The Morphic Group

Using ServiceCapture and Fiddler with FireFox

September 5, 2008 – 11:40 pm by Sam Ahn

I’ve been using both ServiceCapture and Fiddler for a while now to debug HTTP traffic from web applications (I’ve dabbled with TamperData but never got hooked). Using such software with FireFox was a bit cumbersome due to the network settings you have to turn on and off. That is until I stumbled across the ConnSets plugin.

ConnSets lets you save network settings configurations and switch from one to another with a click of a menu option. Here are some tips for working with ConnSets:

Create a Default Setting

After installing ConnSets, you get the default option “none - Standard” as shown in this screenshot:

Selecting “none - Standard” essentially turns off ConnSets. If you’ve changed your network settings and then choose “none - Standard” it does not reset your settings to the default “Direct connection to the Internet”. Create a default setting and use that instead of “none - Standard”.

1. Go to: Tools > Options > Advanced > Network
2. Select “Direct connection to the Internet:”
3. Click OK to close out of Connection Settings
4. Click OK to close out of Options
5. Go to: Tools > ConnSets > Store
6. Enter “default” for the key in the dialog and click OK
7. Enter any value for the location (default = “Location”) in the dialog and click OK

You should now see the default option as in this screenshot:

Using ConnSets with ServiceCapture

1. Install ServiceCapture
2. Go to: Tools > Options > Advanced > Network
3. Select “Automatic proxy configuration URL:”
4. Enter “file:///C:/Program%20Files/ServiceCapture/firefox.js”
5. Click OK to close out of Connection Settings
6. Click OK to close out of Options
7. Go to: Tools > ConnSets > Store
8. Enter “ServiceCapture” for the key in the dialog and click OK
9. Enter a value for the location (default = “Location”) in the dialog and click OK

You should now see the ServiceCapture option as in this screenshot:

To view FireFox traffic through ServiceCapture, Go to Tools > ConnSets > ServiceCapture - Location

To stop viewing FireFox traffic through ServiceCapture, Go to Tools > ConnSets > default - Location

Using ConnSets with Fiddler

1. Install Fiddler
2. Go to: Tools > Options > Advanced > Network
3. Select “Manual proxy configuration URL:”
4. Enter 127.0.0.1 for HTTP Proxy
5. Enter 8888 for Port
6. Click OK to close out of Connection Settings
7. Click OK to close out of Options
8. Go to: Tools > ConnSets > Store
9. Enter “Fiddler” for the key in the dialog and click OK
10. Enter a value for the location (default = “Location”) in the dialog and click OK

You should now see the Fiddler option as in this screenshot:

To view FireFox traffic through Fiddler, Go to Tools > ConnSets > Fiddler - Location

To stop viewing FireFox traffic through Fiddler, Go to Tools > ConnSets > default - Location

Save Yourself a Click

You can add a ConnSets button to your Toolbar to save yourself a valuable:

1. Go to: View > Toolbars > Customize
2. Find the ConnSets button
3. Drag it to your Toolbar

I use the Icons view and added the ConnSets button right next to my address bar as in this screenshot: