FoxyProxy Setup: Databay Proxy Patterns and Verification

FoxyProxy is a proxy-switching extension for Firefox and for Chromium browsers such as Chrome, Edge and Brave. It decides per request whether the browser connects directly or through a saved proxy. Databay decides the rest: the gateway at gw.databay.co:8888 checks your dashboard username and password, and options inside that username select the pool, location and any sticky session.

Use this setup only for sites you own or are permitted to test, and follow each destination's terms. A proxy changes the route a site observes; it does not grant permission.

This guide follows FoxyProxy's official help page and changelog. At the time of writing, addons.mozilla.org listed FoxyProxy Standard 9.8 and the Chrome Web Store listed 9.7, so record your installed version with any evidence. FoxyProxy Basic and Chrome hide some controls until you click the FoxyProxy icon on the Options page. Scripted browsers are covered in the Playwright and Selenium guides.

On the Options page, open the Proxies tab and add a proxy. FoxyProxy identifies each proxy by hostname:port:

Title:     Databay US QA
Type:      HTTP
Hostname:  gw.databay.co
Port:      8888
Username:  USER-zone-residential-countryCode-us
Password:  PASS (from your password manager)

Type describes the browser-to-proxy hop, not the site's scheme: with HTTP, HTTPS sites still use a CONNECT tunnel and TLS stays end to end. FoxyProxy's HTTPS type expects TLS to the proxy itself, and SOCKS4 is an older protocol; Databay documents neither for this gateway, only HTTP proxying, HTTPS CONNECT tunnelling and SOCKS5.

Copy the whole username rather than composing it: USER-zone-residential-countryCode-us requests a US residential exit, and USER-zone-residential-countryCode-us-sessionId-abc123 adds a sticky session. Then click Save; FoxyProxy applies nothing until settings are saved.

FoxyProxy cannot choose a pool or location; the username does, so decide in the dashboard first:

• Premium Residential accepts one selector at a time: country, state, city, ZIP, coordinate or ASN.
• Residential Flex, Datacenter and Mobile target a country or a continent.

All Databay pools are shared, so no product reserves an address for one customer. A sticky session requests continuity for up to 1440 minutes on Premium Residential and Residential Flex where available, or up to 120 minutes on Datacenter and Mobile. The IP can change before the window ends. Without a session, a new connection may select another available exit while a reused connection may keep the same one; neither outcome is promised.

FoxyProxy's help page documents browser differences that matter for an authenticated gateway:

• SOCKS5 authentication is Firefox only. FoxyProxy states that Chrome does not support SOCKS authentication, so use HTTP in Chrome, Edge, Brave and other Chromium browsers.
• Proxy DNS is Firefox only. It passes DNS to the SOCKS proxy and defaults to on. HTTP name resolution is proxy side in both browsers.
• One gateway, several usernames. FoxyProxy treats credentials as port specific, and every Databay route shares gw.databay.co:8888, so entries with different usernames are ambiguous. Firefox accepts letters after the port, such as 8888a and 8888b, which FoxyProxy removes before use. In a Chromium browser, keep one entry and edit its username when the route changes.
• Private windows. Firefox needs Run in Private Windows enabled for proxy settings; Chrome needs Allow in Incognito only to proxy incognito windows.
• Logging. The Log can record 407 Proxy Authentication Required challenges, but only Firefox shows which proxy handled a request.

The HTTP versus SOCKS5 comparison covers the protocol trade-offs in more depth.

The toolbar popup sets one of three documented modes:

• Disable hands proxying back to the browser, so its own or system proxy settings, and any VPN underneath, still apply.
• Individual Proxy, chosen by selecting the Databay entry, sends every connection through it and ignores patterns. It proves a credential cleanly, but all browsing in that profile becomes billed traffic.
• Proxy by Patterns proxies only URLs that match an include pattern. The popup offers it once an include pattern exists, and unmatched URLs go direct.

Some rules run before the mode. FoxyProxy's documented proxying order is Global Exclude, Tab Proxy and Tab Proxy by patterns (Firefox only), Incognito Proxy, Container Proxy (Firefox only), and then Individual Proxy or Proxy by Patterns. Global Exclude therefore beats every pattern, and a Firefox tab or container assignment can override the popup mode, so clear those features before a clean test.

Each pattern belongs to a proxy entry and has a type, include or exclude, a title, the pattern text and an enable switch. FoxyProxy offers three types:

• Wildcard (Glob): * matches zero or more characters and ? exactly one. Include :// to anchor the pattern on the host.
• Match (Pattern): whole-URL rules with scheme, host and path. A host starting with *. covers the domain and its subdomains, and ports are not allowed.
• Reg Exp (Regular Expression): built with new RegExp(), so forward slashes need no escaping.

# Patterns on the Databay entry
Include  Match     https://*.staging.example.com/*
Exclude  Wildcard  ://login.staging.example.com/
Include  Reg Exp   ^https://(www|shop)\.example\.org/
Include  Wildcard  ://databay.com/   (verification; disable after)

# Global Exclude (Options tab)
localhost .corp.example <local>

Active proxies are checked from the top of the list. On each entry, a matching exclude skips that proxy and a matching include selects it; no match anywhere means a direct connection. An exclude on the Databay entry therefore does not force direct if a lower entry includes the same URL. Hosts that must never use a proxy, such as an office-only identity provider, belong in Global Exclude, where a leading dot covers subdomains and <local> matches hostnames without dots.

FoxyProxy tests every request, not only the address bar, so scripts or images from other hosts go direct unless they match too. With the Options page open, the Log can list a page's associated domains and generate include patterns; add only hosts in the authorized test. The Pattern Tester checks a URL against saved, active patterns, so click Save first.

Prove the route before opening the real destination. Databay's What Is My IP page reports the address that reached its server, so it shows a Databay exit only when FoxyProxy routes databay.com through the gateway.

1. Proxy off. Set Disable, open https://databay.com/what-is-my-ip and record the IP, country estimate and UTC time. This baseline includes any system proxy or VPN.
2. Proxy on for all URLs. Select the Databay entry and load the page in a new tab. The IP should differ from the baseline and the country should match the requested target; if nothing changes, reopen the tab.
3. Proxy on by pattern. Switch to Proxy by Patterns with the ://databay.com/ include enabled, and the Databay exit should reappear. Disable that pattern, click Save and reload in a new tab: the exit should disappear.
4. Authorized host. Load one harmless URL you are permitted to test and confirm it used the entry, with the Firefox Log or the Pattern Tester.

The /what-is-my-ip/json endpoint returns the same observation as JSON. FoxyProxy's Test feature can also check a proxy against an IP check server; on Chrome, authenticate first. Each result is point-in-time evidence about the HTTP connection, not WebRTC or other signals, so it is not proof of anonymity. With a sticky session, recheck at meaningful checkpoints and record any change of exit.

FoxyProxy exports all preferences to a local JSON file and imports them later; nothing applies until you click Save. The full export uses the format FoxyProxy documents for managed storage, and this abridged excerpt shows that it stores credentials in plain text:

{
  "mode": "pattern",
  "data": [{
    "type": "http",
    "hostname": "gw.databay.co",
    "port": "8888",
    "username": "USER-zone-residential-countryCode-us",
    "password": "PASS",
    "include": [{ "type": "match", "title": "staging", "pattern": "https://*.staging.example.com/*", "active": true }],
    "exclude": []
  }]
}

• Keep full exports in a password manager or secret vault, never in tickets, chat, shared drives or repositories.
• Auto Backup, when enabled, writes a copy to the downloads folder on every Save; keep that folder private or leave the option off.
• Enable Sync copies proxies to browser sync storage on every signed-in device; leave it off unless that reach is acceptable.
• The Proxy List importer takes host:port:user:pass or URL-style lines, which expose the password in a text box and the clipboard; prefer the proxy fields.

To share routing rules, export patterns alone or send a copy with the password blanked, and never host a credential-bearing export for Import from URL. If a full export, screenshot or log leaves your control, treat the password as exposed and replace it. When enterprise policy manages FoxyProxy, local changes do not apply.

Find the first failed hop before changing anything. The proxy hop is TCP to gw.databay.co:8888, proxy authentication, then CONNECT or the SOCKS5 handshake; the destination hop is TLS with the site and its HTTP status. FoxyProxy decides whether the proxy hop happens at all, so check routing first.

Change one variable at a time and keep each failed observation. A full-tunnel system VPN normally carries the connection to the gateway, so the site still sees the Databay exit while the proxy-off baseline shows the VPN's address. For protocol-level evidence, the cURL proxy guide separates 407, CONNECT and TLS failures. Never put the password in a URL, screenshot or support thread.