Re: Auto Proxy Configuration?

On Wed, 11 Feb 1998, George Ellenburg wrote:

> Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 22:08:01 -0500 (EST)
> From: George Ellenburg <gme@sundial.net>
> To: Michael Samuel <michael@surfnetcity.com.au>
> Cc: squid-users@nlanr.net
> Subject: Re: Auto Proxy Configuration?
>
> Well,
>
> I'm in a rather unique situation.
> 1) I don't run Linux (FreeBSD and BSD/OS 3.1)
> 2) I already have several thousand clients who have IE and Netscape
> installed. (I distribute IE, but nothing stops my clients from
> installing Netscape).
> 3) The thought of having all of my network traffic flowing through a
> Linux box frankly scares the hell out of me, and my boss, the owner
> of my company.

Hmm... I cheated though :-)

I use a Linux boxen for the dialup itself. I would NEVER use a Linux box
as a main router, because the simple fact is, they are more prone to misc.
hardware failures than a Cisco router. (not that Cisco routers are
indestructable or anything)

>
> Don't get me wrong, we're both (my boss and I) staunch Linux supporters,
> but there's a time and a place for everything. Neither of us has any
> qualms running Squid or any other application on Linux (actually I prefer
> FreeBSD over Linux since it's far more robust and stable, but that's a
> mute point for this discussion, and I don't wish for this thread to
> begin an OS Holy War <grin>).

Aha... I am a Holy Linux supporter, but I have no beef with any truly free
software...

I beleive that freebsd can still do transparent proxying somehow... But I
don't know.

>
> My intentions are this; I have a User's Only web-page where my clients can
> check their mail, review their account balances, and perform other
> functions. It's IP Addr restricted only to my customers across our
> separate Class C's and subnets.

I have a customer support page, which will tell customers how to set up
the java proxy autoconfig.

>
> What I am hopefully trying to do is embed some Java Script or VB Script
> into the main User's Only Page whereby each time a customer hits the page,
> it will 'refresh' their proxy settings and force the browser to go through
> my proxy server (which is running on FreeBSD). I'm rebuilding my IEAK now
> to take care of any new customers; but my problem is I've got several
> thousand existing customers which has an increased priority than any new
> customers. (Besides, if I'm able to pull this off, any new customers,
> once they hit the User's Only Website will have their proxy settings
> configured bypassing the need for me to rebuild IEAK or even Netscape for
> that matter.)

Hehehe... Netscape are a little bit more security concious than that :-)

They will have to do it manually.

As for IE, you can just give customers a .ins file which will set
everything up (Start page, search page, dialup+scripting, proxies etc.)

This comes with the IEAK.

I don't recommend transparent proxying, this is just to catch those that
slip through the cracks once you beleive that most are using the proxy.

>
> Regards,
>
> George M. Ellenburg
> Systems Administrator,
> Sundial Internet Services
>
>
>
> On Thu, 12 Feb 1998, Michael Samuel wrote:
>
> > Well... I did both :-)
> >
> > We distribute a custom Internet Explorer with the manual proxies set up,
> > we tell customers to use the java proxy config with netscape, and we
> > transparently proxy the remaining through a Linux box (with tproxyd
> > compiled with -DPAY_THE_PENALTY)
> >
> > And... All three setups are in the Squid FAQ :-)
> >
> > http://squid.nlanr.net/Squid/FAQ/
>
>

Michael Samuel,

Surf-Net City - Internet Cafe and Internet Service Providers
Phone: +61 3 9593-9977
E-Mail: <michael@surfnetcity.com.au>
WWW: http://www.surfnetcity.com.au/~michael/
Received on Wed Feb 11 1998 - 19:57:33 MST