I’m having trouble getting the npm install command to work properly when I’m behind a corporate firewall with proxy settings. I’ve attempted to modify the proxy configuration in my .npmrc configuration file, but the installation process still fails to connect.
npm config set proxy http://company-proxy:8080
npm config set https-proxy http://company-proxy:8080
The packages won’t download and I keep getting connection timeout errors. I really want to avoid having to manually download each package file since that would be extremely time consuming for larger projects with many dependencies. Has anyone successfully resolved this type of proxy connectivity issue with npm? What configuration steps am I missing?
Corporate proxies are a pain because most companies use NTLM authentication, and npm can’t handle that directly. First, test the proxy URL in your browser to see if you need domain credentials. You might need to format it as DOMAIN\username instead of just username. Certificate issues are super common too - your IT team probably uses custom certs that npm doesn’t recognize. Ask them for the certificate bundle and point npm’s cafile config to it. Double-check the exact proxy address and port with your network admin since they love changing these without telling anyone. Also, some corporate setups need different proxy settings for HTTP vs HTTPS, so configure those separately.
Registry URL config gets overlooked all the time but causes exactly these symptoms. Your proxy settings look fine, but npm’s probably hitting the wrong endpoints. Try forcing the registry to use HTTP instead of HTTPS:
npm config set registry http://registry.npmjs.org/
I’ve also seen proxies bypass internal addresses. Check if your company has an internal npm registry or artifactory that should be accessed directly. You can tell npm to skip the proxy for specific domains:
npm config set noproxy "localhost,127.0.0.1,.company.com"
Sometimes corporate firewalls block specific npm endpoints even with correct proxy config. Test with something simple like npm install lodash first - helps you figure out if it’s general connectivity or registry-specific. Still getting timeouts? Bump up the timeout values since corporate networks are usually slower.
Been there countless times with corporate proxies. It’s usually authentication or SSL certificate issues.
First, add your credentials to the proxy URL:
npm config set proxy http://username:password@company-proxy:8080
npm config set https-proxy http://username:password@company-proxy:8080
If that fails, disable SSL verification:
npm config set strict-ssl false
You might need to switch the registry to HTTP:
npm config set registry http://registry.npmjs.org/
Honestly, corporate proxy issues are a recurring nightmare. I automated the whole thing using Latenode.
My workflow detects which network I’m on and configures npm settings automatically - corporate or not. It handles credential rotation and downloads packages through backup methods when the proxy breaks.
It monitors npm install failures and switches proxy configs automatically. No more manual troubleshooting every time IT changes something.
Clear your npm cache first - npm cache clean --force then restart your terminal. Corporate networks often cache failed requests and keep blocking even after you fix configs. Also check if your company blocks certain ports - mine blocked 443 but allowed 8443 for https traffic.