How to Get Started with ProxyMesh

This article describes how to use the dashboard to set up your ProxyMesh account and system browser to use our service effectively. 

Signing up for a Free Trial or Paid Plan

If you're signing up for one of our paid plans, please see “Paid Plans” in our article Pricing Plans to determine which plan fits your needs.

Choosing a Username

Every account requires a username, which must be unique. You can choose to use your email address as your username. However, we do not recommend using an email address because the @ "at" sign can interfere with username:password authentication protocols. It’s better to choose a unique username without the “@“ symbol.

Note that changing a username requires special procedures by the Support staff so that they can update your account records. Please contact Support if you wish to change your username. Username change requests must come from the email address associated with your ProxyMesh account.

Watch for Confirmation Message

Once you sign up for an account, ProxyMesh sends you a confirmation email, usually within a few minutes. Occasionally, however, it can take up to 30 minutes.

After receiving your confirmation letter, follow these steps from your dashboard:

Authorize/Authenticate to the Proxy Servers

To initiate requests to the proxy, you'll need to either provide an authenticated IP address belonging to you, or use basic access authentication. Either of these methods will authorize the proxy to act on behalf of your own IP address.

Below are the steps for each.

IP Address Authentication

For IP address authentication, choose Add an IP or Hostname on your dashboard. This takes you to the Edit authenticated IPs page to add address(es) you wish to use.

To avoid error messages and a temporary ban, please be sure to wait until it has been authorized at the servers before you make requests from that IP. For background on IP authentication, see Proxy Authentication.

Basic Access Authentication

For basic access authorization, configure the Proxy-Authorization header for your requests, containing your username and password in the format USERNAME:PASSWORD. This is the same username/password that you use to sign in to your account.

Select One or More Proxies

To select or deselect proxies, please see Change Proxies in our article “Dashboard Tour & How To” for details.

Configuration

There are two ways to configure. If you're like most users, one or the other of these methods will meet your needs:

• Configure your HTTP client program
• Configure your web browser

Both methods are detailed below.

Configure Your HTTP Client Program to Use Your Proxy

Check out our proxy and browser configuration to see how to configure the proxy host & port settings in these HTTP clients, and set theProxy-Authorizationheader. You can also use IP address authentication, which allows you to add multiple IP addresses to your account. If your client isn't covered and you'd like to see an example, please contact Support.

To configure an HTTPS client, additional steps are required, as documented here.

Configure Your Web Browser to Use Your Proxy

ProxyMesh services work on most popular browsers. See How to Change Web Browser Proxy Settings for links to proxy configuration instructions for specific browsers. The simplest way to configure your browser, once you’ve signed up with ProxyMesh, is to add your IP address for authentication from the dashboard, and then use one of the proxy.pac links as the proxy auto-configuration url in your browser settings which you can find in your dashboard.

If you use Firefox or Chrome, the FoxyProxy plugin makes it really easy to configure your proxy settings. See these articles for specifics about add-ons:

• Using FoxyProxy with ProxyMesh
• Using Burp Suite with ProxyMesh

2-Factor Authentication

You can enhance your account security with 2-Factor Authentication. For details, please see "2-factor Authentication" in our article Dashboard Account Settings.

Free Trials

If you are starting with a free trial instead of a paid plan, please note that you are limited to 100MB of bandwidth. If you exceed this limit before the end of your 30-day trial period, your free trial service will be cancelled. Please track your usage carefully, and if this constraint does not meet your needs, you have the option of upgrading at any time to one of our paid plans.

Contacting Support via Chat or Email

If you need to contact Support via our chat or email, please remember that our staff are hard-working and courteous and are trying to help you in a timely manner. Offensive language and abusive behavior towards Support staff will not be tolerated, and may be cause for canceling your subscription.