How to Turn Off Proxy Settings on Windows, Mac, and Browsers

With the advancement of software technology comes the need to enforce security testing. One such measure is to employ proxies in your secure perimeter.

Using proxies enhances your organization’s security, performance, and control. Proxies protect against DDoS attacks by filtering and distributing traffic, ensuring uninterrupted operations.

Proxies optimize network performance with caching, reduce bandwidth costs, and enable load balancing. Proxies help in maintaining a secure, efficient, and scalable IT infrastructure.

What is Proxy?

A proxy is an intermediary server between your device and the internet that routes the internet traffic through itself before it reaches its destination.

It Provides functions such as hiding the user’s IP address, filtering content, caching data for quicker access, or providing security measures by managing incoming and outgoing data.

Types of Proxy

Based on your requirements, the types of proxy servers that you employ are as follows:

Here’s what each proxy means:

• HTTP Proxy: Routes web traffic for accessing HTTP websites while improving speed and caching.
• HTTPS (SSL) Proxy: Encrypts traffic for secure browsing and accessing HTTPS websites.
• SOCKS Proxy: Supports any traffic type, including email, P2P, and video streaming, for versatile use.
• Forward Proxy: Forwards client requests to external servers and applies policies.
• Transparent Proxy: Operates without user awareness and often used for content filtering or caching.
• Anonymous Proxy: Hides user IP addresses but reveals that a proxy is being used.
• High Anonymity Proxy: Completely hides user IP and doesn’t reveal proxy usage for better privacy.
• Residential Proxy: Routes traffic through real user devices, appearing as regular users online.
• Datacenter Proxy: Uses servers in data centers for faster performance and scalability.
• Public Proxy: Freely available but less secure and often unreliable.
• Private Proxy: Dedicated proxy offering better speed, security, and reliability.
• Reverse Proxy: Manages and distributes traffic to backend servers for load balancing and security.

Why should you Turn Off Proxy?

Enabling proxy can be for all the right reasons and if you choose to use those, it is in the best interest of your organization to engage in proxy testing to ensure no malicious attacks take place.

If you don’t need to use proxies for any of the aforementioned reasons, then it makes absolute sense from a security perspective to disable or turn off proxy on your device or browsers. Failing to do so gives power to malicious agents who can redirect you to phishing sites, fake login pages, or websites containing additional malware.

How to turn off Proxy on different devices?

Use the instructions in the following sections to turn off the proxy for your specific device.

Windows

To turn off proxy on a Windows device, do the following:

1. Press the Windows + I key to open the Settings menu.

2. Click Network & Internet.

3. Click Proxy from the left sidebar.

4. Under the Manual proxy setup section, switch off the toggle switch for Use a proxy server.

macOS

To turn off the proxy on a macOS device, do the following:

1. Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner.

2. Open System Preferences and click Network.

3. Choose your active network connection on the left.

4. Click on Advanced and go to the Proxies tab.

5. Disable the proxy settings by unchecking the boxes next to the protocols you are using.

Android

To turn off proxy on Android device, do the following:

1. On an Android phone, swipe down from the top of your phone to display the menu.

2. Tap the Settings icon

3. Tap Wifi to view your list of Wifi profiles.

4. Tap the required network and then tap Modify Network Config.

5. Tap Show Advanced Settings

6. In the Proxy drop-down select None

iOS

To turn off the proxy on an iOS device, do the following:

1. On an iOS phone, swipe down from the top of your phone to display the menu.

2. Tap the Settings icon

3. Tap Wifi to view your list of Wifi profiles.

4. Tap the required network and then tap the info icon next to the network.

5. Click Configure Proxy, and then tap Off.

How to turn off proxy in different browsers?

Here are the steps to turn off the proxy in different browsers:

Chrome

Chrome uses the system’s proxy settings, so disabling the proxy in Chrome requires turning it off in the operating system. To turn off the proxy on the Google Chrome browser, do the following:

1. Open Google Chrome and click the three-dot menu.

2. Click Settings.

3. Search Proxy in the search bar, and then click Open your computer’s proxy settings.

4. Based on your operating system, refer to the Windows or macOS section to turn proxy off.

Firefox

To turn off proxy on Mozilla Firefox browser, do the following:

1. Open Mozilla Firefox and click the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines in the top-right corner).

2. Click Settings.

3. Search for the Network Settings section.

4. Click Settings under Network Settings.

5. Select No proxy to disable proxy usage, and click OK.

Edge

Chrome uses the system’s proxy settings, so disabling the proxy in Chrome requires turning it off in the operating system. To turn off the proxy on the Microsoft Edge browser, do the following:

1. Open Microsoft Edge and click the three-dot menu.

2. Click Settings.

3. In the left-hand menu, click System and Performance.

4. Click Open your computer’s proxy settings.

5. Based on your operating system, refer to the Windows or macOS section to turn the proxy off.

How to turn off Proxy in Network-Level Configurations?

Though the above instructions can be used at the individual user level to disable or turn off proxy, as an organization you must turn off proxy at the network-level implementation.

You can either turn off the proxy at the router or server level. The instructions might vary based on the hardware that you use for both the router or server, but you can use the following high level steps to figure out the steps involved.

Router-level configurations

To turn off the proxy in router-level configurations, do the following:

1. Open a web browser on a device connected to your router (Wi-Fi or Ethernet).
2. Enter the router’s IP address in the browser’s address bar.
3. Type your username and password to access the router’s admin interface.
4. Search for Proxy in the Settings. Common menus under which it is nested are Advanced, Network Settings, WAN, LAN, or Internet Settings. Sometimes, proxy settings are nested under Content Filtering.
5. Either disable options related to Web Proxy or disable Content Filtering options.
6. Click Save or Apply to save your settings.

Server-level configurations for Linux systems

To turn off the proxy in server-level configurations, do the following:

1. Log in to your Linux machine from the terminal.

2. Run the following command to check if proxy settings are defined globally:

echo $http_proxy

echo $https_proxy

echo $ftp_proxy

3. Edit the /etc/environment file to remove proxy settings:

sudo nano /etc/environment

4. Verify and edit the /etc/apt/apt.conf file, if proxy settings exist:

sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf

5. After making changes, restart the server or the network services to apply the new settings:

sudo systemctl restart networking

Command-Line Methods to Disable Proxy

Based on your operating system, the command-line instructions vary.

Windows

To turn off the proxy through the command line for Windows, do the following:

1. Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog.

2. Type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open it as Administrator.

3. View the current proxy settings:

netsh winhttp show proxy

4. Disable the proxy settings:

netsh winhttp reset proxy

5. Confirm that the proxy settings are removed:

netsh winhttp show proxy

macOS

To turn off the proxy in through the command line for macOS, do the following:

1. Press Command + Space, type Terminal, and press Enter.

2. Check if the proxy is set for HTTP and HTTPS:

networksetup -getwebproxy Wi-Fi

networksetup -getsecurewebproxy Wi-Fi

3. Disable the web proxy (HTTP):

sudo networksetup -setwebproxystate Wi-Fi off

4. Disable the web proxy (HTTPS):

sudo networksetup -setsecurewebproxystate Wi-Fi off

5. After disabling the proxy, check again to confirm:

networksetup -getwebproxy Wi-Fi

networksetup -getsecurewebproxy Wi-Fi

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Why Test Proxy Settings on Real Devices?

As we can see, Proxy settings and working with them largely vary based on the devices, platforms, and browsers that you use. When you test a proxy server in your environment, there are limitations beyond the current device and browser that you can use.

Testing proxy settings on real devices ensures compatibility, performance, security, and a seamless user experience. Some compelling reasons are:

• Varying behavior unique to real devices, such as network conditions, varying speeds, latency, or firewalls, can impact proxy behavior.
• Mobile apps and device-specific applications might behave differently with proxies compared to emulators.
• Real devices help validate how proxies handle geographic restrictions, content filtering, or security mechanisms.
• Real devices provide insights into how errors such as connection timeouts appear.
• Verifying session continuity in a proxy-enabled environment on actual devices prevents session dropouts or mismatches.

Why choose BrowserStack for Testing Proxy Settings to test Locally?

Testing websites that are not publicly hosted or websites that are behind a proxy, firewall, or VPN can be difficult unless you restrict yourself to a single device.

Typically, when developing an application for users across different devices and platforms, you would want to test how your application behaves on different browser-device combinations.

BrowserStack Live with local testing lets you test with various proxy settings directly within the BrowserStack Local tunnel, simplifying the validation process. Moreover, it allows you to test whenever needed without requiring device setup or network reconfiguration.

Geo-location testing for regional preferences and other needs is much easier with BrowserStack Local.

Conclusion

BrowserStack Live and App Live provide an accessible solution to the complexities of setting up proxies in your environment and managing security around it. Coupled with other BrowserStack products such as Observability, Test Management, and Bug Capture, you can reduce context switching and manage your test environment from within a unified platform.

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