Dowse

Dowse is an open source, minimalistic and free shell script implemented for ZSH (Z shell) and designed to easily transform your old and dusty computer into a powerful firewall, gateway and privacy proxy for your LAN (Local Area Network).

The project is comprised os a small shell script that supports multiple Linux operating systems and automatically generates all the required configuration for several daemons, including Privoxy, Squid, DnsMasq, Iptables, and Tor.

Supports both Tor and I2P anonymity networks

The privacy proxy component of Dowse supports both the Tor and I2P anonymity networks. The program lets users to easily configure ARP-level static entries, as well as an application layer transparent proxy.

The application works by taking full control of a Local Area Network (LAN), nominating itself as the DNS server and main gateway for all clients. It does this by becoming the main DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server of the respective LAN.

It then tracks assigned leases using their MAC addresses and makes use of the DNSMasq software for implementing the DNS and DHCP daemon. It passes all network traffic through NAT (Network Address Translation) rules for masquerading and filters all HTTP traffic on port 80 through a transparent proxy via the well known Privoxy or Squid proxy servers.

Additionally, it also filters all DNS traffic on port 53 through a DNSCrypt proxy and encrypts it using the AES and SHA256 algorithms. In the end, it sends the traffic information to the DNSCrypt.eu website.

Getting started with Dowse

Please keep in mind when using this application, which was written in the UNIX Shell scripting programming language, that you must have the ZSH shell implemented in your GNU/Linux to run the application, otherwise it won’t work. Detailed installation instructions can be found on the project’s homepage (see link below).

What is new in this release:

• Module enhancements, whitepaper and code cleanup:
• The start/stop is now working faster, new safer iptables rules have been added and overall the code has been reorganized.
• The squid/privoxy functionality has been made into a module, preserving only firewalling and dnsmasq as the core functionalities of Dowse.
• The whitepaper is published along the code now, including all contributions gathered so far. Dowse project applies for CHEST funding.

What is new in version 0.4:

• Tor integration and proxy performance fixes
• Testing, code refactoring and stability fixes
• Squid has been tuned to use reasonable amounts of RAM
• Tor is now configured and started