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Private and public IP issues with Charles proxy tool

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Level 1

Hi,

 

I have connected client mobile app from android virtual device to charles proxy tool, but client have whitelisted the IPs.

Due to it I was not able to login to the app, I have shared charles local IP address to client for whitelisting.

But client is stating that they can able to whitelist only public IP, as the Charles IP is private they said they can't do it.

Will I get any suggestion for this.

 

Thanks,

Mohanrao 

3 Replies

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Level 8

@mohanr63926589 - Your computer is likely connected to a router at your home or place of business, and that router assigns your computer a local IP address. This might be something in the range of 192.168.1.x, or possibly 10.0.0.x, or something similar. This IP address is specific to your internal network (at home or work). There are likely thousands (millions? more?) of other devices around the world with the same internal IP address as you.

Your router, on the other hand, ultimately connects to the broader internet, so it requires an external IP address that is unique. No two connected devices on the broader internet should have the same IP address. For example, the external IP addresses for your home and work networks is guaranteed to be be different.

With that in mind, there is no use or benefit in trying to whitelist an internal IP address for external use.

On the specific topic of Charles Proxy and mapping a mobile device to pass data through your computer, what you need to do is set the local IP of your computer as the proxy in your mobile device's network settings. (Both devices must be on the same network.) The Charles Proxy website walks through this setup here for an iPhone, but the process is similar for most devices (Android...).

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Level 1

Thanks for your detailed reply.

I got your point! That I need to connect my Charles installed laptop and mobile device with the same IP address(My laptops local IP), but the data flow to Charles would start after I have connected my device with the IP address generated by Charles.

You can get it from Charles>>Help>>local IP address.

which is a private IP, can't whitelist by client.

Please suggest.

 

Thanks,

Mohanrao

 

 

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Level 8

With the following assumptions:

  • Your external IP is 99.99.99.99
  • The local IP of your computer is 10.0.0.2
  • The local IP of your mobile device is 10.0.0.9
  • Both your mobile device and computer are attached to the same wireless network

You would need to whitelist 99.99.99.99 with your client.

On your mobile device, you would need to open the network settings for your wireless network and manually set the proxy to 10.0.0.2, which is the local IP for your computer. This is what routes traffic from your mobile device to your computer so Charles can inspect it. Charles MUST be running (open) on your computer for this to work. And, when you're done, you'll have to remove the proxy setting from your mobile device in order to restore network access. At no point do you need to provide the local IP for your computer or your mobile device to your client.