Some proxy traffic is not recorded

Started by Hudson-M1

Some proxy traffic is not recorded   17 May 2019, 01:16

During a test run of NetWorx, I happened to find a "corner case" that some traffic through my proxy setup is not being recorded, possibly related to LAN traffic detection.

Here is my setup diagram, arrow indicates data flow direction:
SoftPerfect support forum
0. NetWorx running on computer A, with "Ignore LAN traffic" option enabled;
1. Download files from mega.nz via 3rd-party CLI tool megatools on computer A;
2. mega.nz data comes in through a socks5 proxy written in node.js, running on computer A;
3. A second computer B converts this socks5 proxy to a http proxy via the tool polipo;
4. Ultimately, the downloading tool megatools downloads data via converted http proxy polipo on computer B.
(This detour was because at first I did not figure out that megatools could directly take http proxy)

Expected behaviour: Incoming traffic should be logged in NetWorx. Since ultimately, mega.nz data comes in from WAN via the node.js socks proxy on computer A, which is not LAN traffic. In the Applications tab, incoming traffic of node.js should grow.

Actual behaviour: In the Applications tab, incoming traffic to node.js did not grow.


If I turn off "Ignore LAN traffic", incoming traffic to node.js is correctly logged.

Later I discovered megatools could directly take socks5 proxy, eliminating the polipo detour. This way, incoming traffic to node.js is correctly logged in NetWorx.

Screenshot of undetected traffic:
SoftPerfect support forum

I understand this is a rare corner case that does not represent 99.9% of regular users, but I think this is a somewhat interesting case that may reveal some potential issue. This ultimately does not affect usability in my setup, so I just presented the case here in case the developers find it useful.

Thanks in advance!
SoftPerfect Support forum - Andrew avatar image

Re: Some proxy traffic is not recorded   17 May 2019, 13:45

It's a little hard to understand what exactly you are doing with that proxy conversion, but the explanation of the outcome is simple: as computer A receives data from computer B, from the point of view of NetWorx it's a local connection whose traffic is disregarded.

This could be worked around by either removing computer B IP address from the excluded ranges (the Setup button next to Ignore local traffic within the LAN); or, as you already discovered, simply by eliminating the detour, in which case the traffic is recorded as Internet.

Sometimes you can find a solution faster if you try the forum search, have a look at the knowledge base, or check the software user manual to see if your question has already been answered.

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