Ubuntu Proxy Setup: Step by Step

1. Open Settings → Network.

2. Select Network Proxy (on 22.04, the gear next to it).
3. Turn it on, or set Method / Configuration to Manual.

4. Enter gate.proxyfield.io and 7000 in HTTP Proxy and HTTPS Proxy.
5. In Ignore Hosts, keep localhost, 127.0.0.0/8, ::1, and close the window; it saves at once.
6. Open Firefox and load https://api.ipify.org. When the browser asks for the proxy's username and password, enter your ProxyField credentials. The page shows the proxy's IP.

To skip the login prompt, add your network's public IP to the allowlist in your ProxyField account and, in step 4, enter the port you set up in the dashboard instead of 7000. With the IP allowlist, the product, location and session are set per port in the dashboard.

The same setting from a terminal, with gsettings:

gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy mode 'manual'
gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy.http host 'gate.proxyfield.io'
gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy.http port 7000
gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy.https host 'gate.proxyfield.io'
gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy.https port 7000
gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy ignore-hosts "['localhost', '127.0.0.0/8', '::1']"

gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy mode 'none' turns it off.

Add plain KEY=value lines to /etc/environment with sudo nano /etc/environment, then log out and back in:

http_proxy="http://<login>:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000"
https_proxy="http://<login>:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000"
no_proxy="localhost,127.0.0.1,::1"
HTTP_PROXY="http://<login>:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000"
HTTPS_PROXY="http://<login>:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000"
NO_PROXY="localhost,127.0.0.1,::1"

For your user only, put export lines in ~/.bashrc instead. Test with curl https://api.ipify.org. If your password contains @, : or /, percent-encode it in the URL (@ becomes %40): see proxy authentication. /etc/environment is readable by every user; on a shared machine, use the IP allowlist: drop <login>:<password>@ and use the port you set up in the dashboard instead of 7000. The details of each variable are on Linux proxy setup, and curl's own options on cURL with a proxy.

apt ignores both the desktop setting and your shell. Create /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/95proxy:

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

Delete the file to stop. apt is simplest with the HTTP proxy shown here. Every package downloaded through the proxy counts as traffic, so for large upgrades on a machine that doesn't need another IP, let apt connect directly.

snapd runs as a service and reads its own setting:

sudo snap set system proxy.http="http://<login>:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000"
sudo snap set system proxy.https="http://<login>:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000"

To remove the proxy from snap later, run this on its own:

sudo snap unset system proxy.http proxy.https

Other services (Docker, your own) take Environment= lines in a systemd drop-in, as shown on Linux proxy setup.

On a server there is no GNOME setting: use the apt file (section 3), snap (section 4) and systemd Environment= lines for services. /etc/environment (section 2) is readable by every user, so put no password in it: allowlist the server's IP in your ProxyField account and use http://gate.proxyfield.io:<port> without <login>:<password>@, where <port> is the port you set up in the dashboard, or keep the login only in root-only files such as the apt file or a systemd drop-in (sudo chmod 600).

Ubuntu Pro. The Pro client keeps its own proxy settings, which the apt file and the environment don't set. Set them with sudo pro config set http_proxy=http://<login>:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000 and sudo pro config set https_proxy=http://<login>:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000, and check with sudo pro config show (Canonical's Pro client proxy guide).

Python's requests takes the proxy as a URL with the login in it, or reads https_proxy from the environment (section 2) with no code change. Set up a virtual environment first: on Ubuntu 24.04, pip install outside one stops with error: externally-managed-environment.

sudo apt install python3-venv
python3 -m venv ~/scraper && source ~/scraper/bin/activate
pip install requests
export PF_LOGIN='<login>' PF_PASSWORD='<password>'

import os
from urllib.parse import quote

import requests

login = quote(os.environ["PF_LOGIN"], safe="")        # percent-encodes @, : and /
password = quote(os.environ["PF_PASSWORD"], safe="")
proxy = f"http://{login}-country-us:{password}@gate.proxyfield.io:7000"

resp = requests.get("https://api.ipify.org",
                    proxies={"http": proxy, "https": proxy}, timeout=30)
print(resp.status_code, resp.text)                    # 200 and the proxy's IP

• One IP per worker. Give each worker its own sticky session, such as {login}-country-us-session-worker3-ttl-600, so parallel jobs on one server keep separate IPs for 10 minutes; leave the session out for a new IP on every request.
• SOCKS5. pip install "requests[socks]" and use socks5h:// instead of http://; the same login works.
• As a service. Keep PF_LOGIN and PF_PASSWORD in a root-only file (sudo chmod 600 /etc/scraper.env) and load it with EnvironmentFile=/etc/scraper.env in the systemd unit, so the password is not in your code or in ps output.
• No password at all. Allowlist the server's IP and use http://gate.proxyfield.io:<port>, where <port> is the port you set up in the dashboard.

More on requests: Python requests with a proxy and Python proxies.

The desktop's Socks Host field sends GNOME apps through a SOCKS5 proxy, but carries no login, so it works with your IP on the allowlist and the port you set up in the dashboard. In the terminal, export all_proxy="socks5h://<login>:<password>@gate.proxyfield.io:7000" works for curl and many tools, and proxychains4 covers programs that ignore it (sudo apt install proxychains4). SOCKS5 takes the same username and password, and residential proxies carry UDP over SOCKS5 (HTTP/3, QUIC). Ubuntu has no single setting that forces every program through SOCKS5. More on the protocol: SOCKS5 proxies.

1. Firefox: https://api.ipify.org shows the proxy's IP.
2. Terminal: env | grep -i proxy, then curl -s https://api.ipify.org and curl -s https://ipinfo.io/json.
3. apt: apt-config dump | grep -i proxy shows the proxy apt will use.
4. snap: snap get system proxy.
5. To test proxy lines before you use them, use the proxy checker: up to 100 proxies per check; your list and results are not stored.

Set Network Proxy to off (or Disabled) in Settings, remove the lines from /etc/environment and ~/.bashrc, delete /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/95proxy, and run sudo snap unset system proxy.http proxy.https. Log out and in so the environment clears.

Gateway error messages: 407 Proxy Authentication Required for a wrong login or password, an IP not on the allowlist or a malformed location, 402 Payment Required when no traffic is left and 502 Bad Gateway when no exit could be connected; a restricted site gets no separate response, and a 403 comes from the site itself. Status codes are explained in proxy errors. Our 24/7 live chat helps with setup and integration.

For code on Ubuntu, see Python, Node.js and wget; for the browser alone, Firefox. Use ProxyField for lawful work within our acceptable use policy.

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