We get access to Pandora.com using our own proxy server

I think many people know or heard something about pandora.com. This is a service for the selection and transmission of music of a given topic. The main difference from the more well-known last.fm is that the playlist is built not on the basis of statistics, but on the basis of very complex tags. The total number of tags is about four hundred, among them such as use of tonal harmonies, slow moving bass line, subtle use of vocal counterpoint, mellow rock instrumentation, off beat style, dry recording sound, i.e. very diverse. The whole staff of musicologists who have been developing Pandora’s musical theory for several years is engaged in tagging. With a certain amount of pathos, it can be said that pandora.com is an oasis of professionalism web 1.0 in the desert of equal opportunities web 2.0 :)



Only one quirk. Pandora.com is available only for American IP - a restriction they had to go under pressure from the RIAA. Other visitors, for example from Russia, will see only a page with apologies .



The option that I want to propose for circumventing this restriction is not ideal, it requires money (at the rate of 140 rubles per month), but it has one indisputable advantage - this option has been tested on mice without any complaints and has been working for me for ten months now.

')

This variant is a virtual dedicated server from minivds.com (this is a branch of domestic firstvds.ru, it is only located in Savvis data center, if I am not mistaken that in New York region.) And the proxy server 3proxy .



It would be possible to buy a vpn-connection with access to the USA, but the proxy, in my opinion, is a more functional solution - in addition you get a piece of a web server, which for anything may fit - you can take pictures, put a friend’s music or saytik a little (I do not recommend minivds for hosting something more complicated than a blog - mysql works unacceptably slow there, support is paid, in general, I warned you :)). Plus it's cheaper.



To deploy and operate a proxy, the cheapest VDS-Raccoon tariff plan for $ 5.95 per month is sufficient. You can pay webmani or credit card (paypal). As a result, we get vds with a monthly traffic limit of 30Gb, which I personally completely lack, although I work at home and turn on Pandora quite often. The tariff plan can be changed at any time without any harm to the customized scripts.



When registering you will be asked to enter a valid phone. Do not be afraid, no one from America to call and find out who you will not be, the robot will call and will dictate a few numbers in a human voice, which will need to be entered in a special field to confirm identity.



After registration is complete, you will receive the IP address of your mini-server. Now you need to log in via SSH protocol on port 22 to get access to the command line. This can be done, for example, using Putty or another terminal.



After connecting, log in as root and the password you chose during registration - and here you have a great and terrible unix command line. Below I will sign everything in detail, focusing on a person who has never worked with the command line before.



The main hint - commands can be not printed, but inserted into Putty from the clipboard using Shift-Insert. :)



So.

To start, create a folder where we put the proxy script.



cd /home/

mkdir 3proxy

cd 3proxy



Now download and unpack the distribution 3proxy. For the current address of the distribution, see http://3proxy.ru/download/ , “sources for Unix / Linux / Windows and documentation”



wget http://3proxy.ru/0.5.3k/3proxy-0.5.3k.tgz

tar -zxf 3proxy-0.5.3k.tgz



UPD . Probably worth writing. In order to make the proxy completely anonymous, you need to edit the src / proxy.h file, namely add the line #define ANONYMOUS 1 . Otherwise, 3proxy will make transparent proxy. But for the work of Pandora is not critical.



Now compile:



make -f Makefile.unix



Now we make our config:



cd src

vi config.cfg



The vi editor window will appear. Press i (go to insert mode) and write the following:



daemon

auth strong

users login:CL:password

proxy



instead of login and password, we write, of course, our own login and password for accessing the proxy. Then press Esc, then: wq and press Enter. We just saved the file. Are you impressed? :) Yes, a labor unix - he is.

To learn about additional commands and features 3proxy - read the How-to .



In principle, at this stage, you can run our proxy, but we first add the script to launch it to autoload, so that everything works according to the “set up and forget” principle.



cd /usr/local/etc/rc.d/

vi 3proxy.sh



Again vi. As before, press i, write



#!/bin/sh

cd /home/3proxy/src/

./3proxy config.cfg



then Esc: wq Enter. Then we give the file permissions to execute:



chmod 555 3proxy.sh



Now you can restart the server



reboot



After a couple of minutes, connect to the server again and give the command



ps -ax | grep 3proxy



If in the answer we see the line "./3proxy config.cfg" - the proxy server is running, you can proceed to the next step. If not, check to see if you did everything right in the previous steps.



Now we register in the browser http-proxy ip_ your_server: 3128 and to check go to myip.ru. You should see the authorization window, and after entering the login and password - the browser page, which will have this same ip_your_server.



In order not to constantly change the proxy settings when you want to listen to music, I recommend setting up a separate browser exclusively for Pandora. I have Opera for this purpose. As if a separate player in the system is very convenient.



Now you can go to pandora.com and register an account. When registering, you will be asked, among other things, the zip-code of your city - put any of this list .



Everything. Enjoy :)



Create a radio, show imagination. As a "seed" you can enter not only the name of the group, but also the name of an individual composition, moreover, not one but several. :) You can ottyunivat radio in the process of listening, putting the pros and cons of songs. The general music selection line will vary according to your choice.



In my opinion, the task of playing similar music Pandora copes much better than last.fm. It is rather possible to find something completely new, but you get tired of the abundance of constant new products on last.fm radio and eventually turn it off. Pandora also guesses what you want to hear with amazing accuracy and more convenient in everyday use.



Tuned radio can be shared. For example, my radio is light, um ... let's call it instrumental rhythmic ambient: www.pandora.com/stations/11f6d15223f42d5f9b51a78b42d3aa2a029f66448ae0bc98

Inside Manual, flavored with Ulrich Schnauss, Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada and Four Tet.



UPD . I found another cheap vds hoster - vdsplanet.ru . $ 3.50 per month.