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Using Fiddler with non-Internet Explorer Browsers

January 05, 2006 • 9 comments
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This is not particular insightful tip, but often when I use Fiddler for debugging non-IE requests with customers or during training sessions I hear they didn’t know that they can use Fiddler with any browser, not just IE.

I’m working with a customer today regarding a funky Session and Cookie problem in their application and we’ve been using Fiddler to track through the HTTP sessions. Fiddler is easy to use and provides a nice easy interface to look at the result content. I especially like the Raw view that was added in the latest version to let you see the raw HTTP client request and raw response that includes all of the headers…

Anyway as we were working through this problem we found out that the issue came primarily through non-IE browsers. Fiddler is primarily touted as an Internet Explorer add-in, but several of the developers I worked with today didn’t realize that you can actually use it with any browser. Fiddler works as a proxy server and it just happens that it automatically configures Internet Explorer’s Proxy settings so that as soon as you start Fiddler, IE automatically uses the proxy. Other browser do not…

But... Fiddler is a standalone application and because it is essentially a Proxy server that intercepts and picks up your request data, you can use it with any browser including FireFox.

All you need to do is:

  • Open FireFox options
  • Go to General | Connection Settings
  • Use the Manual proxy configuration option
  • Set t 127.0.0.1  Port 8888

If you forget the port number, you can look up the port Fiddler is listening on in the Fiddler options.

Make sure you remember to remove the proxy settings when you’re done in FireFox…


The Voices of Reason

steve
January 05, 2006

# re: Using Fiddler with non-Internet Explorer Browsers

Any tip that saves time is insightful. Thanks!
January 05, 2006

# re: Using Fiddler with non-Internet Explorer Browsers

The proxy could be set for Firefox automatically. Go to Ruils > Customize Rules and edit CustomRules.js (JScript.NET) and add some code to OnAttach() that tweaks the FireFox proxy setting. Anyone know where Firefox stores this?
Rob
March 31, 2006

# re: Using Fiddler with non-Internet Explorer Browsers

http://textsnippets.com/posts/show/100

Found a snipit used to dynamically set firefox proxy settings. However, how do we set a status in OnAttach(), unset it in OnDetach(), and use it in proxy.pac. A user environment variable? A temp file stored in a predictable place?

Rob
September 23, 2006

# re: Using Fiddler with non-Internet Explorer Browsers

Fiddler automatically writes a file containing autoconfiguration settings on startup and shutdown.

See http://www.fiddlertool.com/fiddler/help/hookup.asp for more info.
msrp
July 09, 2007

# re: Using Fiddler with non-Internet Explorer Browsers

Alternatively, and this is a little "hacky", you can use the Firefox extension IE Tab, which allows you to rended the contents of the tab in IE. This will allow you to simultaneously use Firebug and Fiddler. Not altogether useful, but this saved me a lot of stress trying to hash out some caching issues with a webservice.
stm
April 14, 2008

# re: Using Fiddler with non-Internet Explorer Browsers

"
Fiddler automatically writes a file containing autoconfiguration settings on startup and shutdown.

See http://www.fiddlertool.com/fiddler/help/hookup.asp for more info.
"

This works fine with firefox, thanks (for other readings check this section from the link: [How can I configure other browsers to use Fiddler?])

The only drawback: when we shutdown fiddler, we need to restart firefox or reload the autoconfig in connection settings. This is automatic for ie.
October 01, 2008

# re: Using Fiddler with non-Internet Explorer Browsers

Can Fiddler be set up on a computer in the local network as a network proxy? Then the local workstation would set their proxy to this Fiddler box, port 8888 and all requests would go to the Fiddler proxy for monitoring.
Farjam
November 22, 2008

# re: Using Fiddler with non-Internet Explorer Browsers

You can use <a href="http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Internet-Applications-Addons/Mozilla-Extensions/Santur.shtml">Santur</a> extension to automate fiddler proxy settings in firefox.
June 16, 2009

# re: Using Fiddler with non-Internet Explorer Browsers

two words: thank you
:)