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10.4: Turn off PAC to avoid Safari performance problems
Authored by: ynolo on Jul 06, '05 03:25:02PM

What's in a PAC?
A PAC file is a plain text file that, in its most basic form, consists of a single JScript® function called FindProxyForURL. Internet Explorer calls this function with two parameters: the full URL to which the user is navigating and the hostname portion of that URL. The FindProxyForURL function must return one of three possible strings: "DIRECT" tells Internet Explorer it should bypass the proxy server, "PROXY" followed by a proxy server name and port specifies a proxy, and "SOCKS" followed by a SOCKS server name and port specifies that Internet Explorer should use that SOCKS server. The auto-proxy file can also indicate some combination of these choices, delimited by semicolons.
The following PAC file will check whether the user is navigating to a page at www.harvest-books.org.
function FindProxyForURL(url,host)
{
if (host == "www.harvest-books.org")
return "DIRECT";

return "PROXY myproxy.harvest-books.org:80;
PROXY myotherproxy.harvest-
books.org:8080;
DIRECT" ;
}
If the user is going to the Harvest Books site, the function returns DIRECT, and Internet Explorer will bypass the proxy server for that address. If not, Internet Explorer will try to use myproxy.harvest-books.org on port 80. Notice that there are two proxy servers listed, separated by a semicolon; this is where the power of a PAC file starts to become apparent. If myproxy.harvest-books.org is down, unreachable, or otherwise not responding, Internet Explorer will try myotherproxy.harvest-books.org on port 8080, the next proxy server in the list. If neither proxy responds, Internet Explorer will bypass the proxy and attempt to connect directly (since the last item in the list is DIRECT). You can list any number of proxies for Internet Explorer to check, listed in order of preference.

More here:

http://www.microsoft.com/mind/0599/faq/faq0599.asp

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i don\'t have one



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10.4: Turn off PAC to avoid Safari performance problems
Authored by: RichB on Dec 15, '05 08:58:43PM

It's ironic that this great description of a PAC file is geared towards Internet Explorer which on the Mac has never been able to use a PAC file! Netscape and Mozilla products like Firefox always have been able to and with OS 10.3.8 Safari finally was able to as well by adding it to the bottom of the proxy choices. Tiger made it a separate pulldown menu for automatic versus manual entry. If you use a PAC file in Network System Preferences, IE on the Mac will not work!



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