Re: Microsoft Internet Explorer and autoconfig. Does it work?

From: Dancer <dancer@dont-contact.us>
Date: Fri, 06 Feb 1998 22:24:54 +1000

*sigh* You're right, it seems.

I just thought to check the logs:

telbrown.brisnet.org.au - - [06/Feb/1998:18:50:44 +1000] "GET /autoproxy.pac HTTP/1.1" 2
00 134
telbrown.brisnet.org.au - - [06/Feb/1998:18:50:45 +1000] "GET /autoproxy.pac HTTP/1.1" 2
00 134
telbrown.brisnet.org.au - - [06/Feb/1998:18:50:45 +1000] "GET /autoproxy.pac HTTP/1.1" 2
00 134
telbrown.brisnet.org.au - - [06/Feb/1998:18:50:58 +1000] "GET /autoproxy.pac HTTP/1.1" 2
00 134
telbrown.brisnet.org.au - - [06/Feb/1998:18:51:11 +1000] "GET /autoproxy.pac HTTP/1.1" 2
00 134
telbrown.brisnet.org.au - - [06/Feb/1998:18:51:15 +1000] "GET /autoproxy.pac HTTP/1.1" 2
00 134
telbrown.brisnet.org.au - - [06/Feb/1998:18:51:17 +1000] "GET /autoproxy.pac HTTP/1.1" 2
00 134
telbrown.brisnet.org.au - - [06/Feb/1998:18:51:20 +1000] "GET /autoproxy.pac HTTP/1.1" 2
00 134

...and so on for another two hundred lines... I know he's one of our few MSIE users, but I don't know the version.
*sigh* Can't the stupid S.O.B's do _anything_ right?

Neil Murray wrote:

> I think I found a problem with Autoconfig and Microsoft Internet
> Explorer 4.01. What I want is some other people to try these same tests and
> see if they can be replicated.
>
> These tests were done in conjunction with David Yeung (dy@aone.com.au)
> and I thank him for his assistance.
>
> The problem in short is that MSIE 4.01 on Win95 & NT4 when using a
> dialup connection refetches the autoconfig script for each frame/image element
> on a web page. When using a LAN connection it doesn't do it.
>
> Software O/S Connection style Multiple reloads
> -------- ---- ---------------- ----------------
> MSIE 4.0 Win 3.11 LAN (ethernet) No
> MSIE 4.0 Win 3.11 Dial-up 33.6kb No
>
> MSIE 4.01 Win 95 LAN (ethernet) No
> MSIE 4.01 Win 95 Dial-up 33.6kb Yes
>
> MSIE 4.01 NT 4 LAN (ethernet) No
> MSIE 4.01 NT 4 Dial-up 33.6kb Yes
>
> Note Netscape Communicator and MSIE 3.01 have no problems with multiple
> reloads occurring. This was using stock Microsoft dialing software and a
> just downloaded MSIE 4.01.
>
> At the end of this message is a perl script that logs each
> use of itself. The log has the time (in unix ctime format), what the program
> name is (I had several scripts using the same log file), the client name and IP address (changed to protect the guilty), the actual preferences line that is
> sent to the client and what the client's browser reports itself as.
>
> At Access One we have geographically dispersed proxies, so when a
> customer dials into one of our POPs the full version of the perl script
> uses the clients IP address to construct the best order for using the proxies.
> It was while testing this I noticed the anomaly with MSIE. This is also
> why the log reports what it does.
>
> Of interest MSIE 3.01 reports itself when fetching the autoconfig file
> as "Auto-Proxy Downloader".
>
> Below will give an idea of what the log looks like;
>
> MSIE 4.01 on Win95 - LAN connection. Loads it once.
>
> 886733039 [/cgi-bin/setproxy3.pjs] host "dy-pc1.a.thing" (xxx.xxx.yyy.yyy) method "" preferences "PROXY a.proxy.thing:80; PROXY b.proxy.thing:80; DIRECT" agent "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Win32)" accept "*/*"
>
> MSIE 4.01 on Win95 - Dialup. Loads it multiple times/per page.
> (It appears to be once/frame).
>
> 886733219 [/cgi-bin/setproxy3.pjs] host "d48-3.a.thing" (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) method "" preferences "PROXY a.proxy.thing:80; PROXY b.proxy.thing:80; DIRECT" agent "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Win32)" accept "*/*"
> 886733221 [/cgi-bin/setproxy3.pjs] host "d48-3.a.thing" (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) method "" preferences "PROXY a.proxy.thing:80; PROXY b.proxy.thing:80; DIRECT" agent "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Win32)" accept "*/*"
> 886733223 [/cgi-bin/setproxy3.pjs] host "d48-3.a.thing" (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) method "" preferences "PROXY a.proxy.thing:80; PROXY b.proxy.thing:80; DIRECT" agent "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Win32)" accept "*/*"
> 886733225 [/cgi-bin/setproxy3.pjs] host "d48-3.a.thing" (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) method "" preferences "PROXY a.proxy.thing:80; PROXY b.proxy.thing:80; DIRECT" agent "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Win32)" accept "*/*"
> 886733229 [/cgi-bin/setproxy3.pjs] host "d48-3.a.thing" (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) method "" preferences "PROXY a.proxy.thing:80; PROXY b.proxy.thing:80; DIRECT" agent "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Win32)" accept "*/*"
> 886733234 [/cgi-bin/setproxy3.pjs] host "d48-3.a.thing" (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) method "" preferences "PROXY a.proxy.thing:80; PROXY b.proxy.thing:80; DIRECT" agent "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Win32)" accept "*/*"
>
> MSIE 4.01 on Win.311 - Dialup Loads it once
>
> 886733901 [/cgi-bin/setproxy3.pjs] host "d48-2.a.thing" (xxx.xxx.zzz.zzz) method "" preferences "PROXY a.proxy.thing:80; PROXY b.proxy.thing:80; DIRECT" agent "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.0; Windows 3.1)" accept "*/*, q=0.300, application/x-x509-ca-cert, multipart/mixed, multipart/x-mixed-replace, text/plain, text/html"
>
> MSIE 4.01 on Win.311 - Lan Loads it once
>
> 886734113 [/cgi-bin/setproxy3.pjs] host "d48-2.a.thing" (xxx.xxx.zzz.zzz) method "" preferences "PROXY a.proxy.thing:80; PROXY b.proxy.thing:80; DIRECT" agent "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.0; Windows 3.1)" accept "*/*, q=0.300, application/x-x509-ca-cert, multipart/mixed, multipart/x-mixed-replace, text/plain, text/html"
>
> Tried searching through the registry to see if there was something that controlled the behaviour. Found the following;
>
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet
>
> settings
>
> AutoConfigReloadDelayMins
>
> It would also appear in HKEY_USERS.
>
> This controls how often to reload the autoconfig script. We tried
> setting this to 1 minute to see what would happen. When we did so MSIE 4.01
> fetched the autoconfig script every minute whether you used it or not.
> Putting 1800 in the setting had no effect on the continual refetchs when set
> for dialup connection. This is a useful setting as MSIE when it decides a
> proxy is not available never goes back and retries to see if the proxy is back
> up. So for setting AutoConfigReloadDelayMins to something like 120 (2 hours)
> will allow the script to be refetched and the various proxies specified to be
> retried.
>
> You will need the CGI.pm module so use this code. CSPAN will have it.
> or try http://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/ftp/pub/software/WWW/cgi_docs.html.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> #!/usr/local/bin/perl5
> #
> # script to dynamically set proxy via netscape's/msie automatic proxy
> # configuration
> #
> # also serves a secondary use of telling us what
> # browsers users are using, and other useless facts
> #
>
> # DEFINES
> $logfile = "/localdata/proxyconf.log";
>
> #
> # preferences
> #
> $near = "a.proxy.thing:80";
> $far = "b.proxy.thing:80";
>
> $preferences = "PROXY $near; PROXY $far; DIRECT";
>
> use CGI;
> $query = new CGI;
>
> $remote_addr = $query->remote_addr();
> $remote_host = $query->remote_host();
> $remote_ident = $query->remote_ident();
> $user_agent = $query->user_agent();
> $referer = $query->referer();
>
> $msieflag = 0;
> $_ = $user_agent;
> if (/^(.*)MSIE(.*)$/ || /^Auto-Proxy Downloader/) {
> $msieflag = 1;
> }
>
> #
> # output to browser
> #
> if ($msieflag) {
> # MSIE 3.02 & better.
> print "Content-type: application/x-javascript-config\n\n";
> } else {
> # Netscape (all versions)
> print "Content-type: application/x-ns-proxy-autoconfig\n\n";
> }
> print "function FindProxyForURL(url, host)\n";
> print "{\n";
> print " return \"$preferences\";\n";
> print "}\n";
>
> #
> # store details of what we did ..
> #
> if (open(F,">>$logfile") != 0) {
> printf F "%lu [%s] host \"%s\" (%s) method \"%s\" preferences \"%s\" agent \"%s\" accept \"%s\"\n",
> time,
> $0,
> $remote_host,
> $remote_addr,
> $method,
> $preferences,
> $user_agent,
> $ENV{"HTTP_ACCEPT"};
>
> close(F);
> }
>
> exit 0;
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> If you get different result than I do please email me directly.
> If you know how to make MSIE work properly then DEFINITELY email with the
> details please.
>
> PS: Does anyone had the email address for submitting bug reports to Microsoft,
> I tried searching the www.microsoft.com site for an email address but
> their search engine kept erroring on me.

Us too. Unless you're looking for hype, their search engine just spits errors or lists broken URLs when you look for technical info &c.

D

--
Did you read the documentation AND the FAQ?
If not, I'll probably still answer your question, but my patience will
be limited, and you take the risk of sarcasm and ridicule.
Received on Fri Feb 06 1998 - 04:33:00 MST

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