Verify your proxy

This page shows how to test a proxy before you wire a ColdProxy connection into a script or scraper: confirm that the proxy actually reaches the open internet, exits where you expect, and resolves to the right location. The quickest way to check if a proxy is working is to run it through a free tool: ColdProxy ships three browser tools, the Proxy Checker, My IP, and IPv6 Checker, that cover the full verification flow without writing any code. Below: when to reach for each one, plus a code fallback for automated checks.

#Proxy Checker — reachability, exit IP, and location

Use the Proxy Checker to confirm a single proxy works end to end. Paste your proxy in gw-2312.coldproxy.com:PORT:USERNAME:PASSWORD form (or the USERNAME:PASSWORD@host:PORT equivalent) and the tool reports IPv4 and IPv6 reachability, the exit IP each family resolves to, and the geo location of that exit.

The checker treats a proxy as working if at least one address family is reachable, so a Residential IPv6 or Datacenter IPv6 proxy that has no IPv4 path still reports success on its IPv6 result. Read the exit IP and location to confirm your geo tags or SuperPort ranges are taking effect.

gw-2312.coldproxy.com:30000:USERNAME:PASSWORD

#My IP — find your own IP and read the exit

My IP serves two jobs in the developer flow. First, open it from the machine that will send proxied traffic to read that machine's own public IPv4 and IPv6 address; this is the value you add to the IP whitelist when you use IP Authentication instead of user:pass. Second, route a request through your proxy and load My IP through it to read the exit IP, ASN, and location the target site will actually see.

Use My IP before your first IP-auth request: ColdProxy lets you whitelist up to 50 IPs, and the address My IP reports is exactly what you add via the Authorized IPs commands in your plan settings.

#IPv6 Checker — check the target before you buy

If you are buying or testing a Residential IPv6 or Datacenter IPv6 plan, run the IPv6 Checker against your target host first. Many sites publish only IPv4 (A) DNS records and no AAAA record, which means an IPv6-only proxy has no route to them and the request fails. The IPv6 Checker shows whether a hostname publishes IPv6 addresses and whether its DNS points to a recognised CDN, before you commit a plan to it. Supported CDN-fronted sites can still work without their own AAAA record; see IPv6 reachability.

Confirmed IPv6-compatible platforms include Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Bing, Yahoo, Netflix, and LinkedIn. For anything else, check it. See IPv6 reachability and What is an IPv6 proxy? for the full picture.

#When to use each tool

#Verify from code (IP-echo fallback)

For automated health checks, route a request through the proxy to the ColdProxy IP-echo endpoint and compare the returned IP against your own public IP. If they differ, the proxy is carrying your traffic. Replace the placeholders with your service ID, a port in 30000-34999, and your credentials.

# HTTP/HTTPS
curl -x "http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@gw-2312.coldproxy.com:30000" https://api.vipv6proxy.com/api/checker/my-ip

# SOCKS5 with remote DNS (socks5h resolves the target through the proxy)
curl -x "socks5h://USERNAME:PASSWORD@gw-2312.coldproxy.com:30000" https://api.vipv6proxy.com/api/checker/my-ip

import requests

proxy = "http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@gw-2312.coldproxy.com:30000"
proxies = {"http": proxy, "https": proxy}

exit_ip = requests.get("https://api.vipv6proxy.com/api/checker/my-ip", proxies=proxies, timeout=30).json()["ip"]
my_ip = requests.get("https://api.vipv6proxy.com/api/checker/my-ip", timeout=30).json()["ip"]
print("exit:", exit_ip, "local:", my_ip, "routed:", exit_ip != my_ip)

On an IPv6 plan (Residential IPv6 or Datacenter IPv6), use the IPv6 echo endpoint instead (https://api6.vipv6proxy.com/api/checker/my-ip), because a single hostname cannot reliably force both address families; see IPv6 reachability.

Once a proxy verifies cleanly, wire it into your code. If a check fails, jump to Common errors & fixes or Sticky session not holding.