[Fiddler] Fix "The proxy server isn't responding" Problem Caused by Fiddler

Very occasionaly I ran into the problem of losing network connection after using Fiddler for debugging with web traffic. To be more precise, this problem usually happens after closing the Fiddler application, and it seems more reporducible when using the FiddlerCore API(However, this is very likely because my code didn't release Fiddler in the correct way...) After this problem happens, and when I open IE, I see the error message of "The proxy server isn't responding" as follow:

This is caused by, as far as I see it, that Fiddler sometimes fails to unregister itself as the system proxy upon on quitting. In that case you will be redirecting all your HTTP traffic to a proxy that doesn't exist, and thus gives you the error shown above.

Easy way to fix this, is to reluanch Fiddler application which will act as system proxy again (make sure you set the option in "Fiddler Options" - "WinINET Connetions"). Close the application gracefully and it should fix the connetion path for you.

Or, you could manually clear the proxy settings by going to Internet Options, select "LAN setting" in "Connections" tab, and uncheck the option of "Use a proxy server for your LAN". (In which you should see a proxy like 127.0.0.1:8888, which is the default listening port for Fiddler.)

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 17, 2012
  You just saved me 10 hours of trying to figure this out. thanks

• Anonymous
  December 04, 2012
  Thanks for this helpful tip, really saved my time !!!!

• Anonymous
  December 31, 2012
  super like.

• Anonymous
  February 21, 2013
  Tyler, I want to kiss you all over and shower you with beer. You have saved me hours and hours.

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2013
  Thanks so much...worked like a dream

• Anonymous
  March 25, 2013
  thanks

• Anonymous
  March 27, 2013
  Spent a good part of an hour to sort this. Just a few clicks from your direction and am back. Thanks

• Anonymous
  April 06, 2013
  thnx man ^_^ the scond way is good :*

• Anonymous
  April 23, 2013
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  May 09, 2013
  Another happy customer. Don't know how it happened. W8 OK then suddenly stopped. Thank you.

• Anonymous
  May 20, 2013
  Don't know what fiddler is...  :/

• Anonymous
  June 27, 2013
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  July 02, 2013
  great & working tip ! wish you succeed ...

• Anonymous
  July 13, 2013
  Thank you so much saved me so much time hah

• Anonymous
  July 15, 2013
  back in action thanks to this post!

• Anonymous
  July 19, 2013
  Thank you, you just saved me so much time! I have been borrowing friends laptops and computers the last few weeks to pay bills and manage finances, this has helped so much!

• Anonymous
  August 12, 2013
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 19, 2013
  Thank you All I did was opened fiddler and it worked You saved me of a headache

• Anonymous
  October 02, 2013
  really appreciate it. very useful.

• Anonymous
  October 22, 2013
  Thank you so so much this just worked for me :-)

• Anonymous
  October 23, 2013
  You are the man!! Thanks fornthe help!

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2013
  Thank you very much Tyler........you just saved me a lot of aggravation....AWESOME advice AWESOME THANKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2013
  Another satisfied customer here too! Thank you sooo much!

• Anonymous
  November 24, 2013
  Thank you! Spent hours trying to sort this out

• Anonymous
  December 09, 2013
  You saved my life

• Anonymous
  January 19, 2014
  Thank you so very much..... Used the last option and it works like a charm. Never heard of Fiddler, but whatever the problem was, it's fixed now. After hours of frustration, this took about 2 seconds!

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2014
  Thank you! THANK YOU!!! I couldnt believe that it worked and couldn't be soo greatfull for your help as it helped resolve my issue!!! Thank you for curing my headache and for saving me $$$!!!

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2014
  THANK YOU!!!!

• Anonymous
  January 28, 2014
  Thank you so much!!!!!

• Anonymous
  January 31, 2014
  Thankyou! it works now. You are awesome!!

• Anonymous
  February 15, 2014
  Thanks!  Job very well done with why and how to fix.  I ran into this after running Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and your manual fix did the trick.  

• Anonymous
  February 23, 2014
  THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!! OMG!!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!! THANKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK YOUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!

• Anonymous
  February 25, 2014
  You are truly awesome! Everyone else recommends a clean install.

• Anonymous
  March 24, 2014
  Awessssoooommmmmme!!!  Thanks so much.  You saved hours of time!    You are the best!!

• Anonymous
  March 24, 2014
  Ok, so i followed the steps to manually reset.. once i finished, it still had the same issue.. is there something more that can fix this?

• Anonymous
  March 26, 2014
  Hey, if you are following the manually reset. Once you deselect the option "Use a proxy server for your LAN", in the same window at the top select "Automatically detect settings", and then it should work (at least it works for me)

• Anonymous
  March 26, 2014
  Thank you thank you thank you thank u

• Anonymous
  March 28, 2014
  Unlock our website right now at are house

• Anonymous
  April 01, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 21, 2014
  Thanks sooooo much

• Anonymous
  May 07, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  May 20, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  May 20, 2014
  The process works but comes back even in a new tab.i Help.

• Anonymous
  June 15, 2014
  I consider myself to be a computer genius.. and have over 30 years of computer experience.  I have been battling with web pages that would not load fast for years.. and it turns out that this one setting posted by Fiddler fixed the problem instantly!  It amazes me that I have software such as Iolo's System Mechanic, Auslogic's BoostSpeed, CleanMyPc, MyCleanPc, and other similar utilities, and all of them find thousands of problems and fix them.. but none of them fixed the problem that needed to be fixed!   Thanks Fiddler!

• Anonymous
  June 15, 2014
  Whoops.. I made a mistake.. I thanked "Fiddler"  I meant to thank Tyler Fang

• Anonymous
  June 24, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 06, 2014
  Tradition, Tradition... Fiddler on the Roof

• Anonymous
  August 19, 2014
  A support engineer from the MS Community sent me your way, and unfortunately this wasn't much help. I wasn't running Fiddler - hadn't even heard of it until I got the link to here - and have tried umpteen times to reset the proxy sever manually. It refuses to unlatch. Each time I go back it's checked again. The network connections window says I have a connection, but my browser keeps saying "Proxy server isn't responding". I'm guessing I may have to wipe IE and start over, or maybe do the same with Windows.

• Anonymous
  September 30, 2014
  I don't even have fiddler but its showing me this error

• Anonymous
  October 04, 2014
  This does not work nothing that anything is saying to do is working i don't know what else to do? Anyone can please help me before I throw this computer

• Anonymous
  October 18, 2014
  Thank u so much!!! It works now :) Soooooo happy ^^

• Anonymous
  October 24, 2014
  Thank you so much.. I've really stopped using IE, Chrome.... It's solved my problem................... THANKS THANKS THANKS

• Anonymous
  October 28, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2014
  try all suggestions , nothing works yea!!!!

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2014
  OMG! Thank you. My internet is back!

• Anonymous
  November 13, 2014
  Awesome Fix. Thank you for posting.

• Anonymous
  November 18, 2014
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 04, 2014
  I tried rebooting in safe mode but when going to internet options in safe mode, it was not on the list. Each time I try to change the proxy settings it will revert back....help!

• Anonymous
  April 14, 2015
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  July 25, 2015
  Thanks, I spent hour with this problem  and you fixed it in 5 minutes.  

• Anonymous
  September 20, 2015
  Thank you , I fixed this problem with your help.

• Anonymous
  October 09, 2015
  Thanks .. Tyler . Your suggestion save my lots of time  and help me in solving the problem