SOCKS proxy setup: pointing your browser at ByeDPI

What those three values mean

SOCKS5 is the proxy protocol ByeDPI speaks; the core program is, by design, a local SOCKS proxy server — the program that stands between your browser and your provider's Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) filter. 127.0.0.1 is "this same machine" — the proxy is not on the internet, it is on your own device, which is the entire privacy point of the tool. 1080 is the default port it listens on, changeable with --port if something else occupies it. Every failure in this guide's world is one of these three values being wrong, so when in doubt, re-read them before touching any desync setting. Readers who want the concepts first will get more from how ByeDPI works; this page is deliberately just the mechanics.

Firefox (its own proxy settings — the cleanest test)

We recommend Firefox for the first test even if it is not your daily browser, precisely because its settings are its own. If ByeDPI works in Firefox, the tool and the method are proven, and any remaining problem is located in the other browser's configuration — a genuinely useful piece of information.

Chrome and Chromium browsers (they follow the system)

Chrome has no built-in per-browser proxy fields; it uses the operating system's proxy. So on Windows you set the system proxy (Settings → Network & internet → Proxy, or the classic Internet Options Connections tab), and on Linux you set it in your desktop environment's Network settings or launch the browser with a --proxy-server="socks5://127.0.0.1:1080" flag, which keeps the change scoped to that browser window's session. Either way the values are identical: SOCKS5, 127.0.0.1, 1080. Be aware a system-wide setting affects every app that respects it — which may be exactly what you want, or an unwelcome surprise for your other software.

Verifying, and the mistake to avoid when you stop

Verify with the on/off test: with ByeDPI running and the proxy set, open your test site; then stop ByeDPI without removing the proxy setting and reload. Everything should now fail — your browser is faithfully knocking on a door nobody answers. That failure is proof the browser really is using the proxy. It is also the trap: if you later uninstall or stop using ByeDPI, remove the proxy setting, or every page will fail and it will look like your internet died. Our troubleshooting guide starts with this exact failure shape for a reason.

Android note

Phone users mostly never type these values: the ByeDPI Android app routes traffic itself in VPN mode. The values return only in proxy mode — for the AdGuard arrangement in ByeDPI with AdGuard, where they are entered into AdGuard, not Android's settings — and for pointing a desktop browser at a proxy, which is what this guide covered. Questions beyond this page are collected in the FAQ, and the programs themselves live on the download page.

Two edge cases: a busy port, and another device pointing at your proxy

Two situations account for nearly every question this guide gets after publication. The first is the port conflict. If ByeDPI seems to start but nothing works — or it reports that its address is already in use — something else on the machine is listening on 1080: another proxy tool is the usual tenant, occasionally a leftover ByeDPI instance you forgot was running. The fix is not to fight over the port. Start ByeDPI on a different one, for example ciadpi --port 1081 with any desync options you use, and then change the port in your browser's proxy fields to match. The iron rule of this entire guide applies with full force: the value in ByeDPI and the value in the browser must be identical, and a mismatch fails silently and completely.

The second is pointing a different device — a phone, a second laptop — at a proxy running on your computer. By default ByeDPI listens on 127.0.0.1, which means this machine only, and that default is a safety feature. Listening on your local network address instead (the --ip option, with your machine's LAN address) does make the proxy reachable from your other devices, and on a trusted home network that can be genuinely handy. Understand what you have done, though: any device on that network can now route traffic through your machine, with no password asked. On a network shared with people or devices you do not control, that is an open relay wearing your IP address. Our advice is blunt: try it if your household network is truly yours, keep the 127.0.0.1 default everywhere else, and never expose a proxy port to the internet itself.