Proxy Servers

[trlists at clayst.com]

On 4 Mar 2005 Josh Pollak wrote:

> With the proxy settings in IE, I don't know. I believe the automatic 
> proxy files can specify it though.

Yes, it seems they can.  The proxy configuration files (.pac files) 
appear to be simple JavaScript.  I also read something that suggested 
Java could be used but I'm not totally clear on that.

Of course when you install a reference to someone's .pac file on your 
system you have to presume it came from a trusted source, since most 
folks don't have the tools to get a copy of the script nor the 
knowledge to see what it does.

I still don't get what happens if one wants to access more than one 
service (University library or anything else) that uses this method.  
Sounds like it would be painful, unless you were a JavaScript 
programmer who could combine all the scripts.

I also don't get why they use this approach.  There are a lot of ways 
to do authentication.  Why pick one that has such limited flexibility?

--
Tom