Setup guide
FoxyProxy patterns, login and SOCKS5
FoxyProxy is a free, open-source proxy switcher for Firefox, Chrome and Edge, first released in 2006. The browser guide covers a single entry switched on from the toolbar. This page is about what most people install it for: proxying only some sites, keeping several logins apart, and choosing a protocol the browser can actually sign in with. Labels follow FoxyProxy 9.8 and the Help page built into it.
Before you start
- FoxyProxy Standard from your browser’s add-on store.
- HOST, PORT, USERNAME and PASSWORD from the service page.
- In Firefox, the extension allowed to run in private windows. Firefox will not let an extension change proxy settings otherwise.
Your connection details
Sign in to the dashboard and open the service you bought. Its page shows the host, port, username and password for that service. There is no single ProxyPanda address to remember, so copy them from there each time. The code in these guides uses the placeholders below; replace each one with your own value.
- HOST
- The proxy address for this service, exactly as the service page shows it.
- PORT
- The port to connect to. Copy it with the host, since it can differ from one service to the next.
- USERNAME
- Your proxy login. It is separate from the email you use for the dashboard.
- PASSWORD
- Copy it in full. On residential, the options you choose in the dashboard are added to the end of the password, so a password typed from memory loses them.
You can skip the username and password by adding the IP address you connect from to the service’s allowlist. Then only HOST and PORT go into your code.
Need help? Letting the proxy recognise your IP address
The examples use HTTP, which reaches https sites through an encrypted tunnel. SOCKS5 works too: residential ports accept both, and ISP and datacenter proxies switch protocol in the dashboard.
Steps
Add the entry with its login
Open Options, go to the Proxies tab and click Add. Give the entry a title you will recognise in the toolbar, set Type, then fill in Hostname, Port, Username and Password. Nothing is applied until you press Save at the bottom of the page.
Options › Proxies › Add Title: residential-http Type: HTTP Hostname: HOST Port: PORT Username: USERNAME Password: PASSWORDPick HTTP or SOCKS5 for this browser
Both reach every site; what differs is the login. FoxyProxy answers an HTTP proxy’s login in Firefox and Chrome alike, but only Firefox can send a SOCKS5 username and password. Chrome and Edge have no way to, so SOCKS5 there needs your IP on the allowlist instead. Residential ports take both protocols; on ISP and datacenter the dashboard sets one, and Type must agree with it. The HTTPS type means an encrypted link to the proxy itself, which is not how your service is reached.
Which login each browser can send HTTP + login SOCKS5 + login SOCKS5, allowlisted IP Firefox yes yes yes Chrome, Edge yes no yesWrite an Include pattern for each site
Under the entry, the Proxy by Patterns section has a plus button for a new row. Choose Include, a type and the pattern. A Wildcard pattern matches any part of the address, so a bare site name also matches an address that only mentions it in the query string; starting it with :// ties it to the host. A Match pattern always covers the whole address, scheme, host and path. Exclude rows make FoxyProxy skip this entry for matching addresses and try the next one.
Proxies › residential-http › Proxy by Patterns Include Wildcard ://api.ipify.org/ Include Match *://*.example.com/* Exclude Wildcard ://accounts.example.com/Run each pattern through Pattern Tester
The beaker button on a pattern row opens Pattern Tester with that pattern filled in. Paste a few real addresses and read which ones match. Then allow for Chrome: it hands an extension only the scheme and host of an https address, without the path or query, so a pattern that depends on either can pass the tester and still never fire there. Firefox passes the full address. The results below come from FoxyProxy’s own matching code.
Pattern Tester Wildcard httpbin.org https://httpbin.org/ip match https://api.ipify.org/?ref=httpbin.org match in Firefox, no match in Chrome Wildcard ://httpbin.org/ https://httpbin.org/ip match https://api.ipify.org/?ref=httpbin.org no matchSwitch the toolbar to Proxy by Patterns
Click the toolbar icon and choose Proxy by Patterns. FoxyProxy reads active entries from the top: the first one with a matching Include and no matching Exclude carries the request, and with no match the browser connects directly. Choosing an entry by name sends everything through it instead, and Disable gives proxying back to the browser.
Confirm which address sites see
With the ipify pattern above in place, https://api.ipify.org should show the proxy’s address while unlisted sites still show yours. The Proxies tab also has a Test button that looks up your IP through a chosen entry; FoxyProxy’s help notes that in Chrome the proxy must be signed in before that test runs.
Rotating and sticky IPs
FoxyProxy stores one login per host and port. Two residential entries on the same port, one sticky and one random, cannot keep different passwords: whichever was saved last answers for both. Firefox users can separate them by adding a letter after the port, a trick documented in FoxyProxy’s help. In Chrome, keep one entry per port.
Patterns limit residential traffic to the sites you list, but a page also pulls files from other hosts, and those connect directly unless a pattern covers them. A site may then see your address and the proxy’s in one visit. The Log tab’s Get Associated Domains lists the hosts a page called, and can turn them into patterns.
An ISP or datacenter IP stays the same for its rental term, so an entry pointed at one shows a site the same address on every visit, with no session setting to manage.
Common errors and fixes
The browser’s own sign-in box keeps appearing
FoxyProxy answers only for an entry with both Username and Password filled in, and only when the proxy that asks has exactly that host and port. Without a stored login the browser asks instead. Compare Hostname and Port with the service page character for character.
Pages stop loading after the password was changed
FoxyProxy sends a stored login once per request, and if the proxy turns it down, it cancels the request rather than loop. A wrong or shortened password therefore shows up as failed pages, not as a prompt. Copy the full password from the service page again and Save.
A SOCKS5 entry with a login fails in Chrome or Edge
Chromium browsers cannot authenticate to SOCKS5, and FoxyProxy’s help says so plainly. Use Type HTTP there, or allowlist your IP in the dashboard and keep SOCKS5 without a login.
The icon is grey and “Settings are controlled by other extensions.”
Another extension holds the browser’s proxy setting, usually a VPN or a second switcher. Disable it, then choose a mode in FoxyProxy again.
Proxy by Patterns is missing from the toolbar menu
The option appears only once an active entry has at least one Include pattern. Add one, press Save and open the menu again.
Need help? What a 407 or 403 message means
Which line to pick
Patterns suit a browser that mostly goes direct and needs a proxy for a few sites. Residential with Sticky IP covers sites that turn away server addresses, and only those sites use up gigabytes. An account you sign in to from this browser every day is steadier on its own ISP IP. Datacenter is the low-cost choice for panels and checks that accept any address.
Other setup guides
Not sure what a word means? The glossary explains it in plain English.
Stuck on a step?
Paste the command and the error into Discord, with your password taken out. People there have met most of these errors before.