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Configure a proxy in the web browser to access the Internet

One of the things that Internet users value the most is keeping their privacy safe. We also want to protect our data and confidential information away from cybercriminals. In short, we want to surf anonymously, free from attacks and also that the different organizations and Internet providers do not collect our browsing history. Thus, for this reason, and also to avoid geoblocks in recent years, the use of VPNs and proxies has grown a lot. In this tutorial, we are going to show how to configure a proxy in the browser, what advantages it can bring us and also some lists to use them.

We are going to start explaining what a proxy is, its advantages and disadvantages. Next, we will offer you a list of proxy servers that you can use. Then we will see how to configure a proxy in Chrome, Firefox and Edge browser. Finally, we will verify that we have more anonymity by seeing that our public IP is replaced by that of the proxy when we surf the Internet.

What is a proxy, advantages and disadvantages

The proxy We can define it as a server, program or device that will perform the function of intermediary in the requests for resources that a client A requests to another server C. To give an example, it would be when a machine A requires a request to C. The form To act would consist of making a request to B that would forward the request to C. In that sense, C will not know that the initial request came from A. Afterwards, the response will return through B, which is the proxy, and will send to user A who was the one who requested the information.

Here we have a scheme in which we can see how the proxy works:

The use of a proxy server could provide us with these advantages:

  1. Better control, since they can restrict the rights of users.
  2. You can cache and save a response for when another user requests it. Which would improve speed.
  3. Improve anonymity.
  4. It allows access to services that may be geographically blocked, as if we were physically in that place.

However, the proxy also has its drawbacks. The further it is geographically from us, the greater the loss of speed and latency. It should also be noted that there are paid and free ones. With free servers you get slower speeds and in some cases data have been sold to third parties.

Therefore, if we use it a lot and want more privacy, we recommend using a proxy or a paid VPN.

List of free proxy servers to use in your web browser

So that you can configure a proxy in your browser, we are going to offer you a series of lists of free proxy services. One of the best options to access free servers that offer good performance is Free Proxy.

Here we can choose between different options such as HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4, or SOCKS5. It also allows you to choose between three different levels of anonymity and choose a specific country. This list is the one I have chosen to make the examples, and I will discuss it a little more in depth later.

Another that we could use is Hide my name in which the servers are tested in real time. This is an example that I have done looking for servers with a ping less than 100 milliseconds.

It allows to classify according to the country, speed, type and anonymity of the proxy. Without a doubt, a simple and easy-to-use alternative. Another interesting alternative is ProxyScan. We find a list with more than 3,000 servers available and free proxy out of the box.

The server list is checked every 10 minutes. In addition, it has different parameters to facilitate the choice of the proxy, being able to choose based on ping, anonymity and more. Lastly, other free proxy listings are ProxyNova and SSL Proxy.

Configure a proxy in the Google Chrome browser

The first thing we are going to do is choose a Proxy server for this, as I mentioned before we will use the Free Proxy list. In this case, we have decided that it is best to choose a server from France, as it is geographically located as close to Spain as possible. Thus, ping and speed can be better. For this, in Country we have selected France and then we have put Filter proxies so that the list is adapted to my preferences.

These are the results we have obtained after filtering the more than 6000 servers that this list contains.

The one chosen to do the tests has been the one in the red box. And here we have to look at three sections for the configuration:

  1. The IP address: 51.222.67.218
  2. The port that proxy uses: 32768
  3. The protocol you use: HTTPS. It should be noted that this parameter is not always necessary to know, it will depend on the browser we use. In Chrome, for example, it is not necessary.

To configure a proxy in the Chrome browser, we have used a PC with Windows 10. The next step we are going to take is to run the Google Chrome browser. Then we go to the three options points and click on Setting.

Then we go to the section Advanced configuration and we look for the section System. Once done, all we have to do is click Open your computer’s proxy settings.

Now comes the time to enter the proxy server data that we wrote down before:

Here we follow these steps:

  1. We activate «Use proxy server».
  2. We put the IP address.
  3. We add the port.
  4. We click on the save button.

In previous versions of Windows, a LAN Configuration screen will appear and the sections to fill in are the same.

Setting up a proxy in Microsoft Edge

Now it is the turn to configure a proxy in the Microsoft Edge browser. For which we go to the upper right corner and click on the three horizontal options points. Then we click on Setting.

Next, we go to System and click on Open the computer’s proxy settings.

So what we have to do is configure like this:

In case you have noticed us, the screen is identical to that of Google Chrome. This is because both use the Proxy section of Windows 10. Therefore, it is configured in the same way and if it is active it affects both browsers. We can also directly access this section from Start Menu, Setting, Proxy.

Configure proxy in Mozilla Firefox

Setting up a proxy in the Firefox browser is very different. That is because it has a separate section dedicated to it and that will only affect the browser. To configure it, click on the icon with three vertical stripes on Options.

Then we will general, Network Configuration and click on the button Setting. Then we manually configure like this:

The same values ​​are entered here, all you have to do is add one plus the protocol. You have to put the IP and the port next to the corresponding protocol. As in this case it was HTTPS, you have to check the box below.

Check that we are browsing anonymously with the proxy

After configuring a proxy in the browser, it is time to check if it is being effective. One way to find out is that they are not looking at our actual public IP. For this, we will use the web what is my ip.net.

This is the public IP that I have at the moment without having the Proxy active:

Finally, with the proxy active you can see that it detects the IP 51.222.67.218 that we have been using to configure a proxy in the browser.

As you have seen, selecting a proxy server that gives us good speed is very simple if you know the websites to go to, in addition, configuring these proxy servers in our web browser is really easy, so you can browse anonymously in a few minutes.

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