# Connecting storage bucket
Cloudimage can download your origin images/files from any server or storage bucket over HTTP/HTTPS/FTP. Setting up an external storage is optional and you can use Cloudimage with your origin image URLs as shown in the introduction - [Welcome to Cloudimage](/readme.md).
If the images are not publicly available, you have to configure your storage containers and set authentication parameters. If you are filtering access to your image storage by IP addresses, [Contact us](https://admin.cloudimage.io/contact-us/) to get help with configuring [proxy](https://admin.cloudimage.io/project/settings/proxy) for Cloudimage to request origin images over the specified proxy and have all Cloudimage requests coming from the same IP address.
You can set up external storage in the *Storage* section in the admin panel by using the *Connect External Storage* button.
You can set up an [Amazon S3](/setup/connecting-storage-bucket/amazon-s3.md), [Google Cloud Storage](/setup/connecting-storage-bucket/google-cloud-storage.md), [Microsoft Azure Blob](/setup/connecting-storage-bucket/microsoft-azure-blob.md) or any generic HTTP-based storage (see [Basic authentication HTTP](/setup/connecting-storage-bucket/basic-authentication-http.md).
---
# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.
Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:
```
GET https://docs.cloudimage.io/setup/connecting-storage-bucket.md?ask=
```
The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.
Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.