BNC (software)

Last updated

A BNC (short for Bounced Network Connection) is a piece of software that is used to relay traffic and connections in computer networks, much like a proxy. Using a BNC allows a user to hide the original source of the user's connection, providing privacy as well as the ability to route traffic through a specific location. A BNC can also be used to hide the true target to which a user connects. [1]

Contents

IRC

Scheme of an IRC network with normal clients (green), bots (blue) and bouncers (orange) Ircnetz-Schema.svg
Scheme of an IRC network with normal clients (green), bots (blue) and bouncers (orange)

One common usage is over Internet Relay Chat (IRC) via a BNC running on remote servers. In such an environment, where it is very easy to ascertain a user's IP address a BNC may help to hide the original connection source, as well as providing the opportunity for "vhosts" or "virtual hosts". The use of a vhost does not conceal the connection any better but merely adds a statement as the hostname.

Many BNCs remain connected to an IRC server in the event the client should disconnect from the Internet. Often state changes are tracked so that they may be relayed to the client upon reconnection. Some implementations opt to store all messages sent across the network that the client would have normally received and send them upon the client's reconnection; this is often considered to be much too resource dependent for commercial hosting services to provide. Other logging features and bot like functions may be included with various implementations but are not standard.

Example

User A logs onto IRC directly and appears as USER!user@users.reverse.dns
User A logs onto IRC indirectly through a BNC and appears as USER!user@bnc.net

Software

A list of bouncers.

Hosted services

Several companies offer hosted IRC bouncer services:

FTP

BNCs are also often used for File Transfer Protocol (FTP), again to hide the user and server from each other and to route traffic through a specific location. FTP bouncers can be divided into two different categories, entry and traffic.

An entry bouncer acts as a gateway to the server, but it does not hide the existence of the actual server. Entry bouncers, like cubnc, can be used in a multiserver setup for easy access to each server and load balancing. This removes the need to select which FTP server to log into, when trying to access the server farm.

Traffic bouncers relay traffic through the host they are installed on and present themselves as if they were the FTP server, thus hiding the real location of the server completely. Multiple traffic bouncers can be installed parallel in order to balance traffic load across different links. Most elaborate bouncers can even bounce secure SSL/TLS connections.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IRC</span> Protocol for real-time Internet chat and messaging

IRC is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat and data transfer, including file sharing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proxy server</span> Computer server that makes and receives requests on behalf of a user

In computer networking, a proxy server is a server application that acts as an intermediary between a client requesting a resource and the server providing that resource. It improves privacy, security, and possibly performance in the process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XMPP</span> Communications protocol for message-oriented middleware

Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open communication protocol designed for instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact list maintenance. Based on XML, it enables the near-real-time exchange of structured data between two or more network entities. Designed to be extensible, the protocol offers a multitude of applications beyond traditional IM in the broader realm of message-oriented middleware, including signalling for VoIP, video, file transfer, gaming and other uses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Squid (software)</span> Caching and forwarding HTTP web proxy

Squid is a caching and forwarding HTTP web proxy. It has a wide variety of uses, including speeding up a web server by caching repeated requests, caching World Wide Web (WWW), Domain Name System (DNS), and other network lookups for a group of people sharing network resources, and aiding security by filtering traffic. Although used for mainly HTTP and File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Squid includes limited support for several other protocols including Internet Gopher, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), Transport Layer Security (TLS), and Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). Squid does not support the SOCKS protocol, unlike Privoxy, with which Squid can be used in order to provide SOCKS support.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XDCC</span> File sharing service

XDCC is a computer file sharing method which uses the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network as a host service.

Direct Client-to-Client (DCC) is an IRC-related sub-protocol enabling peers to interconnect using an IRC server for handshaking in order to exchange files or perform non-relayed chats. Once established, a typical DCC session runs independently from the IRC server. Originally designed to be used with ircII it is now supported by many IRC clients. Some peer-to-peer clients on napster-protocol servers also have DCC send/get capability, including TekNap, SunshineUN and Lopster. A variation of the DCC protocol called SDCC, also known as DCC SCHAT supports encrypted connections. An RFC specification on the use of DCC does not exist.

An IRC bot is a set of scripts or an independent program that connects to Internet Relay Chat as a client, and so appears to other IRC users as another user. An IRC bot differs from a regular client in that instead of providing interactive access to IRC for a human user, it performs automated functions.

An IRCd, short for Internet Relay Chat daemon, is server software that implements the IRC protocol, enabling people to talk to each other via the Internet. It is distinct from an IRC bot that connects outbound to an IRC channel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open proxy</span> Proxy server accessible to any Internet user

An open proxy is a type of proxy server that is accessible by any Internet user.

Port triggering is a configuration option on a NAT-enabled router that controls communication between internal and external host machines in an IP network. It is similar to port forwarding in that it enables incoming traffic to be forwarded to a specific internal host machine, although the forwarded port is not open permanently and the target internal host machine is chosen dynamically.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CGI:IRC</span> CGI program

CGI:IRC is a CGI program written in Perl that allows access to IRC via a web browser. It is designed to be flexible and has many uses such as an IRC gateway for an IRC network, a chat-room for a website or to access IRC when stuck behind a restrictive firewall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ZNC</span> IRC bouncer

ZNC is an IRC network bouncer or BNC. It can detach the client from the actual IRC server, and also from selected channels. Multiple clients from different locations can connect to a single ZNC account simultaneously and therefore appear under the same nickname on IRC. It supports Transport Layer Security connections and IPv6.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proxy list</span>

A proxy list is a list of open HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy servers all on one website. Proxies allow users to make indirect network connections to other computer network services. Proxy lists include the IP addresses of computers hosting open proxy servers, meaning that these proxy servers are available to anyone on the internet. Proxy lists are often organized by the various proxy protocols the servers use. Many proxy lists index Web proxies, which can be used without changing browser settings.

This page is a comparison of notable remote desktop software available for various platforms.

In computing, logging is the act of keeping a log of events that occur in a computer system, such as problems, errors or just information on current operations. These events may occur in the operating system or in other software. A message or log entry is recorded for each such event. These log messages can then be used to monitor and understand the operation of the system, to debug problems, or during an audit. Logging is particularly important in multi-user software, to have a central overview of the operation of the system.

An anonymizer or an anonymous proxy is a tool that attempts to make activity on the Internet untraceable. It is a proxy server computer that acts as an intermediary and privacy shield between a client computer and the rest of the Internet. It accesses the Internet on the user's behalf, protecting personal information of the user by hiding the client computer's identifying information such as IP addresses. Anonymous proxy is the opposite of transparent proxy, which sends user information in the connection request header. Commercial anonymous proxies are usually sold as VPN services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mibbit</span> Web based IRC client

Mibbit was a web-based client for web browsers that supports Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Yahoo! Messenger, and Twitter. It is developed by Jimmy Moore and is designed around the Ajax model with a user interface written in JavaScript. It is the IRC application setup by default on Firefox. Following an announcement on the website homepage, Mibbit shut down on August 30th, 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Konversation</span> IRC client

Konversation is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client built on the KDE Platform and is free software released under the terms of the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later. Konversation is currently maintained in the KDE Extragear Network module, which means that it has its own release cycle which is independent from the main KDE applications. It is the default IRC client in many prominent Linux distributions, such as openSUSE, the KDE spin of Fedora, and Kubuntu.

The Ident Protocol, specified in RFC 1413, is an Internet protocol that helps identify the user of a particular TCP connection. One popular daemon program for providing the ident service is identd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quassel IRC</span> Cross-platform IRC client

Quassel IRC, or Quassel, is a graphical, distributed, cross-platform IRC client, introduced in 2008. It is released under the GNU General Public License version 2 and version 3, for GNU and Unix-like operating systems, macOS, and Microsoft Windows. It has also been ported to OS/2 Warp due to its cross-platform nature. Since the release of Kubuntu 9.04 Quassel is Kubuntu's default IRC client. Quassel uses the Qt application framework.

References

  1. ↑ Lederer, Christian (phrozen77). (December 22, 2009). "IRC bouncer comparison" Archived February 14, 2015, at the Wayback Machine . IRC-Junkie. December 22, 2009.
  2. ↑ "ZNC". wiki.znc.in. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
  3. ↑ emersion. "soju". Codeberg.org. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
  4. ↑ "soju IRC bouncer". soju.im. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
  5. ↑ "The Lounge". The Lounge. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
  6. ↑ "Frequently Answered Questions | IRCCloud". www.irccloud.com. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
  7. ↑ "IRC Today - Your modern hosted IRC bouncer". irctoday.com. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Announcing chat.sr.ht: a persistent IRC session for sourcehut users". sourcehut.org. Retrieved October 7, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.