Have you been hit with the dreadful 'The proxy server is refusing connections' error on your Firefox browser lately? This error is mostly seen on either Mozilla’s Firefox browser, or occasionally on the anonymity offering TOR browser.
Charles is an HTTP proxy / HTTP monitor / Reverse Proxy that enables a developer to view all of the HTTP and SSL / HTTPS traffic between their machine and the Internet. This includes requests, responses and the HTTP headers (which contain the cookies and caching information). User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 1075) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/30.0.1599.69 Safari/537.36 See also exclude proxy for certain domain. By default, Firefox is set to “Use system proxy settings”. No proxy: Firefox won’t use a proxy server, even if one is configured in your system-wide proxy settings. Auto-detect proxy settings for this network: Firefox will use the Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol, also known as WPAD, to detect the appropriate proxy for your network.
There can be multiple reasons behind why the webpage that you are trying to access won’t open without a hassle. It can be adware or malware, an error in your LAN settings or Firefox’s proxy settings itself. It is also possible that the webpage/website is itself at fault, and in that case, I can’t help you.
- LAN Proxy Settings. To check LAN proxy settings on Windows 10, hit the Windows button on your.
- Well, not the case with hide.me VPN Firefox extension as we practice a strict no log policy - No third party involved. Bullet-Proof Online Security Integrated with secure technology, Firefox VPN extension disables WebRTC and QUIC to protect you from IP leaks.
Let’s take a look at some solutions and methods that will help you fix the proxy server connection error.
1. LAN Proxy Settings
To check LAN proxy settings on Windows 10, hit the Windows button on your keyboard and type Configure Proxy Server before hitting the Enter key. That will open a pop-up window for Internet Properties.
Under Connections, click on LAN Settings to check if your system is using any proxy settings under the Proxy server heading. If yes, you will see an IP address. Uncheck the option and save everything.
Reboot your computer and launch Firefox to check if the site loads correctly or not.
2. Firefox Proxy Settings
If the LAN settings are set to the required parameters, check if your browser’s proxy settings have been altered. Press on the ALT key to view additional browser options, click on Tools, and select Options.
Click on Advanced in the left sidebar. Under the Network tab to the right, click on Settings next to Configure how Firefox connects to the Internet.
That is where you can manage your proxy settings. It should be set to No proxy by default. On some browsers, it can also be set to Use system proxy settings which should work fine if your LAN proxy settings are set correctly in Step 1 above. To be on the safe side, set it to No proxy.
Click on OK. Restart Firefox to check if you are still getting the proxy server error.
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Read More3. Proxy Files in Registry
At times you can trace the 'The proxy server is refusing connection' error back to leftover proxy files in the Windows Registry. To edit the registry, hit the Windows key and type regedit before hitting enter. This should open file explorer.
You will have to navigate to the following folder. Check out the folder path:
If you see any files with the word proxy in its name, delete it. I would recommend you to take a backup first in case things go haywire. No need to reboot the system for this step and you can restart Firefox.
4. Reset Network Settings
This one is worth a try even though it is not precisely a Firefox-specific solution. If the site you are trying to load is not working on any other browser like Chrome and Safari, then you should try and reset network settings.
If the site is loading fine on Chrome but not on Firefox or Quantum, then you may skip this step.
To reset network settings, open the run command prompt and run the following commands one by one.
These commands will reset your network proxy settings to their default values.
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Read More5. Fix a Hijacked Router
Consider yourself lucky if Firefox works fine after following the above steps until you reboot your computer. If that is the case with you, then there is a possibility that an unwanted malware or software is misbehaving. It is force-changing the settings at reboot.
A simple way to test this theory is to reboot your PC, launch Firefox browser, and check for any changes in the proxy settings to explore if it still shows No proxy. In case the settings are different, then there is a possibility that a rogue software or code is forcing that on your computer. Don't worry. There's an easy way to find out whether your computer is infected or not.
Enter MiniToolBox from Bleeping Computer. Download this small but useful software and run it. There is no need to install it.
Click on Select All to find proxy errors on all installed browsers including Firefox. The software will take a few moments to diagnose and create a Notepad file with a detailed report on its findings. You can choose to save the generated report.
In the report, you will spot whether or not proxy settings were found to be enabled or not and if yes, what software is causing it.
6. Adware Issues
There are two types of ads. The ones that are intrusive and we don’t like viewing them because it deteriorates our user experience while surfing the web. The other ones seem alright and help us discover new, exciting stuff.
Adware belongs to the third category. Their objective is to download ads and banners, and sometimes bad lines of codes, to your browser or system and wreak havoc. Maybe, you got hit with one of them.
The trusted team behind Malwarebytes has developed the AdwCleaner. So download it, install it, and run it to examine if your computer is infected. If yes, AdwCleaner will suggest remedies and steps. For the most part, it will take care of the situation on its own. AdwCleaner is free to download and use, and it is not ad-supported.
7. Disruptive Tech
Another common problem can be malware. These are software designed to disrupt and gain access to your computer — could be a virus, trojan, or spyware. Once again, we will look no further than Malwarebytes to resolve the issue.
The free version of Malwarebytes is good enough and should be able to resolve proxy server connection error in no time. Malwarebytes is free to download. Install and run it to check if any of the malicious plugins, virus or trojans were hiding in your computer.
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Don't Take No for an Answer
If your browser tells you no when you visit a webpage and throws up an error, don't just sit there cursing it. Switching browsers every time you come across this error is not a solution. Take matters into your own hands and try one of the above solutions to figure out which one resolves the proxy server connection error.
As noted above, there can be many factors involved like network settings, browser settings, adware, malware, trojan, and so on. Go through each step one-by-one until you can find the right solution to fix the error.
Next up: Tired of those big, ugly blocks of thumbnails on every blank page? Want to hide Highlights and Top Sites? Click on the link below to learn how to disable them on desktop and mobile now.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Read NextHow to Remove Firefox Top Sites and Highlights From Desktop and MobileAlso See#Firefox #troubleshooting
Did You Know
The Mozilla Firefox browser was originally called Phoenix 0.1.
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For discussion on the latest changes to Charles, please see Karl’s blog.
Charles 4.5.6 released with minor bug fixes and patched security vulnerability. Read more.
Charles 4.5.5 released including bug fixes for SSL certificate imports. Read more.
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Charles Security Bulletin for a local privilege escalation in Charles 4.2 and 3.12.1 and earlier. Read more.
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Charles for iOS released. Read more.
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Charles 3.7 beta 2 has been released. This changes the SSL signing for Charles on Mac OS X to use Apple's new Developer ID code-signing. Read more.
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Charles Mozilla Firefox add-on updated for compatibility with Firefox 3.0.
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Charles v2.6.4 release. Minor bug fixes:
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Charles v2.6.3 release. Minor bug fixes:
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Charles v2.6.2 release. Major improvements and bug fixes including:
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- MTU support in the throttle settings
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Charles v2.6.1 release. Minor bug fixes and improvements:
- SOAP information visible while response is still loading
- AMF3 externalizable object parsing regression fixed
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Charles v2.6 release. Major improvements and bug fixes including:
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Charles v2.5 release. Major improvements and bug fixes including:
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- Major improvements to AMF / Flash remoting viewer
- Thank you to everyone who made suggestions and participated in the long testing process.
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Charles v2.4.2 release. Minor improvements and bug fixes including:
- Support for request body compression (used by web services)
- Fix for parsing of AMFPHP responses
- Improvements to AMF viewer
Charles v2.4.1 release. Minor improvements and bug fixes including:
- Firefox extension improved
- AMF 0 and AMF 3 parsing improved
- Look and Feel changes to give a greater (and more consistent) range of font sizes in the Charles look and feel
- SSL error reporting improved when a connection cannot be made to a remote host
- Port Forwarding tool and Reverse Proxy tool re-bind exception fixed
Charles v2.4 release. Major new features, improvements and bug fixes including:
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- SSL support for IBM JDK (thanks to Lance Bader for helping solve this)
- Automatic Update Checking
- Documentation wiki open to public
Charles v2.3 release. Major improvements and bug fixes including:
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- Proxy implementation improvements including better handling of keep-alive connections
- SOCKS proxy added, so any SOCKSified application can now run through Charles
- External proxies configuration improvements including authentication
- Flash Remoting / AMF viewer improvements
- Dynamic proxy port support, for multiuser systems
Charles v2.2.1 release. Minor improvements and bug fixes including:
- Further improved Firefox proxy configuration
- Port Forwarding enhancements including port ranges and UDP forwarding
- Bug fixes for Reverse Proxy and AMF viewer
Charles v2.2 released. Major enhancements and bug fixes including:
- Improved Firefox proxy configuration
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- Line numbers displayed in ASCII viewer
Charles v2.1 released. Major new features and enhancements including:
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- Automatic Firefox proxy configuration
- Formatted form posts and query string information
- Parsing of SWF and AMF (Flash Remoting) binary formats
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Charles v2.0 released. Major enhancements and improvements.