Proxy Searcher finds working proxy servers for you

Martin Brinkmann
Apr 1, 2013
Updated • Jan 30, 2015
Software
|
10

Internet users have several options at their disposal when it comes to staying anonymous on the Internet.

From using web proxies on Internet sites that load websites for you over adding proxy servers to your web browser's networking settings to using virtual private networks or services such as Tor.

Web proxies are a popular option as they do not require any configuration and just work - or don't - right off the bat. When it comes to proxy servers, it is not that simple anymore. First, you need to find proxies that you can use and while there are sites for that out there, you need to find reliable sites that update their lists regularly as proxy servers tend to come and go sometimes very rapidly.

The free program Proxy Searcher aids you in the task. You can use the software to search for proxies regularly, and chance is that you will find working ones easily using it. All you need to do to get started is to hit the search button in the program interface to start the search for new proxy servers.

The program performs some behind the scene magic to find the servers and displays working ones in a table in its interface. Each server is listed with its IP address and port, as well as its response time. For most proxies, the country they are hosted in is displayed as well.

What's even better is that you can click on the Internet Explorer or Firefox buttons next to each proxy server to automatically set that proxy in the browser, so no more fiddling around with network settings. Since Chrome is using Internet Explorer's network settings, it is a done deal for that browser as well. If you are using a different browser, you need to add the proxy settings manually to it.

The functionality in itself is useful but you may wonder where the proxies come from. Proxy Searcher is actually using a Google search to find them, and what is even better is that you can add your own custom searches to the program to find new proxies.

find proxy servers

Click on Tools in the upper right corner and then settings to open the preferences. Here you find a general tab with preferences.

You can set the page size and thread count here, enable export, limit the bandwidth used by the program, or change the GEO IP module used by the application to determine a server's location in the world.

A click on the plus sign creates a new custom search option. You can create a custom search for proxies, use the program to parse a list of sites that post proxy lists regularly, or have the program scan a folder on your local system for new servers. Once done, it becomes available in the program's main interface as well.

There are a couple of things missing from the program which I'd like to see. It would be great if the program would check for anonymity of the proxy. It does not at this point in time which means that you need to do that manually, for instance using our IP check here.

It would also be great if the program would remember the proxies it has already discovered so that they are not displayed again, or at least provide the user with an option to mark proxies as not working so that they are excluded automatically.

Summary
software image
Author Rating
1star1star1star1stargray
5 based on 1 votes
Software Name
Proxy Searcher
Operating System
Windows
Landing Page
Advertisement

Tutorials & Tips


Previous Post: «
Next Post: «

Comments

  1. Joe Cabel said on September 11, 2013 at 12:01 pm
    Reply

    Hi Martin, thank for your post. There are so many similar tools, Can you please make a post with the list of high recommended tools. Im always need proxy list.

  2. Burd said on April 6, 2013 at 5:12 pm
    Reply

    Proxy searcher 2.0 has been released. Now you are able to get proxy type for each checker type. Also search result grid more fancy now. Thank you for using Proxy Searcher!

  3. *.* said on April 2, 2013 at 6:37 am
    Reply

    No,i am in Europe and i didn’t say that the program is infected but only that you should be careful because it contacts some infected proxies and that Avast blocked it,specifically “www.google.com.hk”. Im in Croatia btw and iv installed the program from your site, v1.9 and started searching 3 times and every time Avast blocked it and the program would crash.

    1. Burd said on April 2, 2013 at 8:11 am
      Reply

      Hmm. Seems I know what is happening. During search Proxy Searcher is trying to download content of some site via proxy (for example http://google.com). If valid content was downloaded then proxy will be shown in the list, otherwise it will be filtered. But this downloaded content probably contains dangerous scripts which is detecting by Avast. I don’t do any executions of scripts, so search is secure. But Avast don’t know about that and blocks Proxy Search activity. I would like to say it is issue which should be fixed. I will add support ticket and will try to fix it in incoming releases.

      Thank you for your feedback!

  4. Burd said on April 1, 2013 at 2:49 pm
    Reply

    >>>>>>Jay yes there are. Since you do not know anything about those hosts, I would only use it for light web surfing and downloading, but not for tasks where I have to transfer sensitive information, e.g. to log in or do online banking using proxy servers.

    That’s really smart. Do not use public proxy servers for any secure operations. I cannot guarantee honesty of owners of public proxy servers.

  5. Burd said on April 1, 2013 at 2:42 pm
    Reply

    Hi all,
    I am author of this program and I would like to say thank you Martin Brinkmann for so good review. I am really appreciate that my work is useful. I started this project a few months ago, and as you notice it is not perfect. I would like to add that Burd’s Proxy Searcher is open source project, therefore it is not contains any viruses. I cannot promise that for all mirrors, but you can using free official site http://proxysearcher.sourceforge.net for downloading.

    I want to add a few comments about this article:
    >>>It would be great if the program would check for anonymity of the proxy.
    That’s done for proxy checker named http://checkerproxy.net (it is free online checker). It is not perfect, because checking quality is too low. But it could recognize proxy type.

    >>>for instance using our IP check here
    I will take a loot to it and will include it for incoming releases.

    >>>It would also be great if the program would remember the proxies it has already discovered so that they are not displayed again, or at least provide the user with an option to mark proxies as not working so that they are excluded automatically.

    I will think about such possibility and will try to add such feature.

    >>> limit the bandwidth used by the program
    This is not limit, but information for bandwidth what proxies is green and what is red.
    If you set 1Mb, then >800kb is green bandwidth and >>When started searching the proxies Avast blocked a malicious site! 3 times checked and every time the same site gets blocked – http://www.google.com.hk so be careful with this program because it seams its been redirected to this site!

    Program don’t make any redirection. If you dont’ believe, you could check sources here http://sourceforge.net/p/proxysearcher/code/commit_browser. I believe it is redirects by proxy which you found. Usually it happens for China’s proxies. If you find that some proxies distribute viruses – let me know, I will try to filter them.

    I am open for discussion. I will try to implement all of your requests. Also you could add feature request here http://sourceforge.net/p/proxysearcher/discussion/yourfeedback/. It is little bit hard to search feature eequests in the internet :).

    Thank you for using of my program.

  6. Jay said on April 1, 2013 at 11:59 am
    Reply

    Are there any security or safety concerns with connecting to one of these proxies? It just seems a little sketchy because you know nothing about the host that you are connecting to.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on April 1, 2013 at 1:11 pm
      Reply

      Jay yes there are. Since you do not know anything about those hosts, I would only use it for light web surfing and downloading, but not for tasks where I have to transfer sensitive information, e.g. to log in or do online banking using proxy servers.

  7. *.* said on April 1, 2013 at 10:22 am
    Reply

    When started searching the proxies Avast blocked a malicious site! 3 times checked and every time the same site gets blocked – http://www.google.com.hk so be careful with this program because it seams its been redirected to this site!

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on April 1, 2013 at 10:23 am
      Reply

      Are you by chance in China or Hongkong?

Leave a Reply

Check the box to consent to your data being stored in line with the guidelines set out in our privacy policy

We love comments and welcome thoughtful and civilized discussion. Rudeness and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Please stay on-topic.
Please note that your comment may not appear immediately after you post it.