Any way to stream pandora (using desktop app) via encrypted tunnel?

So, here's the deal... I have Pandora One account, and using desktop app (which is written in Adobe Flex) to listen to my stations. Now, all is great, except streaming protocols are getting blocked at my workplace. Mobile is not an option either, with 2GB limit on monthly traffic...

Encrypted tunnels, however, are not going to be blocked any time soon =) So I was wondering if there is any way of having Pandora One go through a tunnel (e.g. to my hosting server, or home desktop) and out to HTTP from there.

Not sure where to start... If I create a tunnel using Putty - I'll need to specify a proxy. But there is no option for that in the app.

EDIT: is there a way to specify proxy for only this app (e.g. like export session environment variable that will be picked up?) I think it uses default IE settings for this, so if there would be a way to trick the app by substituting these settings - that'll work...

OS is Win 7 x64 (if that makes any difference)...

Sergey

Posted 2011-04-16T00:24:48.783

Reputation: 243

Answers

This question is probably dead, but for posterity's sake:

Instead of using the app, try using the website directly. You can setup a selective proxy for the site in Firefox using the FoxyProxy add-on. Simply make sure that your proxy server is setup on port 443, which is the same as HTTPS. This is pretty much always available on corporate networks.

For the proxy, you can run one at home, or setup an account on Amazon's EC2 and use their 1 year free tier to setup and host your own squid based proxy.

AndyCNX

Posted 2011-04-16T00:24:48.783

Reputation: 133

I think you mean port 443. Back when I did Pandora I would use iptables to redirect the port over an ssh tunnel. That's tougher to do in Windows unless you have the advanced firewall (usually found in Windows 2008 server). I would be surprised if the most recent versions of Pandora don't offer a proxy setting. – CR. – 2012-07-08T20:16:25.307

Thanks - fixed the type-o. Which port did you redirect, as I thought Pandora runs streams http on port 80? – AndyCNX – 2012-07-09T08:09:37.213

I might be wrong about this, but in general, setting system wide proxy settings should probably do the trick if a programme dosen't have its own proxy settings.

Journeyman Geek

Posted 2011-04-16T00:24:48.783

Reputation: 119 122

That wouldn't work, as I don't need anything else to go through proxy. It's going to be very slow that way =) – Sergey – 2011-04-16T15:19:04.897

If they allow RDP (encrypted or otherwise) to your home computer you can redirect the sound from it to your work desktop.

You could probably even get fancy and hack/enable concurrent RDP logins in Windows at home (if that's what you're using), and setup your home copy of the music app to be served as a RemoteApp.

Disclaimer: Circumventing company rules and effectively 'stealing' the bandwidth is grounds for immediate dismissal in many jurisdictions. :)

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007

Posted 2011-04-16T00:24:48.783

Reputation: 103 763

Not sure how that one would work... In addition I will lose the possibility to pause/skip/rank songs for sure, which is the must for Pandora =) – Sergey – 2011-04-16T15:20:24.613

You'd just be running the application on your home desktop, and the sound that would normally come out your speakers at home would be redirected to your local (office) speakers. I'm not sure how that would prevent your ability to interact with it? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2011-04-16T18:29:53.020

Hotkeys will not work. To do anything - I'll need to switch to the CDP window, and then click on stuff. Instead of just clicking the media button. – Sergey – 2011-04-17T14:41:43.027