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What happened to Xroxy.com: twenty years of free proxy lists, and what to use instead

Xroxy.com listed free proxies from April 2005 until January 2023. What it was, when it died, who holds the domain now, and which free lists still relay.

Billal AinaouiSeptember 6, 20269 min read

What happened to Xroxy.com: twenty years of free proxy lists, and what to use instead

Xroxy.com is gone. It published free open proxy lists from April 2005 until January 2023, one of the longest runs any free list has had. By December 2023 the domain served an unrelated news site. The name was registered again in June 2025 by a new holder. Since August 2025 it shows a domain-for-sale page. About 720 people a month still type its name into Google (Keyword Planner, September 2026), and they land on that page. This is what the archive record says the site was, when it stopped, and what to use now.

Everything below comes from three records: the Internet Archive's captures of the site, the .com registry, and requests we made ourselves on September 6, 2026. Where the record is silent, this page says so.

What Xroxy.com was

The first archived capture is dated April 27, 2005. The page called itself "Xroxy.Com - Fresh HTTP Proxy Lists". It described a free open proxy list in a table you could filter by proxy type, country of origin and connection latency, sorted by latency or reliability. Anyone who wanted the whole list could "get the full list via email". That was a serious offer in 2005, when most lists were a pasted block of text.

By June 22, 2010, the title had changed to "XROXY.COM - more than just proxy", and the page tells you why. It showed 1,532 proxies available, updated that morning. It claimed that its "back-end software rechecks all the proxies in the database several times a day. So you'll find here live proxies only." Around the list sat a forum called Xorum, where users posted their own lists. There was a directory of web proxies and a page each for UK and US proxies. And there was a premium offer: "Your premium HTTP(s) proxy in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, EU and Asian countries is one click away! Free 3-day trial is included!" The free list was the front door. The paid proxies were the business.

The list kept growing. The capture of May 30, 2015, shows 1,826 proxies available, and the capture of June 5, 2020, shows 3,098. The 2015 forum still carried real posts, such as "123 Scrapebox-Passed HTTP Proxies - Freshly Verified". By June 2020 the newest forum posts were spam for a gambling site and for sneakers. The list itself still updated daily.

CapturePage titleProxies listedWhat the site ran
April 27, 2005Xroxy.Com - Fresh HTTP Proxy Listsnot statedfilterable free list, full list by email
June 22, 2010XROXY.COM - more than just proxy1,532list, Xorum forum, web proxy directory, premium proxies with a 3-day trial
May 30, 2015XROXY.COM - more than just proxy1,826same, forum active
June 5, 2020XROXY.COM - more than just proxy3,098same, forum overrun by spam
January 19, 2023XROXY.COM - more than just proxynot statedlast capture of the list; premium link points to an affiliate
December 20, 2023China Sentrynonean unrelated defense-news site on the domain
August 3, 2025Domain for Sale - xroxy.comnonea parking page, still live on September 6, 2026
Xroxy.com, twenty years from the archive record
  1. Apr 27, 2005

    Fresh HTTP proxy lists

    a filterable free list, the full list by email

  2. Jun 22, 2010

    1,532 proxies listed

    plus the Xorum forum, a web proxy directory and premium proxies

  3. May 30, 2015

    1,826 proxies listed

    the forum still active

  4. Jun 5, 2020

    3,098 proxies listed

    the forum overrun by spam

  5. Jan 19, 2023

    The last capture of the list

    its premium link pointed to an affiliate

  6. Dec 20, 2023

    An unrelated defense-news site on the domain

  7. Aug 3, 2025

    "Domain for Sale"

    a parking page, still live on September 6, 2026

Source: Internet Archive captures of xroxy.com · hproxy.comProxy.

Source for every row: the Internet Archive capture of that date, read on September 6, 2026.

When it died, from the archive record

The Internet Archive holds 226 monthly captures of xroxy.com, from April 27, 2005, to June 28, 2026. That is a capture in most months of 22 calendar years, which is how a site with real traffic gets archived. The chart shows the months captured per year.

Months captured per year. Blue: the proxy list was live. Grey: the domain no longer served the list. Source: Internet Archive CDX index, read September 6, 2026.

The end is bracketed by two captures. On January 19, 2023, the page is still the proxy list. Its premium menu item points at an affiliate link rather than the site's own product. The next capture, on February 23, 2023, is a redirect to www.xroxy.com. So are the captures of May, July and August 2023. The captures of the www address in March, June and September 2023 failed. On December 20, 2023, the domain served a page titled "China Sentry", a site publishing weekly summaries of United States defense activity in the Indo-Pacific. It still served that site in March 2025.

The registry closes the story. The record we read on September 6, 2026, shows the current registration dated June 15, 2025, through GoDaddy, expiring June 15, 2027. A domain first archived in 2005 with a registration date in 2025 has been dropped and registered again. The capture of August 3, 2025, shows the result: "Domain for Sale - xroxy.com | Brandable & Ready to Use". The live site showed the same page on September 6, 2026.

So the list stopped in the first weeks of 2023. The domain has changed hands at least twice since. Nothing that is on it today has anything to do with proxies.

What the record does not say

No capture carries a closing note. The site did not announce that it was shutting down, and the archive has no page that explains it. The registrant before June 2025 is not in the record we hold, so we cannot say who let the name go. The proxy counts above come from one capture per year, not from a daily series. The site's claim of "live proxies only" is its own claim, which we never measured. What the captures do show is a forum that had lost its users to spam by 2020, and a premium link that had become an affiliate link by 2023. A list that funds itself through a paid product loses its reason to exist when that product goes.

The 2020 capture carried a box called "Proxy websites" that sent readers to other lists. We checked each one on September 6, 2026, with a single request from our server and a DNS lookup.

Site recommended in June 2020State on September 6, 2026Archived
ProxyLists.Netanswers2004 to 2026
Proxz listsdead, no DNS record2004 to January 2025
Free Proxy Lists (freeproxylists.net)answers 403 to anything that is not a browser2011 to January 2023
Proxy-listen.deredirects to https, which does not answer2007 to February 2023
Checked Proxy Lists (checkerproxy.net)answers2011 to 2026
My-Proxyanswers2005 to 2026

Three of six still answer. The pattern across the free-list world is the same. In our survey of 69 free proxy sites on the same day, 22 were dead, parked, absorbed or for sale.

What to use instead

The honest replacement for a free proxy list is a free proxy list that proves its entries answer. On September 6, 2026, we fetched every free list that was still alive and took up to 200 entries from each. Each entry had to relay a real request and come back with an exit address that was not ours.

ListEntries testedRelayed a request
free-proxy-list.net20086
monosans proxy-list (GitHub)20062
iplocate free-proxy-list (GitHub)20051
proxifly free-proxy-list (GitHub)20036
geonode free list20015
hide.mn list640
Free proxy lists on September 6, 2026: the share of entries that relayed a request
free-proxy-list.net86 of 200
43%
monosans proxy-list (GitHub)62 of 200
31%
iplocate free-proxy-list (GitHub)51 of 200
25.5%
proxifly free-proxy-list (GitHub)36 of 200
18%
geonode free list15 of 200
7.5%
hide.mn list0 of 64
0%
No list relayed more than half of the entries we tried.
Source: HProxy, our test from our server on September 6, 2026: up to 200 entries from each list, each asked to relay a real request and return an exit address that was not ours · hproxy.comProxy.

No list relayed more than half of what it published, and the best one relayed 43 percent. That is the base rate of free proxies, not a fault of any one site. It is also the reason Xroxy re-checked its database several times a day in 2010. Whatever list you pick, check an entry before you use it.

Our own free proxy list was part of the same test, and the same hour showed us something we had to fix. Our verifier had been accepting decoy servers that answer every request and forward nothing, and they made up most of our live HTTP set. Since that day a proxy is marked alive only when our own test request came back through it, carrying a code we sent, on every protocol. The list is re-verifying under that rule as you read this. The proxy checker applies the same test to any list you paste in.

Free lists have a ceiling that no amount of checking removes. Every address on them is public, shared with everyone who found the same list, and already known to the sites people most want to reach. When a job needs an exit that stays up, keeps a session and has not been handed around, that is a paid proxy, billed by the gigabyte. The free list stays the place to test first.

Sources

  • Internet Archive captures of xroxy.com dated April 27, 2005, June 22, 2010, May 30, 2015, June 5, 2020, January 19, 2023, December 20, 2023, August 3, 2025, and January 22, 2026, read on September 6, 2026.
  • Internet Archive CDX index for xroxy.com, one row per captured month, read on September 6, 2026.
  • The .com registry record for xroxy.com via rdap.org, read on September 6, 2026.
  • Google Ads Keyword Planner, monthly searches for "xroxy", September 2026.
  • HProxy measurements on September 6, 2026: one request to xroxy.com and to each of the six sites it recommended, and the same-hour relay test of alive free lists.

Frequently asked questions

Is xroxy.com still online?

The domain answers, but the proxy list is gone. Since at least August 3, 2025, the address shows a domain-for-sale page, and it still did on September 6, 2026. The last archived capture that was still the proxy list is dated January 19, 2023.

What was xroxy.com?

A free open proxy list that started in April 2005 with filters for proxy type, country and latency, and a full list by email. By 2010 it called itself 'more than just proxy': a list of about 1,500 proxies re-checked several times a day, a proxy forum called Xorum, a web proxy directory, and a premium proxy offer with a free three-day trial.

When did the xroxy proxy list stop working?

Between January 19, 2023, the last archived capture of the list, and February 23, 2023, the first capture recorded as a redirect. From February to August 2023 every capture is a redirect to www.xroxy.com, and those captures failed. By December 20, 2023, the domain served an unrelated site.

Who owns xroxy.com now, and is it for sale?

The registry record read on September 6, 2026, shows a registration dated June 15, 2025, through GoDaddy, expiring June 15, 2027, with transfer, update, renew and delete locks. That is a new registration, not the 2005 one, and the page it serves offers the domain for sale.

What should I use instead of xroxy for free proxies?

A list that proves its entries answer. In our same-hour test on September 6, 2026, the best public list relayed 86 of 200 entries and none relayed more than half, so treat every free list as a starting point and check entries before use. Our own list now marks a proxy alive only when our test request came back through it.

Are the proxy list sites xroxy linked to still around?

Three of the six are. ProxyLists.Net, My-Proxy and the checker it linked still answer. Proxz has no DNS record left, one site blocks requests that do not come from a browser, and one no longer answers over https. Checked on September 6, 2026.

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