HTTPort allows you to bypass your HTTP proxy, which is blocking you from the Internet. With HTTPort you may use various Internet software from behind the proxy, ex. e-mail, instant messengers, P2P file sharing, ICQ, News, FTP, IRC, etc.

The basic idea is that you set up your Internet software in such a manner, that it connects to your own local PC as if it was the remote server it needed. HTTPort then intercepts that connection and runs it through a tunnel through the proxy.

HTTPort doesn't really care for the proxy as such, it works perfectly with firewalls, transparent accelerators, NATs and basically anything that lets HTTP protocol through. HTTP is the basis for web surfing, so if you can freely surf the web from where you are, HTTPort will bring you the rest of the Internet applications.

HTTPort performs tunneling using one of two modes. The following schemes will give you the idea.

SSL/CONNECT mode	Remote host mode

In SSL/CONNECT mode HTTPort can make a tunnel through a proxy all by itself. It requires that the proxy supports a certain HTTP feature, specifically CONNECT HTTP method. Most of the proxies have this method disabled by default, and administrators don't readily enable it, so if you find that this tunneling mode works for you, you must be lucky. SSL/CONNECT mode much faster, but encryption can't be used in this mode and your proxy tracks all your actions easily.

Remote host method is much more capable for tunneling through just about any proxy. In this mode HTTPort uses a special server software called HTTHost installed somewhere outside of your proxy-blocked network. HTTHost is basically a web server with a twist. When HTTPort is doing tunneling, it sends series of HTTP requests to the HTTHost. The proxy sees it af if you were surfing to some web site, and consciously allows you to. HTTHost in turn performs it's half of tunneling and talks to the target servers. This mode is much slower, but works in most cases, and it features strong data encryption which makes proxy logging useless.