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
• Rationale
• Use Cases
• Usage
• Examples
• How It Works
• License

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:

```bash

rustup show

Default host: aarch64-pc-windows-msvc rustup home: C:\Users\alex.rustup

stable-aarch64-pc-windows-msvc (default) rustc 1.66.1 (90743e729 2023-01-10) ```

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]

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] ...

FLAGS: -h, --help Prints help information -V, --version Prints version information

OPTIONS: --ip Which IP to accept connections from [default: 127.0.0.1] --port Which port to listen to for connections [default: 1080]

ARGS: ... The network interface IP addresses to dispatch to, in the form of