Make Firefox automagically pick up default internet proxy?

Question

At work, I need to connect to a customer network via VPN at times, and doing so, I need to set a proxy. While IE picks that up automatically (the standard "default internet proxy"), Firefox doesn't, which is a pain.

Yes, I know - I can have Firefox look at my DOS environment variables like http_proxy and use these - but that's still a pain.

Is there an extension for Firefox that will pick up the default internet proxy set by Microsoft (it's stored in the registry, after all) and use it, when it's set? That would make my life a LOT easier!

If not - anyone care to write such an extension? :-) Sounds like that shouldn't be all too hard, really.....

Marc

Answer 1

Firefox used to have the add-on Quickproxy, but it's not ready for 3.5 yet...

Answer 2

You can try using a Firefox plugin like FoxyProxy to do this. Another way to do this is to create an entry in your systems routing table which differentiates between VPN address space and internet address space. If you have it set to route anything not going to the VPN to your local default gateway, then you will not need to worry about the internet proxy settings being used by your customers. Firefox will just work all of the time.

Type "Route Print" in a CMD shell to get started...

Answer 3

If you set your proxy settings to "auto-detect settings for this network", this should work on firefox too. You need to have the ip assigned by dhcp for this to work.

Answer 4

You can use the automatic proxy configuration, but you need to setup the infrastructure to understand it using DHCP and DNS.

On startup, the browser will first check DHCP options for the proxy config host. If not present, it performs a DNS query for host "WPAD". If found using one of those methods, it does an HTTP GET for /proxy.pac, which is the Proxy auto-config script.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol

Answer 5

At work, I need to connect to a customer network via VPN at times, and doing so, I need to set a proxy.

I think you actually might not want to use that proxy, as I expect you do not want to send ALL traffic through the customer's server. The fact that you cannot browse without that proxy is probably an indication that you are actually sending ALL traffic through the VPN.

When all traffic is sent through the VPN, then even "normal" internet access (like web browsing or maybe even sending and fetching email) is routed through the remote VPN server. This might be useful when traveling in some countries that filter certain web sites. And as the VPN connection is encrypted, using it for all traffic might also be more secure when not knowing who can listen in to the network that is used to connect to the internet (hotel, internet café, Starbucks WiFi, ...). Above all: it might be a bit more secure as any "hacker" (trojan horse, spyware) who has gained access to your workstation will be disconnected as soon as the VPN connection is started, thus not exposing the server's network to that security threat. It depends on the set up of the VPN server whether or not such unwanted trojan traffic could be re-established through the VPN server. To avoid security issues, internet access through the VPN server is often simply disallowed.

So, sending all traffic through VPN may very well be preferred in many occasions, and often one should NOT try to bypass any limitations as set up by the administrator. But I wonder if that is true while connecting to a customer's VPN server.

I would say:

• Just keep the VPN connection alive as short as possible, and while connected do not use the connection for anything else. (Browsing, email, instant messaging, ...; do you want your customer to be able to track your traffic?)
• If you really need to use other resources on the internet, then your customer's policy might tell you to use their proxy. If so, then indeed you have no choice. (I assume that proxy is theirs, for otherwise you wouldn't be able to use it without disabling sending all traffic through the VPN to start with, unless it has some local address that might not be routed through the VPN connection? If it is not theirs, but just a way to avoid blocked ports, then think twice...)
• If the customer is OK with not using their proxy, and if you really need the browser, and if you're sure your workstation is secure: disable sending all traffic through the VPN.

Windows by default sends all traffic over VPN, but a Mac does not. (On a Mac, the Advanced button shows an option "Send all traffic over VPN connection". Windows has a simular option, but I can't tell you where to find that exactly.)

EDIT: changed the recommendation.