Our friend the proxy server

[Trevor DeVore]

On Apr 29, 2005, at 8:17 PM, MisterX wrote:
>
> Have you checked MSDN or shellcity.org?
> They might have what you need...

I've search around MSDN a bit looking for an API to get the info but  
haven't found anything.

> bingo, somewhat...
>
> <http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/ 
> randz/prot
> ocol/automatic_web_proxy_detection.asp>
>
> <http://www.wrec.org/Drafts/draft-cooper-webi-wpad-00.txt>
>
> although - there's no info per say... Grrr
>
> <http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/ 
> randz/prot
> ocol/royalty_free_protocol_license_agreement.asp>
>
> Has a list of many different protocols... it's a start.
>
> For php, i found this...
> http://www.phpbuddy.com/article.php?id=22
>
> Maybe google has more but i didn't read the 419000 links it found ;)

I've read up a bit on how the files work in networks that  
automatically detect proxy settings but I figure the Windows system  
knows what proxy it is using (at least IE does) so I would love to  
get the info from there.  I don't want to parse the javascript  
function that passes out proxy addresses.  Who knows, maybe that is  
the only way to do it.

> Note that most "corporate" software distributes the settings  
> required to run
> in their network (SMS, Novell NetInstall, Octopus, etc...). Nothing  
> you can
> do about it other than ask the administrator to send you also that  
> info...
> Any of these systems can deliver a file to your users' folders.
>
> IMOHO, you should contact their network administrator for a  
> settings file
> delivery or their proxy setting delivery so you can adapt your  
> software to
> their network. Im not sure all proxy settings can be detected...  
> Also, given
> it's a multi-subnet lan, there's little way to know which lan the  
> proxy is
> in... So, haveing the same conditions at work, we're forced to  
> enter it
> manually. Most users however use preconfigured thin-clients where the
> problem would  be the same for your application, and furthermore,  
> your app
> may not have access to the registry entries due to security  
> restrictions.

Right now our app allows someone to manually enter proxy settings.   
The problem is the app is going to be distributed across corporate  
networks, hospital networks, etc.  I will probably add a feature to  
load in a proxy settings file that will automatically configure it  
the first time it is launched.  I haven't had much experience with  
proxy servers so I'm not sure how most software handles this.  Of  
course I would just like everything to work for the user without any  
effort on their part but that may be asking too much here.

Thanks,

-- 
Trevor DeVore
Blue Mango Multimedia
trevor at mangomultimedia.com