Me again. Firstly with MS Exploder I have had some problems with wpad and pac files. I have know idea why this should work but going into the advanced options and setting Exploder advanced option to reset to default fixed all.
I remember scratching my head for a while on that one. New installs work, some of my clients worked and a few didn't. Thing is I was absolutely sure none of the options had been changed from default so whatever it does I am totally unsure.
My best tip is to use Firefox but like many I am a constantly harrased sys admin
. Believe it or not we run courses for deprived, unemployed and people with special needs. Strangely some of the tutors will only use Exploder for tutorials.
I have tried the argument that possibly training the dissadvantaged through commercial software possibly isn't the best way to go. To be honest a lot of the trainers basic qualifications are that they have completed the training course that they are training. These are all UK government led iniatives and personally the quality and context of the courses are dreadfull. Anyway I am a firefox man.
As to wpad or pac files the contents is the simplest piece of javascript you will ever come across and all you need to do is modify a sample and change the port details. This then gets copied to the root www apache directory. This has all been much better documented than this dribble. I just wanted to check if my memory was playing tricks on me and that I have a feeling somehow it worked without a DNS entry. I could swear I just got nervy that all the web literature mentioned either a DNS or DHCP method and with Zentyal the DNS method is easier.
I have a static IP and a domain registered 123reg.co.uk only mentioned as there control panel is a simple. I didn't bother enabling the Zentyal DNS but just entered a cname of wpad which is added to the FQD. After using Zentyal for a while I do use the local DNS now which points to the local LAN of 192.168.x.x rather than my wan IP address which my 123reg.co.uk domainname points to. I just thought I would mention that as does anybody do the same? My website is now pulled from the local intranet or over the WAN depending on which side the client is.
Anyway lol sorry people but just a general discussion I did enable the proxy so that I could use group filters. We have public internet access so filters are very important. Some of you might want to stop social networking or dating or whatever ...
I have a public / staff roaming scenario and the group filters are great, there are a few things that need tweaking but they are seriously tight.
If you don't need group filters / object filters then I can't see any point than running in the standard transparent mode. No need for wpad or PAC, no need for any settings just run and go.
I did set up group filters as I wanted to set up a difference for staff, admins and users. Problem is that my understanding is that the only proxy authentication method is plain text. So on every new browser instance you are prompted for a username / password. This just seemed to cause annoyance so everybody is back to transparent using a strict filter.
SSO & Kerberos and whispers about post 2.2 have been heard so am I right in saying my preferred way of group filters without login boxes will become a reality from windows clients?
Also anyone want to touch on https and proxy / filtering as thats a bit of a bum aswell?
Stuart