FAQ

1. Why should I use localProxy?

2. What are the disadvantages of using localProxy?

3. How do I ...

4. What's this stuff about a proxy autoconfiguration file delivered from localProxy?

It scratched a couple of itches (and I still use it), but it might be better to avoid using it if you don't have those itches. The main uses are to:
  1. allow a web browser, which is using localProxy as it's proxy, to be able to guarantee use of specific groups of proxies based on the URL requested.
  2. kill advertisements and popup banners as required, based on URL
The main reason why (1) is useful is to allow Outlook Express (which *must* use the proxy settings from Internet Explorer) to use a different localProxy service. This means that it can be directed to use only the PROPFIND capable proxy service provided by localProxy for web based email. Use (2) works, more or less, and I can improve it if required. In both cases, the proxy.pac could be edited to include additional web based email sites and other advertisement/popup sites, or commonly visited censored sites (so you can get the speed of the local ISP proxies in normal browsing, yet retain the ability to get to the censored sites when required). The disadvantage of using this autoconfiguration mechanism is that web browsers will stop using the proxy.pac (javaScript) whenever they cannot connect to the proxies delivered by it. The web browser then uses no proxy at all, and will time out in most places where the firewall blocks outoing non-proxy access to web sites. There are various criteria in use by different browsers, but the effect is that the user is not informed that this is happening, web based email will fail (where it's being used for the cases above) and everything becomes confused. Then, to confuse you even more, the web browser will retry the specified proxy.pac (after some browser specific time like 30 minutes) and maybe start using it again. All without informing you! The only way to be sure a new proxy.pac has been loaded is by watching the localProxy back end log window to see that the proxy.pac has been delivered. Mozilla has had bugs in it's proxy handling from the beginning, but they are fixed now. The surest way to get IE to reload the proxy.pac is to always to shut down *all* instances of the browser (and if OE is not working, also shut OE down ). Another disadvantage is that simply editing the proxy.pac is hazardous. A syntax error will result in the browser behaving as above too, without any error message. It's difficult to get this right, and even more difficult to get it right for all browsers.

5. What are these script files all about?

They are just a convenience. They are not necessary for the functioning of localProxy.

Once you make a script file for configuration xxxx (which must be called script-xxxx.bat), then you may select the 'xxxx' configuration and click the 'run setup script' button from the GUI. This does no more than you could do by opening a command window, changing to your localProxy directory and executing script-xxxx.bat

What can I use script files for?

Anything you can make the batch language on your system do, but here are some thoughts (see script-wayne.bat for some real examples):
Scripts may run after localProxy has started as well. You could script one to download some web pages you frequently read, etc., etc.

6. Hotmail doesn't work - why?

You need a PROPFIND capable proxy service to use. [Update: now you need more WebDAV capabilities, but PROPFIND capable proxy is a good start]. [Update 2002-08-01: it doesn't work in the UAE at all any more, AFAIK.]

LocalProxy creates a localhost PROPFIND capable proxy service for you by default, from known PROPFIND capable proxies. If you don't want to change the web browser proxy to this service (localhost:10077) whenever you need to go to hotmail, you can use the proxy.pac which also comes with localProxy. That way the browser (and Outlook Express, if you use that) proxy is set according to the URL requested. If a hotmail URL which needs PROPFIND is requested, the proxy used is localhost:10077, otherwise the standard localhost:10080 is used.

You get to this proxy.pac by setting your web browser to use automatic proxy config from:
http://127.0.0.1:10079/proxy.pac

7. Credit card pages don't work - why?

You need to use proxies which have the (hosts.xml tag) property CONNECTCapable443, that is it can CONNECT to a web site on port 443. Most can, but enough can't to screw up your day. Again, localProxy (by default) sets up a localhost secure proxy service for you to use on localhost:10076. Also again, this service is accessed automatically if you use the proxy.pac. You don't need to use the proxy.pac to get to this one though, since there is a separate (https proxy) setting in your browser (unlike the PROPFIND case). Just set that.

8. Miscellaneous questions

> Hey Guys...I am getting all confused with Localproxy2, with all the different versions,
Mostly, that's called CVS. The versions are always there in the background; you just usually (as a user) don't know they are. Proxy-elites@yahoogroups.com list had become the test area for this software, so they saw all the raw versions. I'm trying to keep proxyTools support off the new list (nocensorship@freelists.org) and confined to the SourceForge list (proxytools-users@sf.net). If you are confused and you don't need the most recent additions/bug fixes, then you simply get the packaged release from the proxytools main project page (start at proxytools.sourceforge.net).

> perl, [modules]
Any version of Perl 5.6.0 or later will work.
You run the localProxy GUI, and it installs the modules.
The PPM (if it's ActiveState Perl) documentation also tells you how to do it by hand.
Unix users use:
perl -MCPAN -e shell
to install modules.

> XML,
You normally don't need to look at, or edit these. There are utilities and buttons to do everything the end user should need.

> TK,
Comes with ActiveState Perl now, so you don't need to worry about it.

> stabel version,
The CVS stable branch - was started because there were too many versions being reported on at the same time. Since I could not get people to tell me which version they were talking about, I needed to restrict the discussion to the same one. It is no longer used.

> unstable version,
Heh, there are none of those :-)

> sourceforge.net..etc..etc..the more i read the more i am getting lost.
There is more-information-than-you-ever-wanted-to-know, but there's no reason to even read it. Get the released package, follow instructions on the quickstart help page, run it.
Special stuff (in the docs again) might be needed for special environments (not UAE, KSA). The default configs allow you to set the proxies up to get web browsing and Usenet news. Other examples (User0) show how to get email, ssh, in a corporate environment. UAE and KSA configurations are self explanatory.

> Wayne can you please do something to this,
Done!
The current version requires the user to know nothing, but you can always save yourself (and localProxy) time by knowing the statProxy results for the ISP proxies etc.
The user need not even specify which services he wants - web browsing and news access are running anyway.
I can't do much about you letting yourself get confused by reading *too* much though :-)

> and make it bit more easy to get hold of localproxy
No, I can't make it easier than saying 'get the latest *package* from the sourceforge project page'. Can I?
You're getting confused again - the CVS files are only for the testers.

> and make it work.
Ahh ... that is harder. :-)
If you have win2k, NT4, then that release will work out of the box. Win98, ME non-localized will also work out of the box. Localized (for example, Arabized) Win2k, NT4, XP should be ok (not tested), but Arabic-enabled Win98, ME are much less likely to work (update 2001/11/25 a good authority tells me that the only configuration which is known to fail is Win98/ME with the KSA locale; UAE arabic-enabled is ok, and the KSA windows can be changed to UAE with no problems). [Update 2002-08-01 Madani tells me the *only* case where these fail is when the user has changed the system font size. Put it back.]

No configuration will be necessary if you are in the UAE (well, choose dialup or ADSL), and probably even the ISP name is not required for KSA. 
Even detecting ISP proxies should be automatic now (assuming they are in the proxyTools firewalls database (firewalls.xml) or you have them in your system (environment, registry) somewhere).

> Or some step by step guide to install and configure localproxy.
You *did* read installing localProxy and configuring localProxy didn't you?
Start at the manual page (readme.html) to see all the docs.

> Any one got a current good http proxy from inside Saudi Arabia?
Let me attempt to answer this (and similar questions) once and for all :-)

You need to know which ports are blocked by your ISP and the ISU; at least the following are blocked: 80, 81, 119, 1080, 3128, 6588, 8000, 8040, 8080, 8888, 8965, 9080 and probably others. Proxies listening on these ports are useless to you (about 99.9% of the proxies you will find in lists on the Internet).

If you want, you can get updated information about your particular ISP/firewall port blocking rules from firewalls.xml in the localProxy distribution at Sourceforge proxytools.
The proxy data you want is kept current for localProxy in hosts.zip at Sourceforge. The latest localProxy has a button to enable download of this file automatically. The latest (CVS) version is always here.

The automatic way to do the following selecting and sorting for your situation (firewall, net address, speed, etc.) is by using localProxy, but if you insist on doing it manually (say, to test with statProxy and merge back into your own configuration file with mergeHosts) you would need to:
  1. Get hosts.zip from the proxyTools project
  2. Extract the hosts.xml file. The XML format is both human and machine readable, so you can see all of the proxy capabilities and specifications.
  3. Use the extraction tool provided (extractHosts.pl) to extract the type you are interested in (see example at end). Search for ones on an unblocked port (:10080 seems to work for you guys), or just say 'from=KSA-ISU' on the extractHosts command line. Make sure they are also 'isEnabled', 'GETCapable', 'nonCensoring', 'uptimeRatio' is nearly 1 (100%), referencePageTime is low (1-5, if you can, say) and anything else you want (a further example: doesNotPassIPAddressThrough is a good start for anonymous browsing).
  4. Use the result(s) as the proxy in your web browser.
    If you wanted a proxy for HTTPort (for web browsing), make sure you select one which has CONNECTCapable80 set to 1; nonCensoring doesn't matter in this case, because you will be tunnelling through it.
    If you wanted it for HTTPort/News, select one with CONNECTCapable119 set. You can specify both of these on the extractHosts command line to get one that's usable for both types of services.
  5. Examples of use of extractHosts.pl
    To get a file list of proxies not blocked by KSA-ISU, for web surfing:
    perl extractHosts.pl unblocked.out isEnabled from=KSA-ISU
    The proxies selected are in the file unblocked.out.
    If you just want them on the screen, you can do this:
    perl extractHosts.pl - isEnabled from=KSA-ISU
    If you want to get these kinds of results for a new proxy you found, use:
    statProxy -t all host:port
    and post the results so I can add it to hosts.zip.

That's it.

wayne@nym.alias.net