Checking Proxy Tunnel Health Before Sending Browser Commands

Step by step

1. 1

   Probe through the exact tunnel

   Send the health check through the same proxy session the browser will use, not a fresh connection, so you test the path the command will take.

2. 2

   Use a short timeout

   Give the probe 2-5 seconds. A slow tunnel that passes after 20 seconds will time out the real page load anyway.

3. 3

   Quarantine failing exits

   Move an exit that fails the probe into a cool-down list for a few minutes instead of retrying it immediately.

4. 4

   Rotate and replay

   Open a new browser context on a healthy exit and replay the command. Keep cookies only if the new exit is in the same region.

Example

import httpx

def tunnel_is_healthy(proxy_url: str) -> bool:
    try:
        with httpx.Client(proxy=proxy_url, timeout=4.0) as client:
            return client.head("https://example.com/").status_code < 500
    except httpx.HTTPError:
        return False

# Only hand the proxy to the browser once the probe passes
if tunnel_is_healthy("http://user:pass@proxy.example:8000"):
    print("tunnel ok - run browser command")

Frequently Asked Questions