How Do I Turn Off a Proxy Server? – Need Help Disabling It! or How Do I Turn Off a Proxy Server? Can'

Had this exact issue! Turns out my antivirus (Avast) was silently routing traffic through its "web shield" proxy.

Check your AV settings—sometimes they add their own proxy without asking.

For a nuclear option, reset IE settings entirely:
`Internet Options > Advanced > Reset`

Works for Edge/Chrome too since they share some backend stuff.