 

  (1) get an Internet connection at all through a firewall,
  (2) or in order to make it more secure when on an unsecure network 
      (like public hotspot in hotel/airport/etc.).,
  (3) or in order to access services on ports that the proxy is not
      configured to serve (irc://, news://, ...)

The way I set it up is this:


  (a) create an encrypted SSH connection to a secure remote host using 
      the (little known "-D portnumber" parameter to ssh command):

      ssh -i ~/.ssh/remote.key -p 8080 kurt@remotehost -N -D 28080 -f

      Above command...
        ...connects to me to remotehost:8080,
        ...(which is allowed by proxy), 
        ...because remotehost has sshd configured to listen there,
        ..."-f" backgrounds the connection,
        ..."-N" tells it to not execute any command,
        ..."-D" creates a 'dynamic' application-level portforwarding from 
           local port :28080,

      "-D portnumber" can be said to provide "poor man's Socks4/Socks5 
      proxy" handled by SSH. 


  (b) For the proxy configuration in Firefox and Thunderbird I use this
      setting:
      +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
      |                                                                 |
      |  [x] Manual Proxy Configuration                                 |
      |                                                                 |
      |     HTTP Proxy:[..............................]  Port:[0......] |
      |                [.] Use this proxy for all protocols             |
      |                                                                 |
      |      SSL Proxy:[..............................]  Port:[0......] |
      |      FTP Proxy:[..............................]  Port:[0......] |
      |   Gopher Proxy:[..............................]  Port:[0......] |
      |     SOCKS Host:[..localhost...................]  Port:[.28080.] |
      |                                                                 |
      +-----------------------------------------------------------------+

It works beautifully.... if I use Firefox and Thunderbird or even Inter-
net Explorer in Wine! (By adding "-g" to the ssh command line, (I can
even enable my local socks proxy to accept and pass on requests from
other local computers using software that is socks-enabled...)

Unfortunately.... this.does.not.work.in.KDE !

I can't figure out how Socks proxy support is supposed to work *at* *all*
in KDE (see screenshot)! (Probably, in an attempt to make it "magically
work" with auto-configuration only and hiding the ugly details from the
user, one can't even simply set a proxy name/ip-address and port when
it comes to the Socks protocol. Why is this? Why is this so different
from the handling of http-, https-, ftp- and gopher-proxies?!

Here is how the same configuration dialog looks in Konqueror (as you may
be well aware):

      +-- Servers ------------------------------------------------------+
      |                                                                 |
      |     HTTP:[..............................]  Port:[0......]       |
      |    HTTPS:[..............................]  Port:[0......]       |
      |      FTP:[..............................]  Port:[0......]       |
      |                                                                 |
      |          [.] Use same proxy server for all protocols            |
      |                                                                 |
      +-----------------------------------------------------------------+

The Socks proxy configuration is outsourced to a separate tab. It looks
like this:
      +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
      |                                                                 |
      |  [x] Enable SOCKS support                                       |
      |                                                                 |
      |  +--SOCKS Implementation-------------------------------------+  |  
      |  |                                                           |  |
      |  | [x] Auto detect   [.] NEC SOCKS    [.] Dante              |  |
      |  |                                                           |  |
      |  | [.] Use custom library                                    |  |
      |  |                                                           |  |
      |  | Path: [...........................................]       |  |
      |  |                                                           |  |
      |  +-----------------------------------------------------------+  |
      |                                                                 |
      |  +--Additional library search paths--------------------------+  |
      |  |                                                           |  |
      |  |                                                           |  |
      |  |                                                           |  |
      |  |                                                           |  |
      |  |                                                           |  |
      |  +-----------------------------------------------------------+  |
      |                                                      +-------+  |
      |                                                      | Test  |  |
      |                                                      +-------+  |
      +-----------------------------------------------------------------+

WTF?!

Does *anyone* who has not coded this part understand how this is supposed 
to work?! (I challenge you to find 5 people at aKademy who can...)

This proxy configuration module does not even have *any* documentation
about how it is supposed to work (at least I could locate none); not even
the most minimal [meaningful!] "WhatsThis" help...

(I must admit the "test" button works beautifully... it always reports 
"Success: SOCKS was found and initialized." whatever settings I try there.

But alas!, no real Socks proxy connection for Konqui! 

No save Internet access with KDE on public hotspots for me. 

No news:// access to the CUPS and Linuxprinting.org forums with KNode 
when I work on a customer site with a fascist proxy/firewall in place (I 
succeed in most cases to have my customers grant me an outward SSH 
connection to my trusted "remotehost" before I ever start travelling to 
their sites).

##############

So, sad as it is, I can't use KMail, Kontact, Kopete, Konqueror and have
to limit myself to Firefox and Thunderbird and Internet Explorer (for most 
cases where I access the Internet).

Please, I have 2 urgent wishes:

  (a) fix that for KDE4; make it so that as many as possible KDE4 appli-
      cations can take advantage of this "poor man's Socks proxy via
      SSH"

  (b) backport it to KDE 3.5


Thanks for considering!

-- 
Kurt Pfeifle
System & Network Printing Consultant ---- Linux/Unix/Windows/Samba/CUPS
Infotec Deutschland GmbH  .....................  Hedelfinger Strasse 58
A RICOH Company  ...........................  D-70327 Stuttgart/Germany