Sometime we may need to connect to a web service that, for security reasons, accepts incoming connections only from specific hosts or IP addresses and our computer does not match any of those requirements.
The best way to connect to those services is to connect first to an intermediate computer that act as proxy to the target service we want to access.
To configure Mozilla Firefox to access a proxy, you first need to have the proxy details (you may request them to the Network Admin of the service you need to access):
When you have these details, open Mozilla Firefox and go to the Firefox’s menu and select Options.
From there, select “Advanced” -> “Network” -> “Settings…”
Then you will get a screen like this:
Select “Manual proxy configuration”, then in the appropriate row for the type insert the address and the port.
Press “OK” and “Close”.
Now Mozilla Firefox is using the proxy and you can connect to the desired service.
Note that as long as the proxy setting is active, beside the desired service, Mozilla Firefox will direct all the web traffic through the proxy; if the setting is affecting the quality of other (open) web services and you have finished working on the desired service, you may disable the setting by going back to the proxy windows above and select “No Proxy”.
