HTTP / HTTPS proxies — for web and scraping

How it differs from SOCKS5

HTTP proxies speak HTTP/HTTPS — they see and can modify request headers. That gives you caching, filtering, ad blocking. But you can't route UDP, Telegram or games through them.

When to pick HTTP

1. Browser without exotic protocols — Chrome, Firefox, Safari set up in 30 seconds
2. SEO and scraping — most tools expect HTTP proxy by default
3. Classic web — if you only have requests/curl and need GET/POST
4. Enterprise infra — when PAC files and proxy-autoconfig are already configured

HTTPS and CONNECT tunnels

Modern HTTP proxies use CONNECT for HTTPS: the client asks the proxy to open a TCP tunnel to port 443, then TLS encryption runs directly between client and site. The proxy can't read your HTTPS traffic — only forward it.

Browser setup

Chrome / Edge: system proxy settings or the Proxy SwitchyOmega extension

Firefox: about:preferences → Network Settings → Manual proxy configuration

System settings: macOS System Settings → Network → Proxies, Windows Settings → Network → Proxy

Code setup

Python (requests):

proxies = { 'http': 'http://user:pass@host:port', 'https': 'http://user:pass@host:port' }
requests.get(url, proxies=proxies)

Node.js (axios):

const axios = require('axios');
axios.get(url, { proxy: { host: 'host', port: 8080, auth: { username: 'user', password: 'pass' } } });