Selenium with 2Captcha Proxy Not Working on Finland Insurance Site

If you’ve ever automated web scraping tasks, you’re likely familiar with Selenium and proxy services like 2Captcha. However, you may have encountered issues accessing a Finland insurance site using Selenium with a 2Captcha proxy. You’re not alone—this is a common stumbling block for many automation enthusiasts.

When web scraping or automating browsing, proxies play a vital role. They help you hide your IP, reduce chances of blocking, and allow you to access region-restricted content. With increasing website security, understanding how to troubleshoot proxy-related issues is crucial.

Understanding 2Captcha Proxy Services and Selenium

Let’s first clarify two key tools in this scenario: 2Captcha proxies and Selenium.

2Captcha’s proxy service provides dependable proxies for solving captchas and handling various scraping processes. Using a reliable service like 2Captcha ensures fewer restrictions during automated browsing.

Selenium, on the other hand, is a popular web automation tool that allows you to control browsers programmatically. Selenium mimics user behavior with great precision, making it favored for web scraping and automation tasks.

Together, these two should ideally allow smooth access to most websites, including Finland-based insurance portals. But occasionally, unexpected errors pop up.

Why Selenium with 2Captcha Proxy Isn’t Working on Finland Insurance Site

You might notice you have no issues accessing the website using Python’s requests.get() method with the same proxy. Yet, when using Selenium, the Finland insurance site throws errors or blocks the browser.

This discrepancy between Selenium’s behavior and plain HTTP requests requires investigation. To pinpoint the issue, we’ll examine common causes and troubleshooting strategies.

Why Does Selenium Differ from requests.get()?

Though both Selenium and the Python requests library use proxies, they behave differently internally. This key variation often leads to situations where something works fine with requests but fails mysteriously in Selenium.

Browser Environment: Selenium uses an actual browser environment (Chrome, Firefox), enforcing stricter checks and behaviors compared to simple HTTP requests.
Proxy Configuration: Unlike requests, where proxy configurations are simple and straightforward, setting up proxies correctly in Selenium requires precise parameters and attention.

Understanding these differences helps in diagnosing the issue accurately.

Possible Reasons Selenium Fails with 2Captcha Proxy

Typically, Selenium with 2Captcha proxies may fail due to:

Incorrect Setup: Proxy parameters incorrectly passed in Selenium.
Authentication Errors: Errors in proxy username/password or proxy format.
Browser-specific Checks: The site may detect Selenium-driven browsers and impose stricter checks, blocking access.

Advance Troubleshooting Steps

Before diving into deeper complexities, start with the basics:

1. Verifying Proxy Manually

Ensure your proxy credentials and proxy IPs are functional and accurate.

Double-check your username/password carefully.
Use requests.get() to confirm the proxy indeed functions correctly without browser headers complicating results.

Here’s a simple way to quickly verify your proxy with requests:

import requests

proxy = {
    "http": "http://username:password@proxy-address:port",
    "https": "http://username:password@proxy-address:port"
}

response = requests.get("https://www.example.com", proxies=proxy)
print(response.status_code, response.text[:100])

2. Implementing Proxy in Selenium Correctly

Next, ensure your Selenium Chrome browser has the correct proxy configuration using ChromeOptions. Incorrect handling here is a common mistake.

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options

options = Options()
proxy = "proxy-address:port"

options.add_argument('--proxy-server=%s' % proxy)

driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)
driver.get("https://finland-insurance-site.com")

Important note: If your proxy service requires authentication (username/password), setting it directly in Selenium needs additional workarounds such as proxy extensions or plugins. Selenium doesn’t natively support authenticated proxies straight through ChromeOptions.

Error Analysis: Understanding the Block Message

The Finland insurance site usually returns specific error messages when it detects proxies:

The error, typically displayed in Finnish or Croatian, could say something like:

“Pristup web stranicama nije moguć zbog ograničenja vaše veze.”
(Translation: “Access to the website isn’t possible due to restrictions on your connection.”)

Typically, this implies the site detected your proxy or automation attempt.

Minimal Reproducible Example Analysis

Here’s a minimal reproducible code snippet clearly illustrating this common issue:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options

proxy = "username:password@proxy-address:port"

chrome_options = Options()
chrome_options.add_argument('--proxy-server=http://' + proxy)
driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=chrome_options)

driver.get('https://finland-insurance-site.com')

print(driver.page_source[:500])
driver.quit()

In this snippet, adding username/password directly often causes failure; Selenium doesn’t natively parse authentication within ChromeOptions proxy string easily.

Effective Solutions to Access Finland Insurance Site with Selenium and 2Captcha

Fortunately, there are viable methods to resolve this issue:

Proxy via Browser Extension: Use Selenium with a proxy authentication extension. Here’s a great guide on installing authenticated proxies via Selenium.
Selenium Wire or Undetected Chrome Driver: These Python libraries (Selenium Wire, Undetected-chromedriver) support proxy authentication plugins natively and bypass common detection issues.

Here’s how simple proxy authentication looks with Selenium Wire:

from seleniumwire import webdriver

proxy_options = {
    'proxy': {
        'http': 'http://username:password@proxy-address:port',
        'https': 'https://username:password@proxy-address:port'
    }
}

driver = webdriver.Chrome(seleniumwire_options=proxy_options)
driver.get("https://finland-insurance-site.com")

Alternative Approaches to Explore

If you continue facing issues, try these alternate options:

Headless Browsers: Test using Selenium in headless mode to bypass certain browser detections (though sometimes headless is recognized and blocked more easily).
Direct requests + Cookies: First, manually solve captcha in a real browser, then use saved session cookies with your Python requests or Selenium script. This approach is explained clearly in this web scraping with Python article.

In brief, Selenium’s complexities can often be sidestepping by creative techniques.

Proxy setup can seem deceptively simple until you encounter frustrating issues like these. We’ve covered essential troubleshooting steps, code implementation tricks, and alternative methods for successful automation with Selenium and 2Captcha proxies.

Have you faced similar challenges automating browsers with proxies? If yes, what’s your most effective solution? Feel free to share your experiences or methods below!

Useful Resources & Links:

About the Author

The author writes on Python and web automation topics extensively, helping developers troubleshoot and optimize automation workflows. Feel free to explore more Python articles at Shivatejakeerthi.com.