I’m having trouble getting npm package installation to work in my office environment which uses a proxy server. I attempted to modify the proxy settings in my npmrc configuration file, but the packages still won’t download properly. The connection keeps timing out when I run the install command. I really need to get this working without having to manually download each package file. Has anyone successfully configured npm to work through a proxy? What specific settings or commands should I use to make this work correctly?
Had the same issue at my old job - took some trial and error to fix. The key was getting both HTTP and HTTPS proxy settings right in the .npmrc file. Add these lines: proxy=http://username:password@proxyserver:port and https-proxy=http://username:password@proxyserver:port (obviously swap in your actual credentials and server details). If you’re still having SSL certificate problems on the corporate network, try strict-ssl=false - but heads up, IT might not love this since it’s a security workaround. Save the changes, restart your command prompt, and run npm install again. Should fix the timeout issues.
Corporate proxies can often complicate npm setups. In my experience, it’s helpful to first try switching to HTTP for your registry by running npm config set registry http://registry.npmjs.org/. This approach often helps identify whether SSL-related issues are at play. Additionally, I recommend setting the HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY environment variables directly instead of modifying the npmrc file, as it can simplify configurations. If you continue facing challenges, ensure that your network admin has whitelisted npm registry domains, as firewalls can sometimes block them. Lastly, consider increasing your timeout setting with npm config set fetch-timeout 600000, as corporate networks can be slower than typical environments.
run npm config set proxy and npm config set https-proxy straight from the terminal - don’t bother editing files manually since that often breaks. also check if your company uses different ports for http vs https traffic. that’s what tripped me up last time.