Today marks one month of running my own proxy server.

Lately, my internet service provider (if not the government) has been blocking more and more websites. Some are blocked randomly, like, one day they’re fine, the next they’re not, which is super irritating. They even started blocking Telegram a few months back.

Getting Around the Blocks

To get around it, I had to use proxies. The problem is, I don’t really trust most proxy providers, even the paid ones. So, I did what any stubborn nerd would do: I spun up a VPS on Oracle Cloud and set up a SOCKS5 proxy.

I only route specific websites through the proxy (you’ll probably need a browser extension if yours doesn’t support that out of the box), and keep everything else going through my regular internet connection. One reason for this setup is to save on data costs. I don’t want all my traffic going through the proxy and racking up the bill. So far, it’s been working really well.

Is it worth it?

Well, that depends.

There’s definitely a bit of maintenance involved. For example, aside from basic authentication, I also restrict access by IP for extra peace of mind, but since my home IP isn’t static, I have to update the settings every now and then. Still, if you’re a bit paranoid when it comes to privacy, it’s totally worth the hassle.