jr conlin's ink stained banana

Hi all,

Well, i finally figured out the secret incantation to get this working under Vista, and since discovering the solution isn't quite so obvious.

First off The Problem:
So, you've downloaded Putty, created the Dynamic Port Entry like so:

and grabbed a copy of FoxyProxy for Firefox so that your proxies do the right thing on demand. All is well, except you're constantly getting "Empty return from Server" or "The proxy server is refusing connections", and now you're starting to really think hard about installing XP. (Granted, you probably should, but let's assume that's not an option.)

Well, turns out that Vista is again being "helpful". (i have a long standing hatred of things that are "helpful" because they usually just get in the way. While this can be cathartic when driving steam rollers, it's often less so when you're working on software.)

First, the proxies. Chances are VERY good that this is enough to get you going: You need to use 127.0.0.1 as your localhost address rather than localhost.
This is because Vista "helpfully" configures IP6 above IP4. (IP6's version of "localhost" is "::1:", but i'm pretty sure that putty will choke on that.)

Change your Proxy Host Name and things should work just fine.

If not, you'll need to punch a hole through your local firewall for that port. (thanks to The Great FB who provided that tip). To do that, you'll need to go to your Control Panel (seriously, switch to classic view. You're not an idiot.), Windows Firewall, then click on the Allow a program through Windows Firewall on the left side. (this will bring up the Settings/Exceptions tab) and [Add port...] Name: Proxy ; Port number: 1080 (or whatever port you're using) ; (*) TCP ;[OK]

That got me online and hopefully you too.

Now, add in stripping out Aero, turning off UAC, and reconfiguring most of the other "helpful" stuff to be far less "helpful" and Vista becomes nearly usable.

Ah…

Back from Hawaii with my family intact (nice bonus there), managed to recover the data off of my old laptop's drive, (Thank's Linux mount -o force -o remove_hiberfile!), got a few things settled, and then i discovered that the local carwash stocks Mexican Coca-Cola.

For those of you unfamiliar with said beverage, please fix that problem at your earliest opportunity. Mexican Coke is the Coke that you should have been drinking. It's what made Coke so famous (well, except for the actual cocaine part, that's not included). If you're older than about 30 or so, you may even remember the taste as being what "Coke" used to be like before "New Coke", several iterations of same, and "Classic Coke". This IS classic Coke. It's made with cane sugar (ok, Beet sugar would be best) but doesn't have that weird after-taste you get from the stock stuff you get everywhere else in the US.

This is a sippin' Coke.

Ahh… Now to figure out why the hell Vista won't let me run a proxy through putty and the day will be perfect.