Quickly Switch between proxies in browsers

Its a common scenario that we switch from one network to another many a times. At home, then we move to work and then again we move to friends network. And if you have different proxy for each of the network, it is a big time issue of changing your proxy configuration every time.

I was lucky enough to find solution for this and on tops I was able to find it for IE, Firefox and also Opera this time. For Chrome there is a different and partial solution.

All of the proxy switchers work in the same way. They allow you to predefined proxy settings and you can give them a nice name i.e. Home Proxy, Matts Proxy or Office Proxy. DOne with this it lets you change the proxy right from the browser either through menu or drop down.

Switching Proxy in IE : IE Proxy manager @ Codeplex is a small setup which sits in your tray and depending on predefined configuration switches proxy you can switch. Make sure to run it under Vista or Even XP compatible mode.

Switching Proxy in Firefox : Switch Proxy By Jeremy is another excellent addon which I found the most easiest to us. After predefining it you get a drop down and also managing or editing the proxies right there.

Switching Proxy in Opera : There is no addon here but I was able to find a tutorial which was discussed within Opera community. This tutorial lets you edit the Opera Configuration file and add more proxy in it which is reflected in the browser itself. Read the complete tutorial

Google Chrome Proxy : Chrome uses windows proxy settings by default i.e. it shares the same proxy connection which is set by IE. If you want not to use proxy you can do it by adding –proxy-server= to chrome.exe in order to forcibly disable Google Chrome proxy server settings. I would suggest you to check out the comments @ Walkernews to get into more details. Some people have even suggested to to go for this :

“C:\Documents and Settings\YOURID\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” “–proxy-server=000.000.000.000:1025″

These extension are pretty useful and if you are on the move and always behind proxies you need them. Try them out.