SSH tunnel as proxy - no data returned

I'm trying to set up an SSH tunnel as a web proxy for use when I'm at public locations. I already have a remote server to use, and I've also had this working in the past using this same server. However now when I try it, I successfully make the SSH connection, but the webbrowser returns no data for each page I visit.

The SSH command I'm using is:

ssh -ND 8080 -p 20000 [email protected]

This connects properly. If I don't include the -N, then I correctly see a remote shell, so the connection is successful.

However, when I set my browser to use the local proxy - each page returns no HTML data. It also doesn't return any errors. Literally just a blank page. Note that if I disconnect the SSH connection - then the browser shows a proxy error. So the browser is definitely doing something with the proxy.

If I try this is Chrome, then I get a chrome error explicitly saying "no data returned". If I try this in Firefox, then I just get a blank page.

Note that I'm only trying this from one public location. I'm on holiday at the moment, and am using the apartment's wifi connection. So I guess it's possible that it's something to do with their setup. However, given that I can successfully SSH to my server - I'm not sure what in their configuration could make a difference. Note that I've also tried including the DNS lookups through the proxy.

-D option allocates a socket to listen on port 8080. So, make sure that you enter the proxy info into SOCKS Host, not HTTP Proxy.

You say you've set your browser to use the proxy, but you don't say how. You are using the SOCKS proxy option of your browser, not the HTTP (or some other) proxy, right?