Hey guys, I'm a provider of virtual private servers and SOCKS proxies, and I'd like to take a moment to teach you guys about what a VPS is, how you can benefit from it, how proxies work, and how to set all of this up on your own! Our service does pre-install all of this but I know some of you still prefer to use different hosting companies. Anyway, this should be a quick guide on everything. 1. What is a SOCKS Proxy? SOCKS Proxies are particularly popular in scenarios where a username and password are required for access. SOCKS proxies are more versatile than HTTP proxies, since it can be used for almost anything when HTTP is only used for HTTP traffic. This makes it suitable for bot clients to use. Now, what is a proxy? Basically, it's like a middle man. You send data to it, Runescape sends data to it, and then it exchanges the data. This way, Runescape won't know what your true IP address is, and another benefit over having a VPN is that proxies are meant to be applied to a program, whereas a VPN is your entire network. 2. What is a VPS? A VPS, or a virtual private server, is basically a chunk of a server dedicated to you. Almost all of these run a version of Linux, because Windows licensing is expensive, and Windows generally performs worse in this situation as it is less efficient. Most of the time, when you get a VPS, you are only first given access to the SSH, which lets you connect to the terminal/console. This is very much like command prompt. But you can't run Runescape on a command prompt, which means you need a method of viewing it. Of course, you can use something like Teamviewer, but the standard is called a VNC. There are many VNC programs out there. 3. How can you benefit from them? Assuming you purchase from a trustworthy seller, both the VPS and VNC will be exclusively yours. They will have a dedicated IP, just like the IP you have from your internet provider. The main benefit of a proxy for Runescape botting is so each of your accounts has a different IP and looks more random, as well as preventing chain bans. The main benefit of a VPS is that you can run it without leaving your computer on, and it will generally outperform your computer once you reach a certain level, or depending on your computer's specifications. Since they are scalable, you can always find a plan for your needs. Now let's move on to some more technical parts, before I show you how to set each up. 1. What are subnets? A very important factor when purchasing a VPS or a proxy is the subnets. Subnets are basically IP addresses that go from 23.35.32.1 to 23.35.32.254 (example) so essentially the last part of the IP address. Now, if your host uses one subnet, and every customer uses it for botting, it will look like a massive bot farm. This is where the notion that you should not buy a VPS/Proxy from a "Runescape seller" came from, but if done right, buying it from someone, for example, like us, can be much better than buying it off a random company. That's because for proxies, companies usually use blacklisted proxy addresses or an entire subnet. And same for the VPS, plus you're sharing the CPU between 100+ people. That's why the plans are cheaper. They're not meant for RS Botting. Many will even suspend you. So to put it short: the more varied the IPs, or the more subnets, the better. 2. Is RAM important? A lot of people purchase VPS plans based on just the RAM. That's because most hosts... don't even mention the CPU. If a host has a server with 128GB RAM, which is cheap, and one quad core processor, why would they tell you that you're going to get 1/100th or less of the processor's power? You should always look for plans that mention some sort of CPU guarantee. Or at the very least, ask the host what CPU they use and how many people or how it is shared. CPU is the number one "bottleneck" for RS bots. A lot of people will be proud of getting an 8GB RAM server for, let's say $10, but that's all useless if you only get 20% CPU power. Because that still means you'll only run about one bot and just be stuck with RAM. So don't just look at RAM amounts when purchasing plans. At the very most, you'll need about 512MB of RAM per bot you run. 3. What about proxies? For proxies, you want to make sure that the host provides you with full access to the proxy. And you want to make sure that it's on the default port for SOCKS proxies, 1080, with a root login or at the very least some form of log in. Otherwise, it means that the proxy could be shared with multiple users, and you do not want that, especially if you end up with someone else who is botitng. This will be even more suspicious and will get you banned very quickly. Generally, legitimate SOCKS proxies start at about $3-4 each minimum. Those who sell them for 50 cents, etc, are definitely shady as a dedicated IP on its own, not including server costs, generally runs at about $1 per IP due to the IPv4 shortage. They're either hacked, gotten from a public list, or shared. Setting up a SOCKS5 Proxy Server
Purchase a $2-3 budget plan that comes with about 100MB~ of RAM and a good network speed
Make sure you install Debian as your operating system
Get access to SSH, generally through putty. You'll need your VPS root username and password
Type in the following commands:
apt-get update
apt-get install nano //this is a personal preference
apt-get install dante-server
rm /etc/dante.conf
nano /etc/data.conf
Now, here's where it gets tricky. Different servers will have different networking setups, but try this:
logoutput: /var/log/socks.log
internal: venet0:0 port = 1080
internal: 127.0.0.1 port = 1080
external: venet0:0
method: username
clientmethod: none
user.privileged: root
user.notprivileged: socks
user.libwrap: nobody
client pass {
from: 0.0.0.0/0 port 1-65535 to: 0.0.0.0/0
log: connect disconnect error
}
pass {
from: 0.0.0.0/0 to: 0.0.0.0/0
command: bind connect udpassociate
log: error # connect disconnect iooperation
method: username
}
Type ctrl+x after pasting it and press enter to save the file.
This configuration will basically ask for your username as root and your root password to work, port 1080
Now let's type:
update-rc.d danted defaults //starts it on reboot
/etc/init.d/danted start
Should be all good! If you have issues post and I'll try to help.
Setting up a VPS with Desktop + Java
Pick a server with a pretty good amount of RAM, but focus on CPU as well
Make sure you pick Ubuntu as your operating system, this is often the easiest for beginners
We're going to need: a desktop environment, and a VNC viewer
Get access to SSH, generally through putty. You'll need your VPS root and password as usual
Type in the following commands:
apt-get update
apt-get install xubuntu-desktop tightvncserver //alternatively do xfce4 for more plain version
Now here's where you can either follow the conventions, or break them. I like to break them
It is recommended you do not do this under root account since anyone accessing VNC has full control, but screw it
tightvncserver :1
tightvncserver -kill :1
nano /home/vnc/.vnc/xstartup
At the end of this file, add:
exec /usr/bin/xfce4-session &
Save with ctrl+x as usual, and now let's make it start on boot:
update-rc.d vncserver defaults
Now we need to set a password for your VNC user
vncpasswd
Follow the prompt, enter an 8-digit password, and you're ready.
Download any VNC viewer
Reboot your server to make sure the auto-startup works
Connect to your server's IP, and the port 5901 using the VNC viewer of your choice
Hurray! We're done. Not really. You forgot about Java and such.
Let's install Java. There's a "PPA" for it since Ubuntu no longer distributes it. Type
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer
Follow through with the prompt. Now if you don't already have a web browser, you need one
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-next
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox
Now download a bot, and try to run it. Doesn't open? Chances are it needs to either:
chmod a+x javafilename.jar
Or you need to just launch it manually from terminal, since we don't want to mess with MIME types
java -jar javafilename.jar
Congratulations! I wrote all of this off the top of my head (except the proxy config file) so if there are any errors definitely do feel free to reply. I hope the community becomes more interested in using VPS services and proxies, especially when they can set it up themselves. You can even set up a proxy on your VPS, and there's so many other cool things you can do with them. I might run through it later just to double check!