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Access proxy servers that use .pac files via Safari Web Browsers
For the last couple of years, I have had to use Mozilla or Firefox to connect to the online indexes to which my university restricts access -- because Safari didn't support connecting to proxy servers that used .pac files.

Maybe this functionality appeared sooner, but on a lark today, I went into Safari's prefs and clicked the Proxies: Change Settings... button in the Advanced tab. Doing so opened the Network preference pane, where the Configure Proxies pop-up menu included the option of "Using a PAC file." Simply entering the URL for the file in the "PAC File URL" box and clicking Apply meant that I no longer had to switch browsers to access restricted resources. Cool!
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Access proxy servers that use .pac files via Safari | 10 comments | Create New Account
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10.4: Access proxy servers that use .pac files via Safari
Authored by: houchin on Jun 21, '05 01:29:31PM

While it is great that Safari (and parts of the OS) now support .pac files, many notible items do not: QuickTime Player, iCal and Camino are the ones that specifically came to mind. I was configured to use my companies .pac file for a while, but ultimately went back to specifying proxies manually.



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10.4: Access proxy servers that use .pac files via Safari
Authored by: audiokid on Jun 21, '05 01:34:57PM

Apple still does not support proxies correctly. It's a really basic thing to be able to do, and they don't get it. Bothers me that I have a massive, manually configured, network stack in my PowerBook, and I still have to "login" to a bunch of internal websites. Also - Mail... not so much with the proxy. Entourage 2004, not so much with the proxy. I am forced to use Entourage v.X to use my Exchange account at work and still IMAP to my .Mac account, because v.X lets me specify proxy settings. *sigh*



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10.4: Access proxy servers that use .pac files via Safari
Authored by: raider on Jun 21, '05 02:05:31PM
This is not a 10.4 only hint. You have been able to use a .PAC file for proxy auto-config since 10.3.2.

The only difference is in 10.4 you have a dropdown under "Configure Proxies" with the option "Using a PAC file".

In 10.4 AND 10.3.2 (or later) If you choose "Manually", then in the "Select a proxy server to configure" window, scroll down. You will see "Automatic Proxy Configuration". If you select that, on the right you will see "Proxy Configuration File" and "URL". The URL can be a URL to a server location somewhere - or it can be a file on your local machine. (using file:// )

And the system settings for .pac being ignored in Camino is a known bug. Vote for it if you want it fixed....

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proxy.pac for Camino
Authored by: pdm on Jun 21, '05 02:42:29PM

If you want to setup proxy pac support for Camino, you can do it manually by stuffing in the config uptions to prefs.js in ~/Library/Application Support/Camino


user_pref("network.proxy.autoconfig_url", "http://foo/proxy.pac");
user_pref("network.proxy.type", 2);

-pdm

---
-pdm



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Access proxy servers that use .pac files via Safari
Authored by: pdm on Jun 21, '05 02:31:36PM

I've been doing this for a while, with Safari, Camino, and Firefox. I'd be interested to hear if Safari crashes more for you with this feature enabled. My Safari has been unstable for years, so much so I can't even bother running it. It can crash 10 to 20 times a day.

Someone suggested proxy.pac might be causing problems, so I disabled it and sure enough the crashes stopped happening. This sort of crashing happened on 10.3 and 10.4.

For now I have the system wide proxy turned off and have Camino and Firefox turned on internally, as they don't pay attention to the global setting.


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-pdm



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Access proxy servers that use .pac files via Safari
Authored by: kkadow on Jun 22, '05 06:11:04PM
There's a known bug in Firefox on 10.4 when using a PAC File URL.
I notified Apple about this three weeks ago.

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Access proxy servers that use .pac files via Safari
Authored by: rkchang on Jun 21, '05 05:00:59PM

My university's library used to use .pac files for proxy set up. Even with this set up, I could not, for the life of me, get Safari to work with their .pac file. I'm not sure if .pac files are "optimized" for certain browsers, as the .pac file worked for Mozilla and Camino, but not for Safari (even in 10.3.2 and above). I ended up hard-coding some of the .pac file entries for use with Privoxy, but this also created other difficulties, as Privoxy's ad-blocking configs would also block out other innocuous images. Finally (and presumably) after much complaining, my school decided to ditch the .pac file and go for a different security log-in type service to get access to the research databases.

---
"I have seen the evils of procrastination, and I vow to change my ways tomorrow."



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OS 10.4 autoproxy pac file support broken?
Authored by: jdandrea on Nov 10, '05 11:36:28AM

I (and others) have been unable to use our autoproxy.pac file ever since moving to 10.4.3.

As soon as we moved from 10.3.9 to 10.4.3 (via "erase and install" mind you, not "archive and install"), our autoproxy.pac file ceased to work when set within Network Preferences (whether via "Manual / Automatic Proxy Configuration" or "Using a PAC file").

However, that same pac file works fine from 10.3.2 through 10.3.9. Always has.

It also works fine within Firefox's own autoproxy settings. Every. Single. Time.

Checking the pac file for javascript errors, I find none. (Indeed, since Firefox and 10.3.9 work with it, I don't expect there to be any.)

Bottom line: Something's broken. I called Apple Support but was asked to post something online. Then I found a similar post on the Apple Discussion Forums, then this thread. :(

So ... I'm here to say "Me too!" Anyone else? Hopefully the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

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- JD

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OS 10.4 autoproxy pac file support broken?
Authored by: jdandrea on Nov 10, '05 11:39:52AM
OS 10.4 autoproxy pac file support broken?
Authored by: jdandrea on Dec 30, '05 07:10:49AM
I think I've cracked the case. At long last, I now have a working PAC file. Read all about it.

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- JD

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