Tag: wpad

Web Proxy Autodiscovery Protocol (WPAD)

If you take a close look at your logs you may occasionally see requests for a file named wpad.dat. This file is related to automatic proxy configuration in many browsers.

To provide this capability to your users and website,

  1. DNS:

    Default behavior is to traverse the domain in reverse, looking for one with a file named /wpad.dat

    Example (using my domain for example):
    wpad.www.giantgeek.com
    wpad.giantgeek.com
    wpad.com

  2. Then in httpd.conf, set the MIME type:
    AddType application/x-ns-proxy-autoconfig .pac
  3. Also in httpd.conf, add a redirect to the actual file you wish to use.
    Redirect permanent /wpad.dat http://www.giantgeek.com/proxy.pac
  4. In the new file, add the following default contents, modify if you use a proxy:

    /* 'proxy.pac' - This is the main function called by any browser
    NOTE: there is NO proxy!
    */
    function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
    {
    return “DIRECT”;
    } // End function FindProxyForUrl

REFERENCES:

Proxy Auto-config

There comes a need for many organizations (or individuals) to establish proxy servers on their network. This is usually done for reasons of security or network topology. While the use of proxy servers simpifies some aspects of networking, it comes at the cost of maintaining the browser configuration of every network device (usually browsers). Netscape provided a mechanism to automate much of this problem by allowing the browser to retrieve the proxy configuration from a centrally managed server.

The proxy autoconfig file is written in JavaScript, it should be a separate file that has the proper filename extension and MIME type when provided from a webserver.

The file must define the function:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
{
...
}

1. FILENAME EXTENSION:
.pac

2. MIME TYPE:
application/x-ns-proxy-autoconfig

3. REFERENCES:

4. ApacheHTTP config.

Add the following to the httpd.conf file:

Redirect permanent /wpad.dat {yourdomain}/proxy.pac
AddType application/x-ns-proxy-autoconfig .pac

5. EXAMPLE:

/* 'proxy.pac' - This is the main function called by any browser */
function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
{

if (isPlainHostName(host) || // No Proxy for Non FQDN names
shExpMatch(host, “*.localnet”) || // No Proxy for internal network
shExpMatch(host, “127.0.0.1”) || // No Proxy for LocalHost
shExpMatch(host, “localhost”) || // No Proxy for LocalHost
shExpMatch(host, “mailhost”) || // No Proxy for MailHost
dnsDomainIs(host, “giantgeek.com”) || // No Proxy
return “DIRECT”;

else {
return “PROXY proxy.giantgeek.com:8080; PROXY proxy.giantgeek.com:8090; PROXY proxy2.giantgeek.com:8080”;

} //End else

} // End function FindProxyForUrl

NOTE: Also see my ‘WPAD’ blog entry.