Configuration examples for HTTP Basic Proxy Authentication

Below are examples showing how to configure the Proxy Host with Basic Authentication in various HTTP clients.
Many Unix/Linux clients support the http_proxy environment variable, or even rely on it exclusively. For those clients, do the following:
export http_proxy=http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@PROXYHOST:PORT

ProxyMesh also supports IP address authentication, in which case you do not need to use a username and password in the examples below.
Instead, set the the http_proxy environment variable to http://PROXYHOST:PORT.

For web browsers, you must use IP address authentication, then configure your network proxy settings. If you use Firefox or Chrome, the FoxyProxy plugin makes it really easy to configure your proxy settings.

cURL

cURL understands the http_proxy environment variable, but if it is not set, you can also do the following:

curl -x http://PROXYHOST:PORT -U USERNAME:PASSWORD http://example.com

Wget

Wget will use the http_proxy environment variable if it is set. The example below shows how to use wget if http_proxy is not set.

http_proxy="http://PROXYHOST:PORT" wget --proxy-user=USERNAME --proxy-password=PASSWORD http://example.com

Python

The best Python library for doing HTTP requests is Requests, specifically version 2.7.0 and greater. The example below shows the most reliable way to use proxy authentication, but you can omit the auth parameter if you're using IP authentication, and you should definitely omit the auth parameter and use IP authentication for https requests.

>>> import requests
>>> proxies = {'http': 'http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@PROXYHOST:PORT', 'https': 'http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@PROXYHOST:PORT'}
>>> response = requests.get('http://example.com', proxies=proxies)

Scrapy

For the scrapy crawling framework, you must set the http_proxy environment variable, as shown above, then activate the HttpProxyMiddleware.

Ruby

There are a couple good options for Ruby http clients. You can leave out the username and password parts if you are using IP authentication. Here's an example for HTTParty.

Using HTTParty

HTTParty.get(url, { http_proxyaddr: "PROXYHOST", http_proxyport: "PORT", http_proxyuser: "USERNAME", http_proxypass: "PASSWORD", :timeout => 3 })

Another library you can use is Typhoeus.

Using typhoeus

options = {proxy: 'http://PROXYHOST:PORT', proxyuserpwd: 'USERNAME:PASSWORD'}
req = Typhoeus::Request.new(url, options)
req.run

PhantomJS and CasperJS

PhantomJS has a --proxy setting for specifying the proxy host:port. It also has a --proxy-auth setting that unfortunately doesn't work. So if you want to use username:password authentication, you must do the following in your code:

> page.customHeaders={'Proxy-Authorization': 'Basic '+btoa('USERNAME:PASSWORD')};

If you're using CasperJS then the syntax is slightly different:

casper.page.customHeaders = 'Proxy-Authorization': "Basic #{btoa('USERNAME:PASSWORD')}"

PHP

For PHP, you can use the included Client URL Library (cURL). To configure proxy settings, use the curl_setopt function to set CURLOPT_PROXY to the proxy host and port, such as PROXYHOST:PORT. Optionally, for authentication, you can set CURLOPT_PROXYUSERPWD to USERNAME:PASSWORD.

Java

There are many Java HTTP client that you can use. Here's a link to examples of using the Commons HTTP Client with Proxies. Example code is included below:

HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
HttpConnectionManager conManager = client.getHttpConnectionManager();
client.getHostConfiguration().setProxy("PROXYHOST", PORT);
HttpState state = new HttpState();
state.setProxyCredentials(null, null, new UsernamePasswordCredentials("USERNAME", "PASSWORD"));
client.setState(state);

C# .Net

The following example code for C# .Net was provided by Michael Eisenstein:

WebProxy ProxyString = new WebProxy("http://PROXYHOST:PORT", true);
//set network credentials may be optional
NetworkCredential proxyCredential = new NetworkCredential("USERNAME", "PASSWORD");
ProxyString.Credentials = proxyCredential;
WebRequest.DefaultWebProxy =  ProxyString;

HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest);
//manually set authorization header
string authInfo = "USERNAME" + ":" + "PASSWORD";
authInfo = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.Default.GetBytes(authInfo));
request.Headers["Proxy-Authorization"] = "Basic " + authInfo;

ASP VBScript

<%
Const HTTPREQUEST_PROXYSETTING_PROXY		= 2
Const HTTPREQUEST_SETCREDENTIALS_FOR_PROXY	= 1

Dim responseText

With Server.CreateObject("WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1")
	.SetProxy HTTPREQUEST_PROXYSETTING_PROXY, "PROXYHOST:PORT"
	.Open "GET", "http://example.com"
	.SetCredentials "USERNAME", "PASSWORD", HTTPREQUEST_SETCREDENTIALS_FOR_PROXY
	.Send
	responseText = .ResponseText
End With
%>