How to Apply Proxy Settings in Firefox

Many people are surprised to find out just how much information is transmitted about them, just by visiting a website. Any website you visit automatically knows what your computer's configuration is, what operating system you use, who your Internet service provider is and much more. Most frightening is that your IP address is widely available for anyone to see. A simple visit to your favorite website could provide a malicious individual with all the information needed to launch a serious attack on your computer. You can, however, enable proxy settings on your web browser to conceal this information from a would-be attacker, allowing you to surf the web securely. Here is how to apply proxy settings to your Firefox browser.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Firefox web browser
• A Proxy IP Address

1. A sample list of available proxy servers The first step is to obtain a proxy IP address. You can do this either by subscribing to a professional proxy service, or by searching for public proxy servers. The information you will need to make note of is the IP address and the port number. The country of the proxy and other information is not relevant.
2. Click the link that says Options After you have identified a proxy server to use, open your Firefox web browser. Look at the menu links that run across the top of the browser and find the link that says "Tools." Click on "Tools" and then click on "Options." This will open the options menu for your web browser.
3. Click the Settings button Go to the "Advanced" options menu and click on the "Network" tab. This will display two areas, reading Connection and Cache. In the Connections section, click the button that says "Settings."
4. Enter your proxy information On the Connection Settings menu, it should be set by default to "Direct connection to the Internet." Change this to the option that says "Manual Proxy Configuration." Then enter the information for your proxy IP address and port number in the space provided for "HTTP Proxy." When you're finished, click "OK" to be taken back to the main Options menu, then click "OK" again to complete the process. You are now surfing the Internet anonymously via your proxy connection. To turn the proxy off, return to the Connect Settings and change them back to "Direct Connection."

Tips & Warnings

• While free proxy servers are available, they are often overloaded and sometimes stop working. You may need to try several proxy IP addresses before you find one that is working. If this becomes too much of an annoyance, consider subscribing to a professional proxy service.

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