How Do I Log Onto a Proxy Server?

By Kaylee Finn

Put a proxy server between your computer and the world wide web
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A proxy preserves your anonymity on the Internet by acting as intermediary between you and the websites you visit. You send requests to the proxy server, which then forwards it to the website. The website sends the information to the proxy which then sends it to you. A proxy server can also allow you to go to sites whose access is restricted to computers on a particular network, by using an IP address for that network. An example is a proxy that allows access to academic databases a school has subscribed to. You can log onto a proxy using the setting within your Internet browser.

Firefox

Click on tools in the top menu bar and then select options.

Click on "Advanced" and then on the "network" subtab. Click the settings button under connections.

Click the radio button next to manual proxy configuration.

Enter the address for the proxy for the proxy in the text box next to "http proxy," leaving off the http:// part. Enter the port used by the proxy in the box next the address. Click "OK" to save the settings and exit out of the settings window.

Internet Explorer

Click on tools in the top menu bar and then select Internet Options.

Click on the Connections tab and then on the button labeled "LAN settings" at the bottom.

Check the box next to "use a proxy server for your LAN."

Click on the button labeled "Advanced" to open the proxy setting dialogue window.

Enter the proxy address in the text box next to http: and the port used by the proxy server in the text box to the right of that. Leave the http:// off of the proxy address. Click "OK" to save your changes and exit out of that window and again to close any other open dialogue boxes.

Chrome

Right click on the shortcut icon for Chrome and click on "properties."

Click on the shortcut tab.

Type "--proxy-server="0.0.0.0:8080" in the text box next to "Target" after chrome.exe but before the closing quotation mark. You will have something like "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --proxy-server="0.0.0.0:8080"". Replace the 0.0.0.0 with the IP address of the proxy server and the 8080 with the port that the proxy server uses.

Click "OK" to save your changes and exit out of dialogue box.

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