Introduction to Hysteria Proxy Protocol | Generated by AI
Question: What is an introduction to the Hysteria protocol for proxy use?
Answer:
Hysteria (especially Hysteria 2, the current version) is a high-performance, censorship-resistant proxy protocol/tool designed to provide fast and stable connections over poor, lossy, or heavily censored networks (such as satellite links, congested Wi-Fi, or regions with strict internet filtering like China).
Core Features
- Underlying Technology — Built on QUIC (the transport protocol that powers HTTP/3), which runs over UDP instead of TCP. This gives it advantages in lossy networks where TCP often slows down dramatically due to packet loss.
- Masquerading — The protocol is designed to look exactly like standard HTTP/3 traffic to outside observers (censors, DPI systems, ISPs). Without valid authentication credentials, a Hysteria server behaves just like a normal HTTP/3 web server (e.g., returning 404, serving files, or acting as a reverse proxy). This makes blocking it very difficult without also blocking large amounts of legitimate web traffic.
- Congestion Control — Uses a custom algorithm called Brutal (in Hysteria 2), which tries to maintain a user-specified bandwidth (e.g., 100 Mbps down) even when there is significant packet loss — very useful in unstable networks. (It can also fall back to BBR.)
- Performance Focus — Optimized for maximum throughput rather than minimal loss, making it faster than many traditional proxies (Shadowsocks, V2Ray/Vmess, Trojan) in bad network conditions.
Proxy Modes and Usage
Hysteria itself is not a traditional VPN; it is primarily a proxy protocol with multiple output modes:
- SOCKS5 proxy (most common)
- HTTP proxy
- TCP/UDP port forwarding
- Linux TProxy (transparent proxy)
- TUN mode (virtual network interface for system-wide proxying on Windows, macOS, Linux — handles TCP + UDP only)
You typically run a Hysteria server on a VPS/cloud host (with a domain and TLS certificate), then connect using the official client or third-party apps (Nekobox, sing-box, Shadowrocket, etc.) that support Hysteria 2.
Typical Use Cases
- Bypassing censorship (GFW, etc.) where UDP is not heavily blocked
- Getting stable high speed on mobile networks, international flights, or satellite internet
- Scenarios where traditional TCP-based proxies become very slow due to packet loss
Quick Comparison
- Vs Shadowsocks/Trojan → Much better performance on lossy links, harder to detect
- Vs WireGuard/OpenVPN → More stealthy (looks like HTTPS), usually faster in bad conditions, but not a full L3 VPN (no ICMP/ping by default in TUN mode)
- Vs Reality/VLESS → Different masquerading approach (HTTP/3 vs TLS-in-TLS); Hysteria often wins on unstable links
Official project: https://github.com/apernet/hysteria
Documentation (Hysteria 2): https://v2.hysteria.network/
References: