Set a Proxy From the Command Line

Set the variables in your shell, then run your commands as usual:

export http_proxy="http://<login>-country-us-city-new_york:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000"
export https_proxy="$http_proxy"
export HTTPS_PROXY="$http_proxy"
export no_proxy="localhost,127.0.0.1,::1,.local"
export NO_PROXY="$no_proxy"

curl https://api.ipify.org   # prints the proxy's exit IP, not yours

SOCKS5 instead of HTTP. ProxyField serves SOCKS5 on the same host and port, with the same login:

export ALL_PROXY="socks5h://<login>-country-us-city-new_york:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000"
export all_proxy="$ALL_PROXY"

curl https://api.ipify.org   # curl uses ALL_PROXY when no protocol-specific variable is set

• socks5h:// resolves the site's hostname through the proxy; socks5:// resolves it on your machine, so your DNS lookups stay local. Use socks5h:// unless you have a reason not to; more in SOCKS5 vs HTTP proxy.
• A protocol-specific variable beats ALL_PROXY: if https_proxy is also set, curl uses it for https:// sites and ignores ALL_PROXY. Unset the HTTP variables when you switch to SOCKS.
• Not every tool speaks SOCKS: curl does, wget does not, and Python requests needs the SOCKS extra (pip install "requests[socks]").

Which variable a tool reads depends on the tool:

Setting both cases avoids surprises; where both are set, curl checks the lowercase name first. The curl rules are in its manual's ENVIRONMENT section (curl man page).

Which tools read them. curl, wget, git, pip, Python requests and Go's default HTTP client read the proxy variables. Node.js's built-in http module and fetch do not by default: a Node.js program needs a proxy agent or its own proxy setting.

Run one command through a proxy without exporting anything:

https_proxy="http://<login>-country-us-city-new_york:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000" curl https://api.ipify.org

For programs that ignore the variables entirely, proxychains-style wrappers force their connections through a proxy; see the Linux proxy setup guide.

The variables live only in the current shell. To keep them, add the export lines to your shell's startup file:

Terminal windows that were already open do not see the change until you source the file in them. The password is now stored in that file, so keep it readable only by you (chmod 600 ~/.zshrc), or use the IP allowlist instead of a password in the URL. Mac-wide settings for apps other than the terminal: macOS proxy setup.

sudo usually drops them. On most distributions sudo resets the environment, so sudo apt update ignores your exports unless the sudoers file keeps the proxy variables. Use sudo -E to keep them for one command, or give apt its own setting (below).

apt reads its proxy from a file in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/, so it works under sudo:

sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/95proxy >/dev/null <<'EOF'
Acquire::http::Proxy "http://<login>:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000/";
Acquire::https::Proxy "http://<login>:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000/";
EOF
sudo apt update

The Acquire::http::Proxy option is described in the apt-transport-http manual. Delete the file to stop. Package downloads are large, and every byte through a residential proxy counts as traffic, so route apt through a proxy only when the network requires it.

Special characters in the password (@, :, /, #) must be percent-encoded in these URLs; proxy format shows how.

:: this window only
set HTTPS_PROXY=http://<login>-country-us-city-new_york:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000
set HTTP_PROXY=%HTTPS_PROXY%
curl https://api.ipify.org

:: saved for new windows (setx does not change the current one)
setx HTTPS_PROXY "http://<login>-country-us-city-new_york:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000"

curl.exe, Python, Git and pip read these variables; Node.js does not by default. Windows itself does not: the system proxy is set in Settings, and the proxy for Windows services is set with netsh winhttp, which takes no login, so pair it with ProxyField's IP allowlist and use the port you set up in the dashboard as <port>:

netsh winhttp set proxy proxy-server="gate.proxyfield.io:<port>" bypass-list="<local>"
netsh winhttp show proxy
netsh winhttp reset proxy

The command reference is on Microsoft Learn: netsh winhttp. The Windows proxy setup guide covers the Settings side and setting a proxy from the Command Prompt step by step.

Invoke-WebRequest and Invoke-RestMethod take the proxy and its login as parameters. Build the credential from environment variables instead of typing the password into the script:

$pass = ConvertTo-SecureString $env:PROXY_PASS -AsPlainText -Force
$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ($env:PROXY_USER, $pass)
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.ipify.org" -Proxy "http://gate.proxyfield.io:7000" -ProxyCredential $cred

$env:PROXY_USER holds a username such as <login>-country-us-city-new_york. In PowerShell 7, $env:HTTPS_PROXY = "http://<login>:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000" also works for these cmdlets, because .NET reads the proxy variables (Microsoft Learn: HttpClient.DefaultProxy). To make every Invoke-WebRequest in a session use the authenticated proxy, set it once as a default parameter value: $PSDefaultParameterValues["Invoke-WebRequest:Proxy"] = "http://gate.proxyfield.io:7000" and $PSDefaultParameterValues["Invoke-WebRequest:ProxyCredential"] = $cred, with the same two lines for Invoke-RestMethod (Microsoft Learn: about_Parameters_Default_Values); the other session-wide options are on PowerShell proxy setup.

No. ping sends ICMP packets, and HTTP and SOCKS proxies relay TCP connections (SOCKS5 also UDP), not ICMP, so ping always goes out directly from your machine. To test a proxy from the command line, make a real request through it and time it:

curl -x gate.proxyfield.io:7000 -U "<login>-country-us-city-new_york:<password>" \
  -o /dev/null -s -w "connect %{time_connect}s, total %{time_total}s, HTTP %{http_code}\n" \
  https://api.ipify.org

time_connect is the time to reach the proxy, and time_total includes the trip through the exit IP to the site. Run it a few times; a residential exit adds the latency of a home connection.

• curl https://api.ipify.org prints the exit IP. It differs from your own when the proxy is in use.
• curl -v https://api.ipify.org 2>&1 | grep -i proxy shows whether curl picked up a proxy variable.
• env | grep -i _proxy lists what is set.

To switch everything off again, see how to turn off a proxy. ProxyField proxies run on HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS5 with unlimited concurrent threads, so one exported variable can serve many parallel commands; proxy authentication covers using the IP allowlist instead of a password in the URL.