How to setup Shadowsocks on your Ubuntu server

Introduction

Shadowsocks is a fast tunnel proxy that helps you bypass firewalls.

Add debian sid to your source list:

$ sudo echo "deb http://shadowsocks.org/debian wheezy main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

Install shadowsocks:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install shadowsocks

Edit shadowsocks config file /etc/shadowsocks/config.json:

$ sudo vi /etc/shadowsocks/config.json

Here is my config file

{
   "server":"0.0.0.0",
   "server_port":8388,
   "local_port":0,
   "password":"demo",
   "timeout":600,
   "method":"aes-256-cfb"
}

Explanation of the fields:

Name	Explanation
server	the address your server listens
server_port	server port
local_address	the address your local listens
local_port	local port
password	password used for encryption
timeout	in seconds
method	encryption method, “aes-256-cfb” is recommended
fast_open	use TCP_FASTOPEN, true / false
workers	number of workers, available on Unix/Linux

Start shadowsocks:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/shadowsocks start

On your client machine, use the same configuration as your server, and start your client.

If you use Chrome, it’s recommended to use SwitchySharp. Change the proxy settings to

protocol: socks5
hostname: 127.0.0.1
port: your local_port