How to use the ProxyLane CLI checker for HTTP and SOCKS5 proxies

The ProxyLane CLI checker sends one request through each supplied HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS5, or SOCKS5h proxy and reports the HTTP result, elapsed times, response-body size, and optional text match. A passing check validates that request only; it does not prove residential provenance, blacklist status, or permission to access another target.

Prepare the checker

Audience: developers who can run shell commands and supply a private process environment. The commands below cover POSIX shells; a Windows command variant is not covered.

The script requires Python and curl 8.4.0 or newer. The local fixture was checked on macOS 26.5.2 arm64 with Python 3.12.0 and curl 8.7.1. Check the installed curl version:

python3 --version
curl --version

Download the ProxyLane checker script to a private working directory:

curl --fail --silent --show-error --location --output proxylane-check.py https://proxylane.dev/tools/proxylane-check.py

Caution: Checks can consume paid proxy traffic. Start with one authorized test URL and one disposable route; keep credentials private and stop on authentication or validation errors. Each request is bounded, but a batch can consume more traffic than a single check.

The checker accepts exactly one source of proxy URLs: the PROXY_URL environment variable for one proxy, or a private file for a batch. Have a secret manager inject PROXY_URL into the process environment. Do not place an authenticated proxy URL in the command line, shell history, workflow export, or logs. The checker passes its curl configuration through standard input and suppresses curl's error stream so credentials do not appear in result rows.

Check one proxy

Set the target to an authorized HTTPS URL with a stable, harmless response marker. This example uses the public example page:

python3 proxylane-check.py --target https://example.com --expect-body 'Example Domain'

The script returns compact JSON with one item in results. With --expect-body, status is ok only when curl completes, the HTTP status is in the 2xx range, and the expected text appears in the body. body_match is true for that match. Without --expect-body, the script reports the HTTP result without claiming that the response contains a required record.

This is a captured local-fixture response, shown with indentation for readability. The fixture returned a fixed test page; it was not a public proxy or an observed Internet exit. Its timing values describe that single local run.

{
  "results": [
    {
      "proxy_index": 1,
      "status": "ok",
      "http_status": 200,
      "proxy_connect_status": null,
      "connect_ms": 0.2,
      "total_ms": 0.9,
      "bytes": 22,
      "body_match": true
    }
  ]
}

The checker does not return the response body or an observed exit IP. That keeps page content and route identity out of its JSON and CSV output. Use proxy IP and browser diagnostics when the exit address itself matters.

Check a bounded list

Create a private regular file with one authorized proxy URL per line. Do not add comments. The checker accepts 1–100 URLs; the file must be smaller than 64 KiB and have no group or other permissions.

chmod 600 proxies.txt
python3 proxylane-check.py --proxy-file proxies.txt --target https://example.com --expect-body 'Example Domain' --format csv

Each proxy receives one sequential request. The default connect timeout is 5 seconds and the default total timeout is 15 seconds per proxy; both values can be changed within the script's 1–30-second connect and 1–60-second total ranges, with connect timeout no greater than total timeout. A batch can therefore take longer than one timeout value. These request limits do not set a total job deadline.

Keep proxies.txt outside version control, restrict its access, and remove it when no longer needed. The checker reads it into memory to run the requests; file permissions do not encrypt credentials at rest.

Read the result

The process exits with status 0 when every row is ok, 1 when one or more checks fail, and 2 for invalid input or a missing/unsupported curl version. A 407 means the proxy requested authentication; check the provider's host, port, username, password, and scheme. A body mismatch means an HTTP response arrived without the expected text. It can be a different page, an access challenge, or a changed target response.

Keep the conclusion narrow

The probe asks whether a request to one selected URL succeeds through a supplied route. It does not identify the provider's network type, test a blacklist, validate browser DNS or WebRTC, or establish that a separate product page will accept the same request. A response-body byte count also cannot be substituted for provider billing data.

For a target workflow, run a small permitted sample with the fields the job needs and validate the records themselves. The proxy monitoring playbook covers repeated measurements; the HTTP 407 guide explains proxy authentication failures.

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