Letting the proxy recognise your IP address

Every connection to the internet comes from an address, called an IP address. If you add your own address to a proxy's IP allowlist, the proxy recognises you, and you connect with only the host and port. No username or password is needed.

This is handy on a server with a fixed address, or in a tool that has no field for a proxy password.

Before you start: what changes

A proxy uses either the IP allowlist or its username and password, not both.

• When you switch a proxy to IP allowlist, its username and password stop working.
• When you switch back to Username and password, copy the username and password again from the proxy's page before you use them.

Not every proxy offers an allowlist. If the proxy's page says "This plan authenticates by password" or "This proxy offers no other way to authenticate", use the username and password. They work from any address.

Step by step

1. Find your public IP address on the machine that will use the proxy. Run this there:

   bash

   curl https://api.ipify.org
   

   A laptop at home and a server in the cloud have different addresses, so look it up on each machine. Private addresses such as 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x will not work.

2. Open the proxy in the dashboard. On its connection card, next to Authentication, press Change.

3. In the Change authentication dialog, choose IP allowlist.

4. Under Addresses allowed to connect, enter your address in Allowed address.

5. Press Change authentication. The proxy's connection card now shows IP allowlist next to Authentication.

6. Test it from the same machine, using the host and port from the proxy's page:

   bash

   curl -x "http://HOST:PORT" https://api.ipify.org
   

   It should print the proxy's address, not yours.

Changing the list later

Press IP allowlist at the top of the proxy's page. Enter an address in Allowed address, or press Set your current IP to use the address of the device you are on. Use Add another address for more; the page shows how many you can add. Press Save, and you see "Allowlist updated." Saving the list does not switch the proxy's authentication method; use Change on the connection card for that.

You can change a proxy's allowlist once every 30 minutes. Plan your changes so you do not get stuck waiting.

If it stops working later

The allowlist only knows the addresses you gave it. Some everyday things change your address:

• Home and office connections. Many internet providers change your address from time to time. If access suddenly stops, look up your address again and update the list.
• VPNs. Traffic sent through a VPN leaves from the VPN's address, not yours.
• Shared networks. Everything behind one router shares one public address, so allowing it allows every device on that network.
• Cloud servers. If a server's address changes when it restarts, register a fixed address where your cloud provider offers one.

If the proxy still refuses you, compare the address on the list with what https://api.ipify.org shows on that machine right now. What a 407 or 403 message means helps you tell who refused the request.

Any question about your account can go to support@proxypanda.io.