Proxy testing seems a complicated concept for untutored users. Still, it’s a necessary step for sure-handed proxy management, as it makes sure the proxies you buy meet your requirements and use cases. Read our guide to choose a reliable method of proxy testing that suits your needs and expertise.
Why Testing Proxies is Important
Don’t refuse to test proxies. You’ve paid for them, and surely you don’t want to throw away your money on a stuff that doesn’t work properly. After all, proxies are about privacy and security, and it’s an important matter — a lot can be at stake here.
To make sure your proxies are up and running, check the following points:
- Reliability and performance. Connection, stability and speed are the key to satisfactory user experience. So, testing speed and connection helps you understand, if the speed is up to the level, and whether the chosen proxies are susceptible to repeated failures and disconnections.
- Blacklists. Check, if the proxies you are going to buy are already included in blacklists.
- Security and anonymity. This is the core of the proxy existence, the main thing people are eager to pay for. So test, if the chosen proxies succeed in hiding your location and minimizing online risks or will traitorously show your geolocation.
- Compatibility. Check, if the chosen proxy type is compatible with applications and websites you plan to use them for. For example, SMTP proxies are intended to handle your e-mails, and will not tackle other online tasks;
- Being in line with would-be use cases. Different types of proxies fit for different goals. Test, if the datacenter, mobile or residential proxies correspond to the intended use case, be it SEO monitoring, application testing or data retrieval.
Methods to Test Proxies
Let’s consider the most popular methods of proxy testing. They are tailored for users with varying technical and coding expertise, so every person will select the technique to handle with ease of mind in order to find out, if the purchased proxies are up-and-running.
Using Online IP Checkers
An online IP checker is an easy-to-use tool designed to look up and get basic information about IPs. It’s also a simple method of proxy testing, as it gives you primary information of whether purchased proxies have successfully concealed your true IP and location. Just enter “Online IP checker” in any search engine, and you’ll get plenty of hits to choose from.
Various online checkers provide a wide range of data, from basic information such as IP address, country, region and ZIP up to technical details, including HTTP/2 Fingerprint, support of JavaScript, Flash and Activex, use of crawlers and threat level.
Most tools determine your IP automatically and return you the investigated information right away. WHOER checker offers the summary on the top of the page. Below, it offers DNS leak test, port scanner, and Evercookie test to discover deeper insights about your online vulnerabilities.
Browserleaks show a wide range of technical details, including WebRTC Leak Test, TCP/IP Fingerprint, TLS Fingerprint, HTTP/2 Fingerprint, etc.
And IP2LOCATION services returns the summary of IP- and proxy-related data with an option to employ a variety of bots and email notifications:
Utilizing Proxy Testing Websites
Proxy testing websites is an alternative to get deeper information about your proxies.
The choice of proxy testers is as wide as that of IP checkers: suffice it to enter the query in a search engine, and you’ll see thousands of hits to match the search:
Websites functionality and usability differs, but most of them perform the following tasks:
- Determine proxy type, such as HTTP(S), and SOCKS;
- Determine, if a proxy is valid or failed;
- Check private proxies that need login and password;
- Determine proxy protocol, the country and city
For the testing purpose, we checked a short list of public proxies we borrowed from GitHub:
- To launch the process, just insert the list of proxies in the dedicated window and click <Start checking>;
- Most free proxy checkers have a limit of up to 500 or 1000 proxies in the list, but it took just a couple of seconds to handle a short list of 12 proxies. So wait, until the website completes the check, and then examine the results;
- Most proxy checkers detect, if proxies are valid, show their IP and port. They are also supposed to verify their protocol, anonymity level and speed, but as you see, in our experiment the proxy checker failed to retrieve these details.
- Users can export the check results in JSON, TXT or CSV file.
Most proxy checkers are free, but you can also find tools with paid features.
For example, HideMyName, a popular proxy checker offers such paid options as API access to the proxy checker and proxy list download, proxy list export to ip:port and CSV, and 64-thread speed.
Local Proxy Checkers
Local proxy checkers are a far rarer breed of tools, since most of them are available online. Still, you can find some downloadable options. For example, ProxyScrape has a proxy checker you can install on your local device. It handles different proxy types, such as HTTP, SOCKS4 and SOCKS5, allows to check any number of proxies simultaneously and to customize your timeout value and number of concurrent connections. Pixelscan, instead of the standalone application, offers Firefox extension with the proxy checking functionality.
Proxifier, a popular app designed to manage proxies, also has Proxy Checker as part of its toolkit. You can find it by clicking <View -> Proxy Checker> menu item or choosing <Start -> Programs -> Proxifier -> Proxy Checker> in the Windows start menu. After that, click <Proxy Server> button to enter proxy details.
To start the test, just click <Start Testing>.
In addition to that, Proxifier Proxy Checker supports few settings, such as an option to work through Proxifier, adjust proxy latency and choose the tests you want to run.
Building Your Own Proxy Tester
Skillful programmers can create a customer proxy tester designed to meet their specific needs. This is an effort- and time-consuming method that pays dividends with ultimate flexibility and control a user might want.
When writing your own proxy testing script, keep in mind the following considerations:
- the solution is basically a scraper that knows how to retrieve a proxy from the list;
- write a code that checks, if the proxy responds. For this, it is recommended to send a request to a static website. If the requested data are returned, the proxy is valid.
- customize a reasonable timeout for every proxy. Proper KPIs could be 10s for a datacenter proxy and 30s for a residential proxy.
- it’s also reasonable to log sent requests to assess, if the fulfillment time is fast enough for real-use scenarios.
You can find examples of such scripts in GitHub.
Jesewe wrote the script designed to check availability of HTTP/SOCKS4/SOCKS5 proxies from a range of online sources. This is a Python-based script checking proxy lists with requests sent.
Its features include:
- multi-threading support;
- saving working proxies in TXT, CSV and JSON formats;
- customizable retries and timeout settings;
- detailed analysis of proxy data, including response time measurement, detection of whether a proxy is anonymous, detecting geolocation down to the city level;
- an intuitive interface that supports user-friendly settings dialog windows, log output and progress bars;
- filters, pause/resume feature, customer user-agent header for HTTP requests, and history logging.
To launch the proxy checker, you need to pass three simple steps:
- Clone the repository:
- Install the packages:
- Start GUI with the following command:
Another proxy checker example found in GitHub is written in Rust. It works asynchronously, determines proxy anonymity, and geolocation. Besides, you can customize URL to check requests to, handle proxies that require authentication, and save results to JSON or TXT. This script also sorts proxies by speed.
The third option we found on GitHub is written in Go. This solution works with HTTP, SOCKS4 and Amazon API Gateway protocols, is designed for all main operating systems and supports all HTTP/S methods.
As you can see, writing your own script is quite a feasible solution that can be implemented in different languages with various functionality. If you need a flexible proxy checker that meets all your needs, go for it!
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Key Features of Proxy Testers
When choosing proxy testers keep in mind that they should support the key features determining proxy performance, such as protocol type, exit IP address, geolocation and response time. Let’s consider each of these in more detail.
Protocol Type
There are four most widespread protocol types intended to exchange data with target websites: HTTP, HTTP(S), SOCKS4 and SOCKS5. Either protocol is characterized by its specific features, technical capabilities and security level. But it’s reasonable to choose a proxy tester that can handle all of them.
Exit IP Address
Exit IP address is the IP shown to the target website by the proxy. As the core of the proxy concept suggests, this IP should differ from your true IP, otherwise the entire idea of anonymity is disconcerted. It allows to maintain user anonymity online and bypass georestrictions. Therefore, to prove that the IP really works, a proxy tester must show that an exit IP address doesn’t coincide with the initial one.
Geolocation
Geolocation shows physical location of the exit IP. This parameter can be determined with the varying degree of detail. Knowing proxy coordinates helps you choose the proxy servers situated closer to your target location. When selecting a tool to check proxies, pay attention, if geolocation in this proxy checker is restricted by showing only the country, or whether it drills down to the city and zip code.
Response Time
Measured in milliseconds, response time is the period between sending a request to and receiving a response from the target website. Use the proxy tester that can determine the response time: the lower is the value, the faster is the proxy.
Understanding Proxy Performance
Basically, factors affecting proxy performance can be divided in two groups: internet connection quality and proxy server characteristics.
Proxy providers depend on the quality of service offered by ISPs. So if the connection quality is poor, or if an Internet service provider uses bandwidth throttling, you won’t enjoy proxy excellence. So, if you suspect any performance issues with your proxy, start with assessing your internet connection.
Proxy characteristics that impact its performance vary include server proximity and type. The closer is the proxy to your location, the faster it takes to reroute network traffic. On the contrary, if you connect to a proxy server on the other side of the world, this may result in a significant slowdown.
Besides, proxy performance to some extent depends on proxy type. For example, datacenter proxies are fastest and most scalable, but bear the highest risk of being detected. Mobile proxies provide the highest likeness to a real user, with their speed sometimes exceeding that of residential proxies, but their geotargeting characteristics depend solely on the carrier’s capability and cannot be forecasted in advance.
So, take your time to study, what proxy type best matches your use case not to waste cash on the purchase that won’t meet your expectations.
Common Issues and Troubleshooting
IP checkers and proxy testers can show, if your proxy works. It’s great, when you see that your proxy servers are up-and-running. But sometimes the test shows that proxy fails. What should you do in this case? Don’t panic. Surprisingly, you can remedy most troubles by yourself.
Here’s a brief proxy troubleshooting guide.
Why is My Proxy Not Working?
Common Proxy Issues and their Reasons
| Errors of proxy setup | Incorrect proxy parameters, such as wrong IP or port number |
| Network issues | Problems with LAN, poor quality of Internet connection or firewall settings |
| Proxy server failure | Periods, when the proxy server is shut down, overloaded or maintained |
| IP ban | IP has been blocked by online services or websites prevent access of detected proxy servers |
Troubleshooting Recommendations
| Check proxy settings | The first step is to check, if IP settings and port number are specified correctly in your web browser or OS configuration. |
| Turn off proxy | To determine that the issue is related with proxy, disable proxy for a while. If direct online connectivity is trouble-free, then the problem is about proxy. |
| Restart | Follow the all-purpose piece of advice to restart all gadgets that fail: switch off and on your device. It might well be that rebooting will save the day. |
| Check firewall configuration | To find out, if the firewall is the one to blame, disable it and test the proxy again. If it works fine, then the problem was caused by the firewall settings. |
| Change current proxy | Try replacing the proxy you use. This will show, if the issue is caused by a specific proxy. |
| Test network connection | Identify any delays or packet loss by pinging the proxy server. |
| Clear browser cache | Delete cookies. Maybe, the cleared browser cache will help you avoid connection errors. |
| Update software tools | Install the latest versions of your web browser and proxy tools. |
If the worst comes to the worst and our troubleshooting guide can’t resolve the issue, don’t hesitate to contact support of your proxy provider.
Can Proxies be Detected?
Yes, and most advanced platforms are serious about banning proxies. They invest much time and effort in detecting proxies and other mechanisms hiding true IPs. Here are a few mostly widespread techniques employed by such IT giants as Facebook, LinkedIn or Zillow:
- Reputation tracking: many platforms analyze IP reputation data from external sources, such as IP checkers and databases. If the proxy you use is somehow related with any suspicious activities and is included in such database, you risk being banned by a platform that checks IP data against such external sources.
- Behavioral analysis, when websites compare actions standing behind your proxy with that of average human users. If you use proxies just for privacy purpose, the risk of detection here is not very high, but if you rely on a bot for parsing or web scraping automation, you enter in the gray zone.
- During HTTP Header analysis, companies examine technical details HTTP header contains and often reveal that the request is not sent from the end web browser. This is a first clue, and if suspicions of the target website are confirmed, your proxy can be blocked.
Conclusion
As you can see, proxy testing is not as sophisticated as it seems at first sight. It takes some time to choose the most convenient toolkit, but in return it provides you with confidence that you use high-quality, reliable proxies that solve the tasks you bought them for.
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