Introducing aProxy: our proxy management addon for firefox

We're happy to announce that we just finished a firefox addon which allows you to administer proxies in firefox more easily. The addon has a very lightweight interface and it's built in such way that it helps towards a better experience. The addon allows you to import proxies both from our website or from a file, you can also add proxies manually (one by one).

You probably know by now how annoying it is to always enter those usernames and passwords each time you switch to a new proxy right? Well, the addon saves those credentials and enters them automatically, you just have to click ok and it's authenticated. No need to remembers those credentials each time since the addon imports all details and does the job for you.

The release is in BETA right now, we would love to hear from you. Please use the comments box to leave your impression or suggestion and help us create a real useful addon in order to improve your browsing experience.

To install it please visit the following link:

http://www.anonymous-proxies.net/aproxy-1.3-fx.xpi

Installation

Installation is very simple, just navigate to the above mentioned url and click on "Add to firefox" to install your addon from the official mozilla page.  Once installed it will ask you to restart the web browser (firefox) in order for the addon to be visible/functional. After restarting your firefox browser you will notice that somewhere (depends on how many other addons you have there) in the lower right of your browser (in the status bar) you will notice a small icon and a text saying "No proxy loaded". That's aProxy installed telling you that it wasn't configured to use any proxy yet. Double click on the text ("No proxy loaded") and a nice small window will popup. That's your proxy administration.

Ok, installed! Now how do I use it?

One of the things that we enjoy most is to build user friendly interfaces. aProxy makes no exception. Just by looking at the interface of aProxy you will probably understand all of it's basics so there's no need for me to go into too much detail here but, instead, we will review rapidly it's core functionality. aProxy supports 3 ways of adding proxies to it's database:  manual, import from our website and import from text.

Manually adding a proxy:

To manually add a new proxy all you have to do is click on "Add single proxy" and you will be presented with a small form where you can imput your proxy settings:

In this form there are only two required fields: HTTP proxy and Port (HTTP). Country, label, username and password are optional but let's explain them a little bit:

• Country: by setting this value you will be able to browse through your proxies better since, next to the country you will have a little flag. The country should indicate the geo location of your proxy. Field is optional.
• Label: if you want to give this proxy a label such as "Work", "Home", "School", "Facebook", "Twitter" etc do it here. This field will help you label individual proxies and separate them more easilly. Field is optional.
• HTTP proxy: this is where you must input the ip address of your proxy. This field is required and must contain a valid ip address otherwise you will receive an alert if you click "Add" stating that the ip address is not valid. Field is required
• Port (HTTP): Every proxy must connect to a port so this is where you must add that information. Entry must be a valid number with a length between 2 and 5. Field is required.
• Username: If your proxy requires authentication this is where you input the username. Field is optional.
• Password: As with the username, here you will input the proxy password. Field is optional.

Importing proxies from our website:

aProxy is a general purpose proxy management addon. You are not required to have an account with us in order for it to function properly. The only feature that we added which is in relation with our website is the "Import from anonymous-proxies.net" button which will ask you for your username and password on our website and can be used to import all your proxies you have purchased from us with a single click of a button.

Importing proxies from a text entry (in bulk):

aProxy also supports importing proxies in bulk from a text entry. To do that you must click on "Import from text" button and you will presented with a form with some entry which will explain better right now:

• Country code: if this is checked you can add a country code to your proxies in order to display the country and country flag in the proxy list. Field is optional by default, required if "Country" checkbox is checked.
• Label: if you want a label next to your proxy check this field. Field is optional by default, required if "Label" checkbox is checked.
• HTTP proxy: required field, indicates the ip of the proxy
• HTTP port: required field, indicates the proxy port
• Username: optional field, indicates the proxy username.
• Password: optional field, indicates the proxy password.
• Field separator: this is where it gets a little tricky. You see, for bulk import, each proxy must be added on a new line. Each line must contain the above details separated by a "field separator" such as a tab, comma, semicolon or space character. Considering that we checked all fields and our selected separator is the a comma here's how we must format our proxies:

US,Twitter,192.168.1.1,8080,my_username,my_password
DE,Facebook,192.168.2.1,8080,my_username,my_password
RO,Facebook1,192.168.2.2,4050,my_username,my_password

If I don't want to add the country code the list changes to the following format:

Twitter,192.168.1.1,8080,my_username,my_password
Facebook,192.168.2.1,8080,my_username,my_password
Facebook1,192.168.2.2,4050,my_username,my_password

And so on, based on the checked states of the form inputs (country, label, username,password).

That's it. Thank you for your interest. Don't forget to leave your comments.