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Toggle table of contents. Current section: Open the connection settings

Connection settings in Waterfox

A proxy sits between your computer and the internet, forwarding your requests on your behalf. Organizations use them to filter traffic, cache content or enforce a firewall policy. Your employer or ISP may offer or require one.

Open the connection settings

  1. Click the menu button, then select Settings.
  2. Select Privacy and security.
  3. Scroll to Connection and software security and select Advanced settings.
  4. Go to Proxy settings and select Settings to open the Connection Settings dialog.

The options

  • No proxy — connect directly. This is the default.
  • Auto-detect proxy settings for this network — Waterfox looks for a proxy configuration published by the network (WPAD).
  • Use system proxy settings — follow whatever your operating system is configured to use.
  • Manual proxy configuration — enter the hostname and port for each protocol. Your system administrator will have these. Check Also use this proxy for HTTPS if the same server handles both.
  • Automatic proxy configuration URL — point at a proxy auto-config (.pac) file. file: and data: URLs work here as well, for example file:///c:/proxy.pac. Reload re-reads the file without restarting.
  • No Proxy For — hostnames and IP addresses to connect to directly. Use <local> to bypass the proxy for any hostname without a dot in it.
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Tip

The dialog also lists extensions that control how Waterfox connects. If an extension has taken over your proxy settings, you can disable it from here.

Proxies and DNS

A proxy changes where your HTTP traffic goes, not necessarily where your DNS lookups go. Waterfox resolves DNS over Oblivious HTTP by default, which is independent of these settings.

If your proxy needs to resolve hostnames itself — common with a corporate proxy that filters by domain — you may need to adjust the DNS settings too. See Configure DNS over HTTPS protection levels in Waterfox.

Waterfox also disables DNS over HTTPS automatically in Default protection when it detects a network that has signaled it should not be used.

Related articles

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Copyright and Licensing

Adapted for Waterfox from the original Firefox article Connection settings in Firefox. Original content by Mozilla Contributors. Licensed under the CC BY-SA 3.0.