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Overview

Social Analyzer supports advanced network configuration including proxy servers, custom HTTP headers, user-agent strings, and request timeouts. These settings are essential for avoiding rate limits, bypassing restrictions, and integrating with existing security infrastructure.

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Proxy Configuration

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Setting Up a Proxy (Node.js)

In Node.js, the proxy is configured in modules/helper.js: 
// modules/helper.js
const proxy = 'http://your-proxy-server:8080'
The proxy can also be set dynamically through the web API: 
// API endpoint: POST /change_settings
{
  "proxy": "http://your-proxy-server:8080",
  "user_agent": "Custom User Agent String"
}

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Proxy Support (Python)

Python version uses the requests library with session-based connections. To configure a proxy, you’ll need to modify the session configuration: 
# Proxy configuration is handled through environment variables
export HTTP_PROXY="http://your-proxy-server:8080"
export HTTPS_PROXY="https://your-proxy-server:8080"

python app.py --username "johndoe"

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HTTPS Proxy Agent

The Node.js implementation uses https-proxy-agent for secure proxy connections: 
import HttpsProxyAgent from 'https-proxy-agent'

if (helper.proxy !== '') {
  helper.header_options.agent = HttpsProxyAgent(helper.proxy)
}

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User Agent Configuration

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Default User Agents

Node.js: 
const header_options = {
  headers: {
    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/102.0'
  }
}
Python: 
self.headers = {
    "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:86.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/86.0"
}

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Custom User Agent (Python CLI)

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headers
dict
default:"{}"
Custom HTTP headers including User-Agent.
python app.py --username "johndoe" \
  --headers '{"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7)"}'

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Custom User Agent (Node.js API)

curl -X POST http://localhost:9005/change_settings \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "user_agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36"
  }'

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Request Timeout Configuration

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Timeout Settings (Python)

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timeout
integer
default:"0"
Delay in seconds between each request to avoid rate limiting.Default: 0 (no delay)
# Add 2-second delay between requests
python app.py --username "johndoe" --timeout 2
Setting a timeout helps avoid rate limits and reduces the chance of being blocked by websites.
The timeout is applied between requests: 
if self.timeout:
    sleep(self.timeout)

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Connection Timeout (Node.js)

Node.js uses dynamic timeouts based on site configuration: 
const timeout = (time !== 0) ? time * 1000 : 5000
request.setTimeout(timeout, function() {
  // Handle timeout
})
Default timeout: 5 seconds per request

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Timeout in Slow Mode

For browser-based slow scanning, timeouts are configured per site: 
const timeout = (site.timeout !== 0) ? site.timeout * 1000 : 5000

const timeouts = {
  implicit: timeout,
  pageLoad: timeout,
  script: timeout
}

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Custom Headers

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Python Implementation

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headers
dict
default:"{}"
Custom HTTP headers as a JSON dictionary.
python app.py --username "johndoe" \
  --headers '{
    "User-Agent": "Custom Agent",
    "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.9",
    "Referer": "https://google.com"
  }'
Headers are applied to all requests: 
session.headers.update(self.headers)
response = session.get(url, timeout=5, verify=False)

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Node.js Implementation

Headers are configured in helper.js and can be modified programmatically: 
const header_options = {
  headers: {
    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 ...',
    'Accept': 'text/html,application/xhtml+xml',
    'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9'
  }
}

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Logging Configuration

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logs
boolean
default:"false"
Enable detailed logging for debugging and analysis.
python app.py --username "johndoe" --logs
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logs_dir
string
default:""
Custom directory for log files.
python app.py --username "johndoe" --logs --logs_dir "/var/log/social-analyzer"
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silent
boolean
default:"false"
Disable output to screen (useful for automation).
python app.py --username "johndoe" --silent --output json > results.json

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SSL/TLS Configuration

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Certificate Verification

Python implementation disables SSL verification by default for compatibility: 
response = session.get(url, timeout=5, verify=False)
Disabling SSL verification can expose you to security risks. Only use this in controlled environments.

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Custom Certificate (Node.js)

The Node.js implementation supports custom certificate files: 
let tecert_file = '/path/to/cert.pem'

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Complete Examples

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Python with Proxy and Custom Headers

# Set proxy via environment
export HTTPS_PROXY="http://proxy.company.com:8080"

# Run with custom headers and timeout
python app.py \
  --username "johndoe" \
  --headers '{"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)"}' \
  --timeout 2 \
  --logs \
  --output json

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Node.js Web API Configuration

// Start the server
node app.js

// Configure settings via API
fetch('http://localhost:9005/change_settings', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    proxy: 'http://proxy.company.com:8080',
    user_agent: 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)'
  })
})

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Avoiding Rate Limits

# Use timeout to slow down requests
python app.py \
  --username "johndoe" \
  --websites "instagram twitter facebook" \
  --timeout 3 \
  --mode fast

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FAQ

Proxies are useful for:
  • Avoiding IP bans: Distribute requests across multiple IP addresses
  • Bypassing geo-restrictions: Access region-locked websites
  • Corporate networks: Route traffic through required proxy servers
  • Privacy: Hide your real IP address
Recommended timeout values:
  • Fast searches: 1-2 seconds
  • Avoiding rate limits: 2-3 seconds
  • Conservative approach: 5+ seconds
Higher timeouts reduce the risk of being blocked but increase total scan time.
Node.js implementation supports HTTPS proxies via https-proxy-agent. For SOCKS5 support, you may need to use a SOCKS-to-HTTP proxy converter or modify the proxy agent configuration.
For user agent rotation, you’ll need to:
  1. Create a script that runs Social Analyzer multiple times
  2. Change the --headers parameter for each run
  3. Use different user agent strings from a list
# Example rotation script
agents=(
  "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) Firefox/102.0"
  "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) Safari/537.36"
  "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) Chrome/108.0.0.0"
)

for agent in "${agents[@]}"; do
  python app.py --username "johndoe" --headers "{\"User-Agent\": \"$agent\"}"
done
When --logs is enabled, Social Analyzer creates detailed logs in the logs directory. Use --silent to suppress console output while still logging to files.

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See Also

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