WPAD configuration
Mehmet Boyaci
I am trying to configure WPAD so that the clients on our network can
access the proxy without having to enter a URL to the proxy.pac
script.
In our current configuration we have a proxy.pac script in the root of
http://www.mycompany.com and we configure the browsers to use
http://www.mycompany.com/proxy.pac.
I first tried DHCP option 252 to automatically configure the clients
but this didn't work. None of the clients cound find the proxy. So
then I configured our dns servers so that
http://wpad.mycompany.com/wpad.dat returns the same proxy script
renamed as wpad.dat. I set up the relevant mime types in netware
enterprise server. When I enter the URL http://wpad.mycomany.com/wpad
I get a dialog box asking whether to open or save the file. I also
placed the wpad.dat files so that when I enter
http://myipaddress/wpad.dat I get the same prompt. The clients can
find the proxy when I enter http://wpad.mycomany.com/wpad as the proxy
autoconfiguration script. So I know that the script works and it can
be located however I still cannot get the clients to discover it.
After going through the DNS-WPAD info I noticed that the DNS entry for
wpad must be either an A, SRV or TXT record in that order of
preference. In my case WPAD is a cname entry since the A record
already refers to the web server's host. Unfortunately I could not
find much information on entering SRV or TXT records.
Could the reason for the clients inability to find the proxy be the
fact that wpad is not an A entry? If so how can I enter a SRV or TXT
record in DNS (I know how to enter the common records A, CNAME, NS
etc. but not SRV or TXT? Also has anyone managed to get clients to
discover the proxy through DHCP option 252?
My server is a NW6SP3 running NetWare Enterprise Web Server. The
clients I have been testing with are Windows XP SP1 (IE 6.X).
I would greatly appreciate any help.
Regards,
Mehmet Boyaci