# WaybackProxy

WaybackProxy is a retro-friendly HTTP proxy which retrieves pages from the [Internet Archive Wayback Machine](http://web.archive.org) or [OoCities](http://www.oocities.org) and delivers them in their original form, without toolbars, scripts and other extraneous content that may confuse retro browsers.

![1999 Google viewed on Internet Explorer 4.0 on Windows 95](http://i.imgur.com/tXsLc6O.png)

## Setup

1. Edit `config.py` to your liking
2. Start `waybackproxy.py` (Python 3 is required)
3. Set up your retro browser:
	* If your browser supports proxy auto-configuration, set the auto-configuration URL to `http://ip:port/proxy.pac` where `ip` is the IP of the system running WaybackProxy and `port` is the proxy's port (8888 by default).
	* If proxy auto-configuration is not supported or fails to work, set the browser to use an HTTP proxy at that IP and port instead.
	* Transparent proxying is also supported for advanced users, with no configuration to WaybackProxy itself required.
		* The easiest way to set up a transparent WaybackProxy is to run it on port 80 ([this cannot be done on Linux without security implications](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/87348/capabilities-for-a-script-on-linux)\), set up a fake DNS server - such as `dnsmasq -A "/#/ip"` where `ip` is the IP of the system running WaybackProxy - to redirect all requests to the proxy, and point client machines at that DNS server.
4. Try it out! You can edit most settings that are in `config.py` by browsing to http://web.archive.org while on the proxy, although you must edit `config.py` to make them permanent.
5. Press Ctrl+C to stop the proxy

## Known issues and limitations

* The Wayback Machine itself is not 100% reliable. Known issues include:
  * Pages newer than the specified date (setting a specific YYYYMMDD date instead of a wider YYYYMM or YYYY helps with that);
  * Random broken images;
  * Strange 404 errors caused by bad server responses or incorrect URL capitalization at archival time;
  * Infinite redirect loops;
  * Server errors when it's having a bad day.
* WaybackProxy will work around some redirection scripts (example: `http://example.com/redirect?to=http://...`) which are not archived by the Wayback Machine, but the destination URLs are sometimes not archived either.
* WaybackProxy is not a generic proxy. The POST and CONNECT methods are not implemented.
* Transparent proxying mode requires HTTP/1.1 and therefore cannot be used with some really old (pre-1996) browsers. Use standard mode with such browsers.

## Other links

* [Donate to the Internet Archive](https://archive.org/donate/), they need your help to keep the Wayback Machine and its petabytes upon petabytes of data available to everyone for free with no ads.
* [Check out 86Box](https://86box.github.io/), the emulator I use for testing WaybackProxy on older browsers.