How to connect PuTTY via a proxy – Simplified Guide
You can’t directly connect to an SSH server if it’s in a private network or behind a NAT or firewall. An SSH could also be configured only to allow connection from a specific host or network and deny connection from everywhere else. Some possible solutions to this are connecting to the specific host or network via a VPN, or using a proxy.
You can configure PuTTY to tunnel its connection through a proxy. The supported proxy types for PuTTY are HTTP, SOCKS(4/5), Telnet and Local.
Steps to connect to SSH server using PuTTY via proxy:
Launch PuTTY.
Go to Connection → Proxy from the Category menu in the sidebar.
Choose the type of proxy that you are to use.
Enter the IP address or hostname of the server along with the port that the proxy service is listening to.
Set if whether or not you want the DNS resolution to be done on the proxy server or locally.
Enter proxy credentials if required.
Go to session from the Category menu.
Enter connection details such as the hostname or the IP address of the server that you want to connect to, local to the proxy server.
Click on the Open button to start the connection.
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Creating an SSH Proxy Tunnel with PuTTY – UCLA Math
Some websites available to Math Department members are filtered by the network the traffic originates on. In particular, connections to must come from a registered UCLA Math IP address to gain full access. If you are browsing this site from off-campus, and you have a Mathnet Linux account, you can use this proxy setup to make it appear that your traffic comes from one of our IP addresses. A proxy setup can be configured using OSX, Linux, or Windows using various browsers. This example shows a connection from a Windows machine using Firefox. Things you’ll need: A Linux Mathnet account, PuTTY (ssh client), and Firefox.
1. Launch PuTTY and enter the hostname (
– The hostname should be your UCLA homesite followed by “”. Login to a linux machine and type “home” and this will display your homesite.
2. On the left side, in the Category window, go to Connection -> SSH -> Tunnels.
3. For ‘Source Port’ enter ‘31415’ (this can be configured to whatever you want, just remember it).
4. Under ‘Destination’ select the ‘Dynamic’ radio button and leave the ‘Auto’ button selected.
5. Press the ‘Add’ button. You should see ‘D31415’ in the ‘Forwarded ports:’ box.
6. Then select the ‘Open’ button. This should open and terminal window and you should be prompted to login.
Once the tunnel is established, you now need to set up a SOCKS proxy in your web browser.
1. Launch Firefox.
2. Go to Tools -> Options.
3. On the left side of the window, select Advanced.
4. Under Advanced, in the middle of the page, select Network -> Connection -> Settings.
5. Under ‘Configure Proxies to Access the Internet’ select the ‘Manual proxy configuration’ radio button.
6. In the ‘SOCKS Host’ box enter ‘localhost’ and for ‘Port’ enter ‘31415’ (or whatever you set your SSH Tunnel up with).
7. Make sure ‘SOCKS v5’ is selected and select the ‘OK’ button to save.
As long as your PuTTY SSH connection remains connected, your proxy tunnel will be open and you will be able to use the internet through this proxy.
To determine that the proxy is up:
1. Go to and confirm that your IP address matches the host IP that you are tunneling through.
2. Also, if you are trying to gain access to MathSciNet, go to and look for “Univ of Calif, Los Angeles” in the top right of the page.
5 steps to setup SSH PROXY VIA WITH PUTTY – Carlos Vargas
Depending on your setup and where you are deploying your solution, you may have to jump via multiple servers before you can get access to your internal server. This quick guide will help you understand how you can leverage PUTTY to Proxy via multiple SSH hosts.
Here is the example: let say that you are on your house or outside your cloud provider and you need to access the private SSH server in the image. That server has an IP address that is private so it can’t be access from the internet. And there is only one server available from the internet. You can use that server as a SSH Proxy server so you can access the internal one via your SSH proxy server.
Here is what you need:
Install Putty suite completely not only the
Have a Public Key configure on your Servers and have the Keys available.
5 Steps to configure SSH Proxy with Putty
Open Putty and create a new connection. Type the IP address or DNS Name of your Private SSH Server. On our Lab that will be any IP address or Private DNS. Type a name to save the session later. Do not save it yet.
Click the Connection Data. Type the name in the Auto-login username field.
Click Connection Proxy. Type the IP Address or DNS server that is available externally or in the internet. Click Local for the Proxy Type and change the port to 22. Type your username that will be use to connect to the remote server. In the Telnet command or local proxy command type: plink%[email protected]%proxyhost -nc%host:%port
Click Connection à SSH àAuth. Click Allow agent forwarding and then put your public key.
Go back up to the Session screen and click Save. Then Open.
That’s it. You are now connected to your Private IP server via a public SSH Server.
Let me know how you use this tutorial.
Frequently Asked Questions about putty proxy
Is PuTTY classified as an SSH client or a SOCKS proxy server?
Other programs providing SOCKS server interface OpenSSH allows dynamic creation of tunnels, specified via a subset of the SOCKS protocol, supporting the CONNECT command. PuTTY is a Win32 SSH client that supports local creation of SOCKS (dynamic) tunnels through remote SSH servers.
What is SSH proxy command?
The “ProxyCommand” ssh directive allows you to connect to a computer behind a gateway machine without explicitly logging in to the gateway machine. … Once you setup your “config” file, you can login with “ssh <short name>” where <short name> is the name after the “Host” directive.Dec 12, 2017
What is SSH PuTTY used for?
PuTTY (/ˈpʌti/) is a free and open-source terminal emulator, serial console and network file transfer application. It supports several network protocols, including SCP, SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw socket connection. It can also connect to a serial port. The name “PuTTY” has no official meaning.
