Proxies

Add, test and assign a proxy

Save a proxy once in your workspace's proxy library, test it, and assign it to the profiles that should use it. Each profile gets its own copy, and PowerOps checks it again when the profile opens.

Guide · 6 min read

By the end of this guide a proxy is saved in your proxy library, tested, and assigned to the profiles that should reach the web through it. Saving it in the library means you type its details once, however many profiles use it.

Before you start

• PowerOps installed and signed in, with your workspace open.
• At least one profile to give the proxy to. The getting started guide creates one.
• The details your proxy provider gave you: the protocol (HTTP, HTTPS or SOCKS5), the host, the port, and the username and password if the proxy needs them.
• No special role. Any member of the workspace can add, test and assign proxies.

1. Add the proxy to the library

The library is the Proxies page. Any profile in the workspace can use an entry you save there.

1. 1Choose Proxies in the sidebar, then Add proxy at the top right of the page.
2. 2Type a Label you will recognise later, such as the city and what the proxy is for.
3. 3Set Protocol to the one your provider gave you, then fill in Host and Port. Type the host on its own, with nothing like http:// in front of it and no port after it.
4. 4If the proxy needs a sign-in, fill in Username (optional) and Password. They go together: a username needs its password.
5. 5Remarks is optional. It is a good place for who the proxy is from and when it renews.
6. 6Choose Save proxy.

Adding many proxies at once

Choose Paste/import proxies instead of Add proxy, and paste one proxy per line. PowerOps reads host:port, user:password@host:port and host:port:user:password, and takes a line as HTTP unless it starts with socks5:// or https://. It marks each line Valid, Duplicate or with the reason it cannot be read, and the Import button adds the valid ones. Tick Test after import to test them in the same step.

2. Test it

A test connects through the proxy and asks a lookup service which address the connection arrived from. It uses the saved username and password, so it tells you whether the sign-in works too.

1. 1Tick the box at the start of the proxy's row. The bar above the table now reads 1 selected.
2. 2Choose Test in that bar. The play button at the end of the row does the same for one proxy.
3. 3Wait for the Verification column to change.

Warning means the proxy answered, but slowly. Failed means it did not pass: hover over the word to read why. If the row still says Not checked after a test, the lookup service could not be reached, so test again in a minute.

What each proxy failure means and how to clear it

To test the whole library, tick the box at the top of the table, which selects every proxy, and choose Test. PowerOps counts through them above the table and finishes with how many passed and how many failed, with Retry failed if any did.

3. Assign it to profiles

Assigning copies the proxy onto each profile you choose, with its own copy of the password. A profile uses one proxy at a time, so this replaces whatever it used before.

1. 1With only that proxy ticked, choose Assign. The button needs exactly one proxy to be ticked.
2. 2Tick the profiles that should use it. Search profiles by name narrows the list, and Current proxy shows whether a profile already has one.
3. 3Choose Assign.

Starting from the profiles instead

On the Profiles page, tick the profiles, open More actions in the bar above the table, then Proxy, and choose Assign a proxy. Pick the proxy and choose Assign proxy. For one profile, open the menu at the end of its row, choose Edit proxy, pick the proxy in the Proxy list and choose Save changes.

4. Open a profile and check

The test in step 2 checked the library entry. Each profile also keeps a result of its own, which PowerOps fills in when the profile opens.

1. 1On the Profiles page, choose Open on a profile that uses the proxy.
2. 2Watch the Activity panel at the bottom of the window. For a profile whose Timezone is set to Based on IP, which is how new profiles start, it shows Checking proxy… while PowerOps confirms the proxy and reads its location.

To check a profile's own result at any time, open the menu at the end of its row, choose View details, open the Proxy tab and choose Test proxy. A pass reads Proxy is working, with the Observed IP, Country and Latency it measured. Verify in browser, the button beside it, cannot finish its check yet, so rely on Test proxy.

Change or remove a proxy later

• Editing a library entry does not reach the profiles that already use it, because each holds its own copy. After you edit an entry, assign it again to the profiles that should get the change.
• Editing an entry also sets it back to Not checked, so test it again.
• To put a profile back on this computer's own connection, choose Edit proxy from its row, pick the No proxy choice in the Proxy list, and choose Save changes.
• Delete only works for a proxy that no profile uses. Give its profiles another proxy first.

Good to know

• PowerOps never falls back to this computer's own connection when a proxy fails. When a profile's last proxy check failed, it refuses to open the profile and says Proxy is unavailable. Profile was not opened.
• Testing on the Proxies page updates the library entry, not the profiles. To clear that refusal, test the profile's own proxy from View details as described in step 4.
• Test proxy on a proxy you have typed into a profile's Proxy tab but not saved yet only works when the proxy needs no sign-in. A proxy with a username and password has to be saved before it can be tested, which is one more reason to keep proxies in the library.

Recover from a proxy problem

• Organise profiles into groupsCreate groups, put profiles in them, and keep the groups in folders, so the Profiles page can show one job at a time and a bulk action reaches exactly the profiles you mean.Next guide
• Recover from download, opening, proxy and sync problemsWhat to do when Orbit Browser does not finish downloading, a profile will not open, a proxy fails, or a profile's session does not reach your other computer.Next guide
• Drive profiles from codeThe Local API, its bearer key, attaching Playwright or Puppeteer to a running profile, and working through large jobs in batches.Next guide