Chrome Proxy Setup - PAC file?

[MK Street]

I'm running Windows 7 (64 bit) and Chrome v. 42.

Is there a way to setup Chrome to use a PAC file for the proxy?
Or failing that, a way to setup Chrome so that if it can't reach the proxy, then Chrome can still access the Internet (direct without proxy)?

I tried setting up Chrome with a PAC file and I never could seem to get it to use the PAC file.  I tried various ways to specify the PAC file in the INTERNET OPTIONS (under the Control Panel).  It just seemed to not access the proxy at all.  The only way I could get Chrome to use the proxy was to specify the proxy by its URL and Port under INTERNET OPTIONS.  However, if I do that, if the proxy is down then the user of the Chrome browser can't access the Internet.

By comparison, FireFox easily uses the PAC file I specify in its OPTIONS section.  

In my situation, I have a proxy setup for caching in my computer lab to try to reduce pounding our limited bandwidth.
For FireFox, the PAC file tells it that if it can't reach the proxy, then allow it to go direct to the Internet.

Thanks.

[PhistucK]

Chrome uses the same options as Internet Explorer in this regard, so configure Internet Explorer to use PAC and Chrome should follow.

☆PhistucK

--
--
Chromium Discussion mailing list: chromium...@chromium.org
View archives, change email options, or unsubscribe:
http://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/group/chromium-discuss

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to chromium-discu...@chromium.org.

[MK Street]

For FireFox, I specify the PAC file under FireFox's options and point it to a PAC file on the computers local C drive using "file://mypac.pac"  (I don't remember the syntax if I used two or three whacks after "file:").  I can see it working in the proxy cache server's access log.  It's getting HIT on the server's cache and serving it.

In addition, the website "http://amibehindaproxy.com/" reported that FireFox was behind a proxy.

I haven't been able to get that same syntax to work under INTERNET OPTIONS.  When I tried to research it online, there was a lot of conflicting advice about:

a) if there should be two or three whacks after "file:", 

b) if the ".pac" file extension should be listed or left off, 

c) if a local drive PAC file ("file:...") would work at all under Internet options and/or Chrome didn't work with a local PAC file

I tried different combinations of the above, but requests from Chrome never went through the proxy when I monitored the proxy's log.

From the same PC, FireFox's requests did go through the proxy and got hits on the cache if I closed/re-opened FireFox and went to the same website again.

In addition, "http://amibehindaproxy.com/" in FireFox reported that there was a proxy, but in Chrome it said there wasn't a proxy.

[PhistucK]

While crbug.com/74 says file:// URLs are in fact supported, things may have regressed (unlikely, since I assume it is being automatically tested constantly, but it may have).

What does chrome://net-internals/#proxy (copy and paste to the address bar and press Enter) say?

☆PhistucK

[MK Street]

Hi,

That "chrome://net-internals/#proxy" is VERY useful.  Thanks for that !

I found that under Control Panel->Internet Options that I can specify the local proxy.pac this way:   file://c:/proxy/proxy.pac
(the proxy.pac file is located on the C drive in a folder called "proxy")

When I do this, the "chrome://net-internals/#proxy" shows Chrome finding it.  However, it also lists my proxy as bad and that it will retry it at a timestamp about five minutes in the future.
If I press the button it gives me to clear bad proxies, it works right away and is great.

For some reason, when Chrome starts, it thinks my proxy is bad... but after clearing that, it's completely happy.

So this appears to be the real problem -- where can I look to find some log message or something to help me diagnose why it thinks the proxy is bad?

[PhistucK]

Generally, https://www.chromium.org/for-testers/enable-logging should give you a log of everything Chrome does.

However, if it consistently works only after you reset it (which means you have to do it on every Chrome startup?), it sounds like a bug and you can report it at crbug.com, if you cannot find a similar issue there already.

☆PhistucK