Integrating with the GeoEdge Worldwide Proxy Network

Over the years, the Fiddler Web Debugger has been adopted by a wide variety of users for a huge number of tasks, and we are always looking for ways to make the tool even more useful.

One scenario where Fiddler historically fell short was in debugging scenarios involving geotargeted sites-- while Fiddler can easily modify any header or body of a HTTP or HTTPS request, it can’t change the IP address (and thus the geolocation) observed by the server. When a site is using geo-targeting, its behavior depends on the geographic location from which the traffic originated. For instance, news websites will default to different stories, display location-specific advertisements, and track hits by visitors’ originating country. As a client-side proxy, Fiddler simply wasn’t able to help you debug IP-location-aware code.

Today, I’m excited to announce that the latest update to Fiddler (v2.4.7.1/4.4.7.1) includes powerful integration with the GeoEdge worldwide proxy service. GeoEdge maintains a fast network of over 130 proxy servers located around the world, and now you can easily route your traffic through this network using Fiddler.

After you upgrade to the latest build, getting started is simple: simply click the GeoEdge menu and log in to the service:

After logging in, you can select any of the locations, conveniently grouped by geography:

After selecting a location, its flag will appear as the icon for the top-level menu, serving as a reminder of where your traffic is exiting the proxy network. In this case, for instance, my traffic is exiting from a proxy in Thailand:

… which you can confirm using a service like WhatIsMyIPAddress.com:

The extension offers the option to automatically update your requests’ User-Agent header to match the target location:

…or you can disable that option to test the site’s behavior when the Accept-Language is unexpected for a given location.

Finally, to enable testing mobile-device scenarios, the plugin exposes a User Agents menu to allow you to override the User-Agent header to that of popular devices including phones and game consoles:

GeoEdge offers a free trial period to ensure that the service exceeds your expectations, and you can choose from several flexible subscription plans.

I hope you find this new capability as exciting as I do!

-Eric Lawrence