Proxy on Android devices

[Andrew de Wit]

  Hi,

Can anyone help please. I am using some Android devices in my class but can't adjust settings to allow for our proxy. Some versions of Android let you and others won't. Being student owned devices I'm reluctant to fiddle too much. Can get to Google because we have made an exception in our filtering ( school zone)

Have tried using the Opera mobile browser but can't figure out where and what to put in.

Any help would be appreciated

Andrew

Mangaroa School

 

 

[Andrew Godfrey]

Can you set up transparent proxy on your proxy server? (usually only works with http traffic and not https)

With control of your internal dns server and a Web server, you can set up a wpad.dat file which some devices will use.

On one of the Androids that I use, you tap and hold on the wireless network that you are connected to in the "settings"-"wireless and network"-"Wi-Fi settings" and you get a "modify network config" option and ticking advanced will allow you to change the proxy for that network.

On the older Android, I pull up the menu rather than tap and hold and that will give a proxy option under advanced. This may affect all networks though rather than just the school one.

Good luck

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[Tim Harper]

Hi all,

I do admit that sometimes tablets both iPad and Android are cumbersome to use with the SZ proxy.  It highlights one of the issues surrounding an authenticating proxy that tracks users and what they do.

There is no ability to use the SZ proxy in transparent mode - it requires authentication.  But you can build a local transparent proxy/gateway and ask that to chain upstream to the SZ proxy using authentication.  Quite a few schools have done that but it does require a bit of technical intervention (understatement I know!)

Part of the issue lies in the way the actual devices have been developed in conjunction with other background things.  This is true of both IOS and Android devices.  IOS devices can work well with authenticating proxies but Apple fell short at the final hurdle by allowing apps into the Apps store that did not use the system proxy settings.  At least with IOS you can make connection specific settings.

Likewise the same issues affect Android devices too - there are apps in the Play store that also ignore the proxy settings if these have been defined.  Andrew G is quite right too about how proxies are set up - they tend to be generalised over all possible wifi connections when they are definable.    You also can't usually define the authenticated user either - Android may ask for authentication the first time it goes to the internet - then it uses those credentials there after.  The only way to change credentials is to delete the proxy settings and then start from scratch entering things.

SZ can offer various work arounds and I'm happy to discuss those directly with people.  Andrew dW - refer to the email I sent you last  September as the solution for IOS and Android are similar within SZ.

N4L will definitely change the way things work - until we all know what is actually going to happen it is all but impossible to be more definitive - but that is another story / issue for others to comment on another day. 

regards,

Tim Harper


Phone 0800 755 966 option 2 then 3 (SchoolZone)
Phone 03 443 5167 (DDI)
Mobile 027 617 9968
Fax 03 443 9900

t...@mtaspiring.school.nz
www.mtaspiring.school.nz

[Anthea Anderson]

Hi,

 

As far as the Opera browser goes you need to put into the address bar about:config and this will give you a lot of settings including the option to set your proxy details.

Though we haven’t yet managed to get aps themselves working through the proxy

 

Anthea

[Bevan McNaughton]

We're taking a slightly different approach where (we could have a dedicated transparent proxy but) have a hotspot type of WiFi SSID where students will log in their devices and a database will record their device. The A.P controller (if it supports it) then sets their bandwidth and if need be proxy conditions. Unfortunately it does require some programming backend to work along with the likes of a pfSense or Mikrotik router solution between the network and router to work. With a bit more work it could be possible to cross authenticate a user to a SZ authentication query but it's outside my skills to do.
Regards
Bevan

[Gerard MacManus]

This makes me so glad we are using microsoft forefront (own proxy server/web filter) with watchdog our big brother filter and snap(ufb) 

We are using aruba wireless, have specific SSID's for different wireless roles, Domain controlled for teacher laptops, BYOD and guest as well as boarders. 

Depending on which SSID is being using controls what filtering is used, facebook open for boarders yet blocked for BYOD. youtube and facebook open on guest... yet all is covered under watchdog filtering

No issues with settings proxies, all recorded by the domain controllers based upon username and password when logging into the SSID.

forefront records all web traffic.

Gerard 

[Jeffrey Burke]

I was just going to wonder publicly if SZ had looked at the smoothwall stuff as they do this already with managed WiFi stuff like Ruckus, pulling the username off wireless authentication.

N4L concerns me greatly as this kind of stuff (restrictions imposed by upstream networks) is likely to get even worse. The MoE will undoubtedly go with whatever solution suites their vendors best forcing everyone into whatever system they get blindsided or bribed into buying.  From the meeting I was at it is liable to kill off schools options for any alternative solutions (local servers for anything) and make things more expencive overall.  Example, it took a couple of nasty emails to watchdog to get them to unblock Bing at all, their view was everyone should use their preferred Google, all I wanted was to give the users the option.

J.

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From: Bevan McNaughton
Sent: 14/03/2013 8:53 p.m.
To: techies-f...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: [techies-for-schools] Proxy on Android devices

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[Tim Harper]

Hi Jeffrey,

the answer that I can give regarding SZ / Smoothwall is "Not that I am aware of."

regards,

Tim Harper


Phone 0800 755 966 option 2 then 3 (SchoolZone)
Phone 03 443 5167 (DDI)
Mobile 027 617 9968
Fax 03 443 9900

t...@mtaspiring.school.nz
www.mtaspiring.school.nz

[Andy de wit]

Thanks for all the replies. At it simplest, at the moment, I really only want to get a browser going fully. Hence  the looking at Opera with it's ability to adjust settings. Unfortunately can't yet figure it out! As mentioned some Android versions allow for proxy settings and scripts by the hold down for a few seconds, Other versions just go to a password confirmation....

Thanks also Tim for the reminder of work around. As we are only worried about the browser, will try and get that going first.

Andrew de Wit

Upper Hutt