Ano-Tech Computers
Enter keyword:

Internet Explorer: Automatically detect proxy settings
Problem:
When trying to access any web page, the browser will spend ages trying to detect proxy settings, then proceed either without a proxy or use the proxy server as defined elsewhere (either with a .pac script, a wpad.dat or an explicit setting per protocol)
 
Solution:
Autodetecting proxy settings is a two-step process:
1) Attempt to get a DHCP wpad URL (dhcp option 252)
2) Attempt to resolve the well-known host name 'wpad' for the local dns domain

If there is no working DHCP server on the local network, step 1 will time out after about 15-20 seconds

If step 1 fails and there is no working DNS server on the local network either, the browser will assume there is no proxy. In this case you might want to fix the DNS settings and/or local domain name, but that's a whole different story.
 
Discuss this solution
Did this article solve your problem? Yes No Did not apply

This is free technical advice without any warranties. Use at your own risk. Solutions offered may not apply to your particular problem at all. Opinions and views expressed in the articles are the authors' personal and may not necessarily reflect or coincide with those of Ano-Tech Computers. We take no responsibility if anything bad happens from following any of the intructions given. If you don't understand and accept this, please contact us for personal assistance instead.
To read our full disclaimer, go here.

We welcome anyone who is willing to contribute to this public knowledge base, contact siteadmin@atc.no if you have information you would like to share. The idea is not to replace the commercial support sites, but to publish those hard-to-find solutions you've found yourself looking for over and over again.

Show all articles