Proxy server information where to find

When the proxy server forwards your web requests, it can make changes to the data you send and still get you the information that you expect to see. It can encrypt your data, so your data is unreadable in transit. And lastly, a proxy server can block access to certain web pages, based on IP address. A forward proxy server sits between the client and an external network.

It evaluates the outbound requests and takes action on them before relaying that request to the external resource. Virtual Private Networks and Web content filters are both examples of forward proxies. A reverse proxy server sits between a network and multiple other internal resources. A large website might have dozens of servers that collectively serve requests from a single domain.

To accomplish that, client requests would resolve to a machine that would act as a load balancer. The load balancer would then proxy that traffic back to the individual servers.

Now that you have an idea about why organizations and individuals use a proxy server, take a look at the risks below. You do need to be cautious when you choose a proxy server: a few common risks can negate any of the potential benefits:. Not all proxy servers work the same way. Proxy servers are a hot item in the news these days with the controversies around Net Neutrality and censorship.

By removing net neutrality protections in the United States, Internet Service Providers ISP are now able to control your bandwidth and internet traffic. The auto proxy detection system works by downloading a file called wpad. First confirm this host exists from a command prompt:. If it doesn't exist, you may have to put the correct DNS suffix. In the same command prompt, type. This will download the proxy auto configuration file you can open in notepad.

It might be repeated if you have multiple proxies available. The host and port are what you need. If this file doesn't exist, then either there is no proxy server, or the proxy server is being provided by dhcp note that this would only work with IE, so if firefox can surf, this is not the method being used. If you don't have access to the dhcp server to see what it is sending, the easiest way would be to open a site in ie, then go to a command prompt.

This will provide a list of connections made with the process id of each process. Look for the PID of iexplore. The following command also seems to work. As a bonus it avoids contacting lots of DNS servers that might or might not work, and it avoids querying the registry, so it functions even in fairly locked-down environments:.

Some additional work is required to extract the proxy address from the output, so the registry approach is simpler if you know it's going to be available. I've found that on windows 7 netsh sometimes returns different results depending on how I call it. However, calling netsh from SAS results in an actual proxy being listed! If you are using an auto-detect proxy settings then do in the address bar of you browser no matter which one you have installed. Then you will get a javascript file describing which proxy server is used according to what are you trying to visit on the network I have created a simple WinProxyViewer.

It's purpose is that a common user is able to run it and send the output to the admin tech. The following works in the Google Chrome Version Click on 'Start Logging to Disk', choose a place to store the log file. Now on a new tab, go to a random website I went to google. Click 'Show File'. To learn lots and lots about your current internet connection and set-up, including the proxy server you are using at the moment, go to the following address in Chrome:.

You'll see a column on the left-hand side of the page which gives you a list of different types of information you can request, among them "proxy. But since the handler for this URI scheme needs to be chrome, you need to have chrome installed in any case. Not a perfect solution but worked for me when needed quick lookup in corporate network.

NetStat in cmd lists current connections. IP with port or is most likely the proxy. Non of the above hints worked for me working in a big company using Windows 7 Enterprise, "completely closed" for endusers. Put the script path into an ie window and it will either download or open the wpad script - if it downloads it, use notepad to view as it is text based. WPAD is a logic driven file to sent internet requests to different proxies or direct to the internet depending on a number of factors such as source, destination, IP or url even parts of the dns name.

In some cases it could be quite hard to read depending on how complex the file is - I've seen some beauties, but it is fairly intuitive.

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? You can have different proxy settings for each type of network connection. At the bottom, click on the Advanced button. In Linux, it really depends on what distribution you are running. Next, you would scroll down to Hardware and then click on Networking.

Finally, if you click on Network Proxy , you can choose from Automatic or Manual. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Founder of Help Desk Geek and managing editor. He began blogging in and quit his job in to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several technical certifications. Read Aseem's Full Bio. We hate spam too, unsubscribe at any time.