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"No proxy for" setting does not seem to consistently work

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  • Last reply by isthissoup

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I use a privoxy hosted on my home server to route Firefox traffic through a VPN. It usually works fine, but I am trying to set a few services to bypass the proxy using the "No proxy for" box in the Firefox connection settings - specifically streaming sites like netflix, hulu, and plex. Despite putting these domains in the "no proxy for" box, the proxy still seems to be applied - ie. Netflix fails to stream as it would if I were connecting through the VPN.

To test, I also tried adding "whatismyipaddress.com" to the "no proxy for" box, and this did successfully bypass the vpn (showing my real IP), so it is working to some degree. I can also confirm that that site shows my vpn IP when it is not on the whitelist.

I assume that these streaming services are connecting to a different domain when streaming video, which is not on the whitelist to bypass the proxy because I have not added them. Does anyone know if this is the case, and if so, how I could fix the issue?

Thanks.

I use a privoxy hosted on my home server to route Firefox traffic through a VPN. It usually works fine, but I am trying to set a few services to bypass the proxy using the "No proxy for" box in the Firefox connection settings - specifically streaming sites like netflix, hulu, and plex. Despite putting these domains in the "no proxy for" box, the proxy still seems to be applied - ie. Netflix fails to stream as it would if I were connecting through the VPN. To test, I also tried adding "whatismyipaddress.com" to the "no proxy for" box, and this ''did'' successfully bypass the vpn (showing my real IP), so it is working to some degree. I can also confirm that that site shows my vpn IP when it is not on the whitelist. I assume that these streaming services are connecting to a different domain when streaming video, which is not on the whitelist to bypass the proxy because I have not added them. Does anyone know if this is the case, and if so, how I could fix the issue? Thanks.

Chosen solution

I actually just figured this out. I monitored all the connections netflix was making and just started whitelisting domains one by one to see if any of them worked. Turns out the domain to whitelist is .nflixvideo.net. Once I added that to the whitelist, netflix video started working as expected. I imagine plex and hulu probably have similar domains.

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Streaming services like Netflix use the Widevine plugin for playing DRM protected content, so if this plugin connects directly for maximum security and not via Firefox then setting no proxy in Firefox will only work when you visit the website in Firefox and not for playing content.

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Chosen Solution

I actually just figured this out. I monitored all the connections netflix was making and just started whitelisting domains one by one to see if any of them worked. Turns out the domain to whitelist is .nflixvideo.net. Once I added that to the whitelist, netflix video started working as expected. I imagine plex and hulu probably have similar domains.