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Use web proxy auto-discovery in Safari
Authored by: alexsharaz on Oct 28, '09 07:00:07AM

Actually, its better if you use http://wpad.rest.of.the.domain/wpad.dat

e.g. if you have a domain of someuniversity.ac.uk then your mac should look for http://wpad.someuniversity.ac.uk/wpad.dat

if you just use http://wpad/wpad.dat you're expecting that your mac knows which domain you're in. If it doesn't then its not going to work. (Note: if you're using a PAC file, it doesn't have to be called wpad.dat it could be called anything, as long as the web server you're getting it from hands out the correct mime type associated with a PAC file)

Why use a Pac file or (even better) autodetect proxy settings?

Basically if you're at home on a broadband line then there's a high probability that you don't need it. If you're in a corporate environment however where you are likely to find a web caching service, what you need to do is tell your clients how to get to the outside world.The contents of your PAC file is a javascript function that your browser uses to find out how to get to a particular URL e.g.

  • Go direct if its a host on your network
  • Use this proxy service first
  • Use this proxy service if the first one fails
  • Blackhole machines with these addresses
  • etc...

From our experience, getting a user to type something in is a big problem .... a lot of them get it wrong. e.g. if you have a set of instructions with an image of a dialogue box showing a partial url and a bit of text below it with the full URL, the user will type in what they see in the image and swear blind they've typed it in correctly. If all they've got to do is check a box, there's a higher chance they'll manage it.

Where you're managing a lot of machines and are running a web caching service "Auto-detect proxy settings" is a really really good idea

Alex

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