mirror-WaybackProxy

WaybackProxy

WaybackProxy is a HTTP proxy that sends all requests through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and OoCities, returning the original retro-browser-friendly markup.

Setup

1. Edit config.py to your liking
2. Start waybackproxy.py
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. No configuration to WaybackProxy itself is required. In transparent mode, client machines must be pointed at a dummy DNS server so they can find the proxy; dnsmasq -A "/#/ip" is a good choice.
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

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 might not be archived as well.
• WaybackProxy is not a generic proxy. The POST and CONNECT methods are not implemented.

Other links

• Donate to the Internet Archive, they need your help to keep the Wayback Machine and its petabytes upon petabytes of data available to everyone at no cost.
• Check out 86Box, the emulator I use for testing WaybackProxy on older browsers.