Feedback request on proxy servers

[BarryK]

I posted about this on my blog:

http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=01966

Repeated here:

This is something that I have never thought about, as I have never had to use a proxy server. However, I was reading that some ISPs, particularly in business environments, still use a proxy server, and in fact require that the proxy server be used to access the Internet.

If a proxy server is required, then all of our scripts that use wget will fail. That includes PPM and the Video Upgrade Wizard.

I would like to get feedback on this. Is there anyone reading this, or know of anyone, who is in that situation where they must use a proxy server?

If such cases do exist, then I will have to add an extra dialog into the Internet Connection Wizard, to setup the proxy server. These pages have good information on this:

http://linuxers.org/tutorial/wget-proxy ... oxy-server
http://book.opensourceproject.org.cn/di ... l0084.html

Unfortunately, the Mozilla browsers (Firefox and SeaMonkey) require proxy to be setup via the menu Edit -> Preferences.
Although, if we know how/where the information gets stored in a preferences file (prefs.js?) then we could write to that directly.

[Blue76Bay]

I posted about this on my blog:
I would like to get feedback on this. Is there anyone reading this, or know of anyone, who is in that situation where they must use a proxy server?

I have had this issue before and another user. See

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=58807

Kind Regards

Michael

[aragon]

hi barry,

i've examined that a year ago (just a little).

See http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 5&start=75 and next page.

The problem at this time has been, that neither seamonkey nor firefox have used the environment variables (http_proxy,...).

Maybe this has changed meanwhile.

aragon

[jafadmin]

In a typical business environment where a proxy server is used, the proxy server is set as the default gateway on the network. They then don't need to set proxy settings in the browser.

For all intents and purposes it functions as a NATing router on the network.

[dgcom]

jafadmin, this is not correct.
Functionality of NAT firewall and proxy server is completely different.
If proxy is required, you have to specify those settings for browsers and other applications (like wget).

[jafadmin]

jafadmin, this is not correct.
Functionality of NAT firewall and proxy server is completely different.
If proxy is required, you have to specify those settings for browsers and other applications (like wget).

If a proxy server is used "For All Internet Access" it is the default (0.0.0.0) gateway on the network. No need to add the setting to individual apps since they all go there by default anyway. If he meant that "Just HTTP Traffic" is sent through the proxy server, then yes I see the issue.

I stand by the original post.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_ ... nt_Gateway

[JohnMurga]

jafadmin, this is not correct.
Functionality of NAT firewall and proxy server is completely different.
If proxy is required, you have to specify those settings for browsers and other applications (like wget).

If a proxy server is used "For All Internet Access" it is the default (0.0.0.0) gateway on the network. No need to add the setting to individual apps since they all go there by default anyway. If he meant that "Just HTTP Traffic" is sent through the proxy server, then yes I see the issue.

I stand by the original post.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_ ... nt_Gateway

Doesn't make you any less wrong on your use of the terminology ...
A proxy is not the same as a proxy server.
And your link isn't great either ... Look at how the product is categorized on the right.

I am not sure what is typical, as I have worked with set-ups like what you describe where the the proxy is part of the gateway (a transparent proxy), but a separate proxy server is a lot more common in the corporate setups I have been exposed to (although the user doesn't notice as it is usually auto-configured).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_auto-config#Context

What is commonly referred to as a proxy server is either a HTTP proxy or a SOCKS proxy ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server#Web_proxy

Although transparent proxies do exist (for example, my ISP has one), they can only function as part of either of routing or gateway functionality, so they are not a "proxy server" per se.

Anyway, I have booted puppy in several corporate environments, and setting the http_proxy and ftp_proxy environment variables worked for me.

Cheers
John de Murga

[DPUP5520]

setting up proxy preferences in Firefox and Seamonkey are not required if the proxy is routed through a vpn then the preferences can be left to No Proxy