How to Use a Terminal to Test Oxylabs’ Products

For instance, just like you can copy and paste files using your computer’s cursor, you can do the same in the terminal with commands. You’re most likely used to a graphical user interface, like a web browser, for example, where you can tell your computer to execute specific tasks. The terminal, on the other hand, bypasses any graphical elements and controls the computer directly. These are just a few examples, and the terminal’s functionalities are endless.

1. Find the terminal on your computer

Let’s start by locating and opening the terminal application on your computer.

Windows computers

For simplicity, use the Command Prompt instead of PowerShell on Windows. Open Windows Search and look for Command Prompt or cmd:

Launch the Command Prompt application, and you should see a similar window:

Helpful commands for using the Windows terminal:

Once you hit Enter to open the Terminal, you should see a similar window:

Helpful commands for using the macOS terminal:

Visit ip.oxylabs.io on your browser (without using a VPN service) and compare your actual IP address with the one displayed in the terminal. If the proxy setup works correctly, the IPs should differ, and you should see a different IP address printed out every time you run the code.

Enterprise Dedicated Datacenter Proxies

Proxy type: HTTP or SOCKS5

Proxy address: 1.2.3.4 (a specific IP address)

Proxy port: 60000

For Enterprise Dedicated Datacenter Proxies, you have to choose an IP address from your acquired proxy list. Head to the documentation to learn more. The curl code should look similar to this:

curl "https://ip.oxylabs.io" -U "USERNAME:PASSWORD" -x "1.2.3.4:60000"

Self-Service Dedicated Datacenter Proxies

Proxy type: HTTP, HTTPS, or SOCKS5

Proxy address: ddc.oxylabs.io

Proxy port: 8001

Self-Service Dedicated Datacenter Proxies work by referring to the port number, which represents the sequential number of an IP address in your acquired proxy list. Hence, the 8001 port will always pick the first IP address from your list. Visit the documentation to find out more. Here’s how your curl code should look:

curl "https://ip.oxylabs.io" -U "user-USERNAME:PASSWORD" -x "ddc.oxylabs.io:8001"

Shared Datacenter Proxies

Proxy type: HTTP

Proxy address: dc.pr.oxylabs.io

Proxy port: 10000

Shared Datacenter Proxies also support country-specific entries. For example, you can connect to a Germany-based proxy server by setting the proxy address to dc.de-pr.oxylabs.io and the port to 40000. Take a look at our documentation to learn more. Your curl code should look similar to the snippet below:

curl "https://ip.oxylabs.io" -U "customer-USERNAME:PASSWORD" -x "dc.pr.oxylabs.io:10000"

Web Unblocker

Proxy type: HTTP or HTTPS

Proxy address: unblock.oxylabs.io

Proxy port: 60000

When using Web Unblocker, you must ignore the SSL certificate. In curl, this can be done by specifying the -k or --insecure flag:

curl -k "https://ip.oxylabs.io/location" \
-U "USERNAME:PASSWORD" \
-x "unblock.oxylabs.io:60000"

Check out our extensive documentation to find more details about Web Unblocker.

Scraper APIs

To test Oxylabs’ Scraper APIs (SERP, E-Commerce, and Web) via curl, you must use predefined sources for specific target URLs. Head to the documentation of the respective API to see the available sources and other parameters.

For demonstration purposes, let’s use Web Scraper API. The following curl code snippet will print the HTML document of this scraping sandbox website:

curl --user "USERNAME:PASSWORD" \
'https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries' \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"source": "universal", "url": "https://sandbox.oxylabs.io/products"}'

Notice that the target URL is provided in JSON format after the -d flag, which tells curl to send the following data to the API via a POST request. Moreover, you have to use an API endpoint to connect to Web Scraper API. You can see that the above code snippet uses the real-time integration method via the https://realtime.oxylabs.io/v1/queries endpoint.

How to use HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 protocols in curl?

By default, curl uses the HTTP protocol to connect to proxy servers. Depending on the proxy type you’ve acquired, you can use the more secure HTTPS or SOCKS5 protocol. For instance, Residential Proxies support all three protocols; hence, you can specify the HTTPS proxy protocol by adding https:// to the proxy address:

curl "https://ip.oxylabs.io" -U "customer-USERNAME:PASSWORD" -x "https://pr.oxylabs.io:7777"

Alternatively, the SOCKS5 protocol can be specified like this:

curl "https://ip.oxylabs.io" -U "customer-USERNAME:PASSWORD" -x "socks5://pr.oxylabs.io:7777"

Wrap up

If you’re interested to learn more about curl, check out our blog post on how to use curl with proxies to delve deeper into its functionalities. Furthermore, our documentation is a goldmine for any instructions on using Oxylabs proxies and scrapers, so don’t hesitate to surf around.

In case you’re looking for a simpler way to test Oxylabs’ Scraper APIs, head to the dashboard and navigate to Scraper APIs Playground. Here, you can easily enter your target URL, choose the desired API parameters, and send a request to retrieve scraped results. If you have any questions about Oxylabs products, feel free to contact our 24/7 Support Team via live chat or drop a line at support@oxylabs.io.

Please be aware that this is a third-party tool not owned or controlled by Oxylabs. Each third-party provider is responsible for its own software and services. Consequently, Oxylabs will have no liability or responsibility to you regarding those services. Please carefully review the third party's policies and practices and/or conduct due diligence before accessing or using third-party services.