Maybe it's only lack of knowledge but it isn't transparent to me what exactly is passed through the proxy and what isn't.

It was a little shock for me to see that the DNS request doesn't go through my proxy by default.
Now I wonder whether only a page from a specified domain or also the embedded objects (like images, stylesheets, flash objects aso) that are included from other servers than the specified go also through my proxy. In other words: Am I only anonymous for the specified server or is my whole page request processed through the proxy?

I would like to see an option to switch on the proxy for every last bit of traffic my browser causes that can be switched on with on clic or so. (Maybe i should post this to under "feature requests"...)

Hope I'll get a reply that helps me see things more clearly. Thanks in advance.

Hi Speckmade,

This is best answered by example. Turn on logging in FoxyProxy. If it was already turned on, click "Refresh Log" then "Clear Log" to make it easier to read.

Now visit http://foxyproxy.mozdev.org/test1.html. Click "Refresh Log" and you should something similar to this:



This should demonstrate to you that all of the component parts of a webpage are routed through FoxyProxy.

If you're using Firefox 1.5.0.2 without FoxyProxy, and have defined a SOCKS5 proxy through Firefox's Connection Settings, Firefox always routes DNS lookups through that SOCKS5 server (reference).

Only with FoxyProxy can you tell Firefox to not route DNS lookups through a SOCKS5 server.

Does this explain things more clearly?

Regards,
Eric

this is not working for me

my log


my settings

Hi hostmaster,

What isn't working exactly? I looked at the screenshots but it's not clear to me which URL didn't go through the proxy.

By the way, there seems to be a bug in version 1.1 where if you add/edit a pattern, it doesn't take effect until you restart FF....sometimes. I'm working on figuring it out.

hi Eric,

I made pattern for Tor proxy. That pattern match is "http://foxyproxy.mozdev.org".
When my FF get test page (http://foxyproxy.mozdev.org/test1.html) image from this page is not getting through Tor proxy. This image is hosting on .imageshack.us

Hi,

It looks like you are right. I foolishly set my matching pattern to "*" which of course means all traffic goes through that proxy.

There is a feature request to be able to right-click a link on a web page and open that link (and all its contents) with FoxyProxy. That feature is similar to this one... so I think I can get both implemented together.

I apologize for the misinformation. Thanks for setting things straight, hostmaster.

You should have a version which does what you request soon.

-Eric

hi, thx for this great piece of work!

just want to ask if this problem is solved already? :unsure:

Hi Mable,

It's been 3 days since my post and no new releases of FoxyProxy... so no, the problem isn't solved yet :)

Is FoxyProxy operating correctly ? this behavior is wrong.
Bad guy can use link to external image and track all visitors.

any comments ?

Can you explain how you want it to work? Isn't FoxyProxy following the patterns you defined?

It isn't secure.

OK, well privacy isnt' the only goal of FoxyProxy. Another goal is to dynamically route requets through any number of proxies. I think that goal is achieved pretty well. I am still working on the privacy goals. Remember, FoxyProxy has still only had one release!

I think you should discribe this in documentaion otherwise people can expect different behaviour from foxyproxy

OK.

If I may ask - what other purpose besides either controlling (i.e. company-based proxies) or securing (TOR, JAP, ...) does a proxy (today, for broadband users) have?

Did I miss something? I do not use a proxy for reasons of speed at home, or use one to keep my privacy a little bit better private. Never I use a proxy "just to use one" because that will produce more traffic in general and less speed for me.

Is there a reason for using proxies any than the above described ones?

Hi Markus,

One other purpose is to bypass a more restrictive proxy and/or firewall rules by tunneling your requests and responses to/from your own proxy. This assumes your own proxy is running in a less restrictive environment.

I have not abandoned FoxyProxy's privacy and security endeavors... I'm just saying that it wasn't my original goal for writing FoxyProxy... hence, I'm not surprised that FoxyProxy doesn't meet the privacy goals of Tor users.

It's like using a wrench to hit a nail: wrong tool. It works, but a hammer is better. I am in the process of re-writing FoxyProxy into a hammer.

Hi, may I add something about what is a proxy good for:

These days I started to investigate why was I getting an error at a site, seems the problem is with the cable provider in the WHOLE country (Mexico). So I remembered Tor and voilá, problem solved, now I could send the info thanks to a proxy :)

bye!

One rather important purpose for using proxies would be to masquerade your web traffic to originate from some other domain than your own. I regularily need to access several on-line dictionaries or scientific journals which only can be used in my University network. So, instead of having to work there or having to use some remote desktop service, I can create an SSH tunnel to the www proxy of my university and access the services remotely that way.

Best regards,

Matti Airas

FoxyProxy is a great tool for me because I live in China, where many sites I regularly access, like Wikipedia, WordPress.com, Blogspot and Technorati are completely blocked by the Chinese government. I use Tor on Firefox to get around the blocks, but Tor makes an already slow internet connection even more sluggish. It is nice, therefore, to be able to route specific URLs through Tor and still be able to access other sites at full speed without having to open another browser or mess with switching Tor on and off in Firefox. I'm looking forward to FoxyProxy 1.2. http://i1.ifrm.com/style_images/1/icon1.gif

Aren't we forgetting the original intent of a proxy? To act as a many to one consolodator of WAN requests and cache content closer to home?

Your ISP will use proxies.

I hope not. If you read my How To Run Your Own Proxy with Apache tutorial, you'll see an entire section dedicated to caching.