How to Find Proxy Settings on Your Computer for Local Testing

Anushree Chatterjee

Proxy servers act as a middleman between your local system and the internet. In organizations, you will see them being used for regulating inbound and outbound requests and even load balancing. When it comes to software testing, using proxy settings can prove beneficial in many ways. You can simulate real-world conditions like changing the internet connection speed, modifying application requests and server responses, and monitoring traffic between the application and the server.

If you are trying to test your application, using proxy settings locally will prove beneficial. Many automation testing tools also use proxy settings to configure how the automation tool interacts with external resources, services, or websites during the testing process. In this post, you will see where you can find the proxy settings on your computer.

Why Use Proxy Settings in Software Testing?

• Simulating Real-World Network Conditions: Applications must perform well under varying network conditions, such as slow internet or high latency. Proxies allow testers to introduce delays, throttle bandwidth, or simulate unstable connections. This ensures the application remains reliable across different user environments.
• Intercepting and Modifying Requests and Responses: Proxies enable real-time inspection and modification of API requests and server responses. Testers can simulate errors, inject edge-case data, or validate how the system handles unexpected inputs. This is especially useful when backend behavior cannot be easily controlled.
• Enhancing Security Testing: Proxies are essential for identifying security vulnerabilities in applications. They allow testers to capture and analyze headers, cookies, and authentication tokens during transmission. This helps uncover issues such as data leaks, weak encryption, or injection vulnerabilities.
• Testing Third-Party Integrations: Applications often rely on external services that may not always be available during testing. Proxies allow testers to mock or simulate third-party responses and failure scenarios. This ensures the application can handle integration issues gracefully.
• Monitoring and Debugging Network Traffic: Proxies provide detailed logs of all network interactions between the client and server. This visibility helps testers trace issues, analyze request flows, and identify bottlenecks. It significantly simplifies debugging complex problems.
• Enabling Geo-Based and Compliance Testing: Some applications behave differently based on geographic location or regulatory requirements. Proxies allow testers to route traffic through different regions to validate such behavior. This ensures compliance and proper localization.

Find proxy settings on Windows

You can find proxy settings on your Windows computer in two ways.

Using the Control Panel

1. Open the Control Panel by searching for it in the Windows search bar.
2. If you are on Windows 11, your Control Panel will look something like what is shown in the image below. Click on Network and Internet.
   
3. Now, click on Internet Options.
   
   On other versions of Windows, the Control Panel will look like this. Go ahead and click on Internet Options and follow the rest of the steps.
   
4. Once the Internet Properties dialog box appears, click on the Connections tab.
   
5. Look for the LAN Settings button at the bottom of this dialog box and click on it.
   
6. You can find your proxy settings in the LAN Settings dialog box, including the proxy server address and port number.

Using Settings (Only in Windows 10 and later versions)

1. Click on Start, then go to Settings. Alternatively, you can open the Windows settings page by pressing Win + I.
2. Click on Network and internet in the Settings menu. The image below shows the Windows 11 Settings page.
   
3. Here, look for Proxy and click on it to view and configure.
   

Find proxy settings on Linux

1. On your Linux system, open Settings.
2. Come to the Network under the Hardware section.
3. Click on Network Proxy and select either “Manual” or “Automatic” to view and configure your settings. The image below is of the Network Proxy section in Ubuntu 18.04.
   

Find proxy settings on Mac OS

1. Come to System Preferences by clicking on the Apple icon.
2. Now, click on the Network option.
   
3. Select your active network connection, usually Wi-Fi or Ethernet, and click on Advanced.
   
4. In the Proxies tab, you can configure and view proxy settings.
   

Browser-Level Proxy Settings

Most testers interact with proxies through browsers, since that’s where real user traffic originates and debugging typically happens. Configuring browser-level proxies allows seamless interception of requests without modifying application code.

Example (Chrome): Open Chrome Settings, search for “Proxy,” and click “Open your computer’s proxy settings” to configure it at the OS level.

Chrome uses the operating system’s proxy configuration, so any changes apply across all applications using system networking. In contrast, Firefox provides independent proxy settings, allowing testers to configure proxies directly within the browser without affecting the entire system.

How to Check if Proxy is Working?

• How to Check if Proxy is Active: The easiest way to confirm proxy usage is by checking your public IP address before and after enabling the proxy. A change in IP indicates that your traffic is being routed through the proxy server. Example: Visit https://whatismyipaddress.com and verify that the displayed IP matches your proxy location instead of your actual network.
• Using Command-Line Tools: Command-line utilities help validate proxy routing at a lower level and are especially useful for backend/API testing. They provide quick confirmation without relying on a browser. Example: Run curl ifconfig.me to see your current public IP or use ipconfig /all (Windows) to inspect network configuration details.
• Check Proxy Tool Logs: Most proxy tools provide detailed logs of intercepted requests, which is one of the most reliable ways to confirm proper configuration. If requests appear in the tool, it means traffic is successfully passing through the proxy. Example: Open Burp Suite or OWASP ZAP and verify that HTTP/HTTPS requests from your browser or app are being captured in the proxy history tab.

Automated local testing with testRigor

Do you want to automate your end-to-end tests on local environments like staging before going live on production? Then, you can benefit significantly by adopting automated testing for repetitive testing tasks like regression testing or smoke testing.

Using intelligent, cloud-based, and AI-powered tools like testRigor, have your test case creation, execution, and maintenance sorted quickly. With a few clicks and plain English statements for scripting, this reliable test engine can do all the heavy lifting for you. This tool is packed with generative AI and self-healing capabilities, making test automation easy for everyone.

Writing cross-platform and cross-browser tests is not a problem if you work with testRigor. Want to run your tests on a specific OS? testRigor has got you covered. You can perform desktop-based web testing on Windows, Ubuntu, and Mac OS. What’s more is that if you intend to use a proxy server to run your web-based tests, testRigor gives you special settings in the Advanced Settings section during test suite creation to achieve this.

Here is an informative blog on building a desktop testing strategy.

Conclusion

Proxy settings can be helpful for local testing when you need to control and manipulate network conditions, test proxy-dependent features, assess security vulnerabilities, and replicate various real-world scenarios to ensure your application or service performs as expected in different environments. To get the most out of these testing activities, leverage an efficient mix of manual and automated testing to save effort, cost, and time.

Intelligent test automation tools such as testRigor can be instrumental in this process to aid your test creation, execution, and maintenance through AI with minimum effort and price.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• What is a proxy server, and why is it important for testing?
  A proxy server acts as an intermediary between your system and the internet, routing requests through itself. It allows testers to monitor, intercept, and modify network traffic. This makes it extremely useful for debugging, security testing, and simulating real-world scenarios.
• How do I know if my system is currently using a proxy?
  You can check your system’s proxy settings through the network configuration panel on your OS. Another simple method is to compare your public IP address before and after enabling a proxy. If the IP changes, your traffic is being routed through a proxy.
• Can I use different proxy settings for different browsers?
  Yes, some browsers allow independent proxy configurations. For example, Firefox supports its own proxy settings separate from the system. In contrast, browsers like Chrome use the operating system’s proxy configuration.

“We spent so much time on maintenance when using Selenium, and we spend nearly zero time with maintenance using testRigor.”

Keith Powe VP Of Engineering - IDT