Datacenter Proxy on Mac: Fast macOS Setup Guide

Open System Settings → Network in the sidebar.

You will see a list of network services, for example:

• Wi-Fi
• Ethernet
• Thunderbolt Bridge
• USB 10/100/1000 LAN

Find the service currently marked as Connected. You must configure the proxy on this specific service. If you use multiple interfaces (e.g., Wi-Fi at home and Ethernet in the office), configure each one.

1. Click your connected network service (e.g., Wi-Fi)
2. Click Details…
3. Click the Proxies tab

Turn off Auto proxy discovery unless your network administrator has set up WPAD/DHCP-based proxy discovery. Leaving it on can override your manual settings on networks that broadcast a WPAD record.

Turn on Web proxy (HTTP). Enter:

• Server: your-proxy.sparkproxy.io
• Port: 10000

Not sure which port to use? Proxy ports explained breaks down 80, 443, 8080, and custom ports like 10000.

If your proxy requires credentials, turn on Proxy server requires password and enter your username and password.

Turn on Secure web proxy (HTTPS). Enter the same server and port. Most datacenter proxies use the same endpoint for both HTTP and HTTPS traffic.

Note: HTTP and HTTPS proxy fields are separate on Mac. A common mistake is filling in only the HTTP field and finding that HTTPS requests (most modern web traffic) still go direct.

In the Bypass proxy settings for these Hosts & Domains field, enter:

localhost, 127.0.0.1, *.local

Use commas to separate entries. The *.local entry prevents mDNS-based local hostname lookups from going through the proxy.

Click OK, then Apply (if prompted). Changes take effect for new connections immediately.

Before setting a proxy, identify the exact service name:

networksetup -listallnetworkservices

Example output:

An asterisk (*) denotes that a network service is disabled.
Wi-Fi
Ethernet
Thunderbolt Bridge
USB 10/100/1000 LAN

Use the exact name (case-sensitive, spaces included) in all subsequent commands.

# Check HTTP proxy
networksetup -getwebproxy "Wi-Fi"

# Check HTTPS proxy
networksetup -getsecurewebproxy "Wi-Fi"

# Check SOCKS proxy
networksetup -getsocksfirewallproxy "Wi-Fi"

# Check bypass domains
networksetup -getproxybypassdomains "Wi-Fi"

Sample output when no proxy is set:

Enabled: No
Server:
Port: 0
Authenticated Proxy Enabled: 0

If you use IP whitelisting (your machine's IP is added to the provider whitelist), omit the on username password parameters:

Not sure which authentication method to pick? How proxy authentication works compares IP whitelisting and username-password credentials in detail.

# HTTP proxy
sudo networksetup -setwebproxy "Wi-Fi" your-proxy.sparkproxy.io 10000

# HTTPS proxy
sudo networksetup -setsecurewebproxy "Wi-Fi" your-proxy.sparkproxy.io 10000

# HTTP proxy with credentials
sudo networksetup -setwebproxy "Wi-Fi" your-proxy.sparkproxy.io 10000 on YOUR_USER YOUR_PASS

# HTTPS proxy with credentials
sudo networksetup -setsecurewebproxy "Wi-Fi" your-proxy.sparkproxy.io 10000 on YOUR_USER YOUR_PASS

The on argument enables authenticated proxy support. Credentials are stored in the macOS System Keychain.

# Enable
sudo networksetup -setwebproxystate "Wi-Fi" on
sudo networksetup -setsecurewebproxystate "Wi-Fi" on

# Disable (keep settings, just turn off)
sudo networksetup -setwebproxystate "Wi-Fi" off
sudo networksetup -setsecurewebproxystate "Wi-Fi" off

sudo networksetup -setproxybypassdomains "Wi-Fi" localhost 127.0.0.1 "*.local"

Pass each domain as a separate argument. Use "Empty" to clear all bypass entries:

sudo networksetup -setproxybypassdomains "Wi-Fi" "Empty"

networksetup -getwebproxy "Wi-Fi"

Expected output after configuration:

Enabled: Yes
Server: your-proxy.sparkproxy.io
Port: 10000
Authenticated Proxy Enabled: 0

# With credentials
curl --proxy http://user:pass@your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000 https://httpbin.org/ip

# With IP whitelisting (no credentials)
curl --proxy your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000 https://httpbin.org/ip

# Permanent config in ~/.curlrc
echo 'proxy = "your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000"' >> ~/.curlrc

For scraping and automation workloads, using datacenter proxies with Python covers sessions, retries, and rotation in more depth.

import requests

# With credentials
proxies = {
    "http":  "http://user:pass@your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000",
    "https": "http://user:pass@your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000",
}

# With IP whitelisting
proxies = {
    "http":  "http://your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000",
    "https": "http://your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000",
}

response = requests.get("https://httpbin.org/ip", proxies=proxies)
print(response.json())  # {"origin": "<proxy exit IP>"}

import httpx

proxies = {"https://": "http://user:pass@your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000"}

with httpx.Client(proxies=proxies) as client:
    r = client.get("https://httpbin.org/ip")
    print(r.json())

git config --global http.proxy http://user:pass@your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000
git config --global https.proxy http://user:pass@your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000

# Remove
git config --global --unset http.proxy
git config --global --unset https.proxy

# pip
pip install some-package --proxy http://user:pass@your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000

# Homebrew reads HTTPS_PROXY environment variable automatically
export HTTPS_PROXY=http://user:pass@your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000
brew update

export HTTP_PROXY="http://user:pass@your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000"
export HTTPS_PROXY="http://user:pass@your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000"
export NO_PROXY="localhost,127.0.0.1,*.local"

With IP whitelisting (no credentials in URL):

export HTTP_PROXY="http://your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000"
export HTTPS_PROXY="http://your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000"

Add to ~/.zshrc (Zsh, default on macOS Catalina and later) or ~/.bash_profile (Bash):

echo 'export HTTP_PROXY="http://user:pass@your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export HTTPS_PROXY="http://user:pass@your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export NO_PROXY="localhost,127.0.0.1,*.local"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

unset HTTP_PROXY
unset HTTPS_PROXY
unset NO_PROXY

Security note: Credentials embedded in environment variables are visible to other processes running as the same user via ps, env, or /proc. For production use, prefer IP whitelisting or pass credentials directly to each tool via its native config file.

curl https://httpbin.org/ip

The origin field should show your proxy's datacenter IP, not your local IP.

By default on macOS, curl does not automatically read System Settings proxy. Pass -x explicitly or use --proxy-use-network on recent versions. To force curl to use the system proxy:

# Use system proxy via environment variable (set from System Settings)
export HTTPS_PROXY="http://your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000"
curl https://httpbin.org/ip

Or test directly:

curl -x your-proxy.sparkproxy.io:10000 https://httpbin.org/ip

networksetup -getwebproxy "Wi-Fi"
networksetup -getsecurewebproxy "Wi-Fi"

Both should show Enabled: Yes with your proxy host and port.

Open Safari or Chrome and visit https://httpbin.org/ip. Because these browsers respect System Settings proxy on macOS, the IP returned should be your datacenter proxy's exit IP, not your ISP-assigned IP.

1. System Settings → Network → [service] → Details → Proxies
2. Turn off Web proxy (HTTP) and Secure web proxy (HTTPS)
3. Click OK → Apply

sudo networksetup -setwebproxystate "Wi-Fi" off
sudo networksetup -setsecurewebproxystate "Wi-Fi" off

# Clear HTTP proxy
sudo networksetup -setwebproxy "Wi-Fi" "" 0
sudo networksetup -setwebproxystate "Wi-Fi" off

# Clear HTTPS proxy
sudo networksetup -setsecurewebproxy "Wi-Fi" "" 0
sudo networksetup -setsecurewebproxystate "Wi-Fi" off

# Clear bypass domains
sudo networksetup -setproxybypassdomains "Wi-Fi" "Empty"

unset HTTP_PROXY HTTPS_PROXY NO_PROXY

# If added to ~/.zshrc, remove the export lines:
nano ~/.zshrc
# Delete the proxy export lines, then:
source ~/.zshrc