question about web proxies

[rkchang]

Is there a way to have your web proxy set according to what web site you're trying to access? For example, if I'm trying to search my school's library database, I want to use web proxy X, but if I'm trying to access my work's web database, I want to use web proxy Y. Also, if I'm accessing neither, I'd like to use neither proxy (so I'm not plagued by always having to enter a password each time I start up my web browser)? Thanks!

-Randy

[hayne]

Although I haven't tried this feature myself, it seems from the documentation that using Privoxy's forwarding could do this.
Privoxy is an open-source proxy that you can run on your own local machine. You can set up rules to do forwarding to other proxies depending on the URL.
Privoxy web site: http://www.privoxy.org/

[nick2588]

You can just create a single file called a PAC file. What it is is a text file that looks like if site("http://www.school.website/") proxy("http://www.school.proxy/"). I'm not sure of the exact syntax, sorry.

Found the specs:
http://wp.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2...roxy-live.html

Quote: In this example all the hosts in a given subnet are connected to using a proxy, all others are connected directly. function FindProxyForURL(url, host) { if (isInNet(host, "198.95.0.0", "255.255.0.0")) return "PROXY proxy.mydomain.com:8080"; else return "DIRECT"; }

[rkchang]

Actually, my school did provide a script like this. Unfortunately, Mozilla is not my browser of choice. I'd like to be able to use a script like this along with Chimera or Safari. Is there a way to adapt this to work with other browsers?

[rkchang]

It took me a while, but I finally got Privoxy running. I was confused when I followed the Privoxy manual and adapted a PAC file from my school for the forward instructions in the config file, and it didn't work. After sifting around a bit, I found out that Privoxy's default set-up doesn't set OS X to use it as its web proxy, so I went through System Preferences -> Network, and set the web proxy to 127.0.0.1:8118. Now I can search my school's library and my work's databases at my leisure. Triumph at last!