dispatch
A SOCKS proxy that balances traffic between network interfaces.
Should work on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Only tested on macOS for now.
This is a Rust rewrite of dispatch-proxy, originally written in CoffeeScript and targeting Node.js.
Quick links
Installation
You'll need Rust version 1.51.0 or later. You can use rustup to install the latest version of the Rust compiler toolchain.
cargo install dispatch-proxy
On Windows
In order to build on Windows, you will need to download the Npcap SDK, and copy the Packet.lib file from the SDK to the appropriate rustup toolchain lib folder.
In order to find which file to use and where to copy it, run rustup show:
> rustup
)
)
This indicates I should copy npcap-sdk-1.13\Lib\ARM64\Packet.lib to C:\Users\alex\.rustup\toolchains\stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc\lib\rustlib\aarch64-pc-windows-msvc\lib\Packet.lib.
Here are the most common cases:
64-bit Windows (most users)
Copy npcap-sdk-1.13\Lib\x64\Packet.lib to [rustup home]\toolchains\stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\lib\rustlib\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\lib\Packet.lib.
32-bit Windows
Copy npcap-sdk-1.13\Lib\Packet.lib to [rustup home]\toolchains\stable-i686-pc-windows-msvc\lib\rustlib\i686-pc-windows-msvc\lib\Packet.lib.
ARM64 Windows
Copy npcap-sdk-1.13\Lib\ARM64\Packet.lib to [rustup home]\toolchains\stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc\lib\rustlib\aarch64-pc-windows-msvc\lib\Packet.lib.
Rationale
You often find yourself with multiple unused internet connections—be it 5G mobile hotspot or a free Wi-Fi network—that your system won't let you use alongside your primary one.
For instance, my first student residence used to provide me with cabled and wireless internet accesses. Both were separately capped at a bandwidth 1,200kB/s. My 3G mobile internet access provided me with an additional 400kB/s. Combining all of these with dispatch and a download manager resulted in a 2,800kB/s effective bandwidth!
Use cases
The possibilities are endless:
- Use it with a download manager or a BitTorrent client, combining multiple connections' bandwidth when downloading single files;
- Combine as many interfaces as you have access to into a single load-balanced interface;
- Run different apps on separate interfaces with multiple proxies (e.g. for balancing download/upload);
- Create a hotspot proxy at home that connects through Ethernet and your 5G card for all your mobile devices;
- etc.
Usage
$ dispatch
dispatch 0.1.0
A proxy that balances traffic between multiple internet connections
USAGE:
dispatch [FLAGS] <SUBCOMMAND>
FLAGS:
-d, --debug Write debug logs to stdout instead of a file
-h, --help Prints help information
-V, --version Prints version information
SUBCOMMANDS:
help Prints this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
list Lists all available network interfaces
start Starts the SOCKS proxy server
$ dispatch start -h
dispatch-start 0.1.0
Starts the SOCKS proxy server
USAGE:
dispatch start [OPTIONS] <addresses>...
FLAGS:
-h, --help Prints help information
-V, --version Prints version information
OPTIONS:
--ip <ip> Which IP to accept connections from [default: 127.0.0.1]
--port <port> Which port to listen to for connections [default: 1080]
ARGS:
<addresses>... The network interface IP addresses to dispatch to, in the form of <address>[@priority]
Examples
$ dispatch list
Lists all available network interfaces.
$ dispatch start 10.0.0.0 fdaa:bbcc:ddee:0:1:2:3:4
Dispatch incoming connections to local addresses 10.0.0.0 and fdaa:bbcc:ddee:0:1:2:3:4.
$ dispatch start 10.0.0.0@7 10.0.0.1@3
Dispatch incoming connections to 10.0.0.0 7 times out of 10 and to 10.0.0.1 3 times out of 10.
How It Works
Whenever the SOCKS proxy server receives an connection request to an address or domain, it selects one of the provided local addresses using the Weighted Round Robin algorithm. All further connection traffic will then go through the interface corresponding to the selected local address.
Beware: If the requested address or domain resolves to an IPv4 (resp. IPv6) address, an IPv4 (resp. IPv6) local address must be provided.