BrowserStack - Find Proxy Settings on Your Computer (for Local Testing parameters) (2024)

A proxy server sits between your machine and your ISP. In most organizations, proxies are configured by network admins to filter and/or monitor inbound and outbound web traffic from employee computers.

In this article, we’ll show you how to view proxy settings (if your computer is behind a proxy server). You can then use the information to set up Local Testing connections with BrowserStack..

In most cases, browsers will use proxy settings that are set on the computer. However, each browser has a settings page to configure proxy settings as well.

There are two ways to find proxy settings in Windows: via the Settings app (Windows 10 only) or via the Control Panel.

1. Using the Settings App (Windows 10) to find proxy settings

   1. Click on Start, then click on the gear icon (Settings) at the far left.

   2. In the Windows Settings menu, click on Network & Internet.

      

   3. In the left pane, click on Proxy.

      

   4. Here you have all the settings that are related to setting up a proxy in Windows. It’s split into two configurations: Automatic or Manual proxy setup.

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   Using the configuration details to set up Local Testing connection:

   1. If “Use setup script“ is enabled, it means that you have configured PAC proxy on your system. You can obtain the path to PAC file from the “Script Address“ section.

      Note: To set up a Local Testing connection using the PAC file, you need to ensure that the PAC file is stored on your computer and path needs to an absolute path to that file.

   2. If “Manual proxy setup” is enabled, you can simply obtain Proxy Host and Port from the “Address“ and “Port“ section.

   For Local Testing to work correctly, you need to bypass the traffic for - bs-local.com - from your proxy. You can do this by adding an entry in the Proxy Exception> text field in the “Manual proxy setup” section.

2. Using Control Panel (all Windows versions) to find proxy settings

   In any Windows version, you can find the proxy settings via the Control Panel on your computer.

   1. Click on Start and open the Control Panel. Then click on Internet Options.

      

   2. In the Internet Options, go to Connections > LAN settings.

      

   3. Here you have all the settings that are related to setting up a proxy in Windows. It’s basically split into two configurations: either Automatic configuration or Proxy Server setup.

   Using the configuration details to set up Local Testing connection:

   1. If “Use automatic configuration script“ iis checked, it means that you have configured PAC proxy in your system. You can obtain the path to PAC file from the “Script Address“ section.

      Note: To set up a Local Testing connection using the PAC file, you need to ensure that the PAC file is stored on your computer and path needs to an absolute path to that file.

   2. If “Use a proxy server for your LAN” is checked, you can obtain Proxy Host and Port from the “Address“ and “Port“ section.

   For Local Testing to work correctly, you need to bypass the traffic for - bs-local.com - from your proxy. You can do this by clicking the “Advanced“ button and adding an entry in the “Do not use proxy server for addresses beginning with:“ text field.

   

1. On OS X, you have to view the proxy settings in System Preferences. This is where most browsers check automatically. However, each browser has a settings page to configure proxy settings as well.

2. Open System Preferences and click on Network.

   

3. On the left-hand side, click on an active network connection. Note that you can have different proxy settings for different network connections. Click on the Advanced button on the bottom right.

   

4. Click on the Proxies tab and you’ll see a list of proxy protocols you can configure.

   

Using the configuration details to set up Local Testing connection:

1. If “Automatic Proxy Configuration“ is checked, it means that you have configured PAC proxy in your system. You can obtain the path to PAC file from the “Script Address“ section.

   Note: To set up a Local Testing connection using the PAC file, you need to ensure that the PAC file is stored on your computer and path needs to an absolute path to that file.

2. If “Web Proxy (HTTP)” or “Secure Web Proxy (HTTPS)“ is checked, you can simply obtain Proxy Host, Port, Username, and Password.

For Local Testing to work correctly, you need to bypass the traffic for - bs-local.com - from your proxy. You can do this by adding an entry in the ”Bypass proxy settings for these Hosts & Domains” text field.

In Linux, finding your proxy settings will depend on what distribution you are running. Mostly, the procedure would be similar for the various distributions.

1. On Ubuntu, open on System Settings from the launcher and scroll down to Hardware. Click on Network.

   

2. Click on Network Proxy, you can choose from Automatic or Manual.

   

Using the configuration details to set up Local Testing connection:

1. If the “Automatic“ option is selected, it means that you have configured PAC proxy in your system. You can obtain the path to PAC file from the “Configuration URL“ section.

   Note: To set up a Local Testing connection using the PAC file, you need to ensure that the PAC file is stored on your computer and path needs to an absolute path to that file.

2. If the “Manual“ option is selected, you can simply obtain Proxy Host and Port from the appropriate section.

For Local Testing to work correctly, you need to bypass the traffic for - bs-local.com - from your proxy. You can do this by using the command-line interface as follows:

1. To change proxy exceptions, use 'set' option with 'gsettings' command as follows.

   $ gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy ignore-hosts "['localhost', 'bs-local.com', '::1']"

2. If access to the above sections is restricted on your computer, you can seek help from your IT/Network Team to gather this information.