Use FoxyProxy to Quickly change your Browser's SOCKS5 Settings
This is a quick write-up on installing the FoxyProxy Firefox extension and setting it up to connect to a socks5 proxy. I use my own socks5 service routed over Zerotier.
Step 1: Install FoxyProxy from the Mozilla Addons Site
Step 2: Right-click the icon in your browser extensions area
Step 3: Click Options
Step 4: Click Add in FoxyProxy settings
Step 5: Add your proxy
Note, you should already have this information. It is worth mentioning that there are FoxyProxy premium services (I no affiliation and do not use it), but that is out of scope for this post.
Step 6: Done configuring. Close the tab.
Step 7: Activate the proxy
Step 8: Done! Now lets test
You should see the icon change color, letting you know it is active.
Extra Credit! Let's test this!
Ok, lets see if we can really convince websites out there that we are in another spot.
Before proxy active
First we test it without. I simply use whatismyip.com
Notice it gets the location correct.
After proxy active
After activating the proxy we now appear to pop up in New Jersey.
Be careful when using proxies
When using proxies it is possible that you will get stopped along the way for a "Human Check" or CAPTCHA. This is an automated page that tries to verify that the site visitor is actually human. If might look something like this:
Conclusions
Ok, there it is. This was the most direct walk-through to get FoxyProxy installed and working with a SOCK5 server. You can use open proxies or your own. I use my own.