[geeks] VPN Help needed...

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Thu, Jan 03, 2008 at 03:34:27PM +0000, Mark Benson wrote:
> 
> I can't assume Firefox can be used, sadly. Some people use IE (I know,
> I know), and are stuck to it, and I use Safari, ideally, and while I
> could use the Mac version of Firefox 2.x, it sadly sucks really badly
> in OS X at the moment.

Funny, I would say the same about Safari. Everyone has their preferences.

 
> What part of the setup makes this Firefox specific? Does the
> independent proxy config just make it convenient to use it as a stand
> alone client rather than modifying the Windows proxy settings (which
> screw up everything in Windows that uses the Internet)? If this is the
> case then people already using Firefox won't like it (potentially me,
> although it won't bother me, and at least 2 other people) as that
> would involve turning proxy support on and off all the time would it
> not?

Firefox has the add-on I mentioned called FoxyProxy. It allows you to
select proxys based upon a pattern. AFAIK both I.E. and Safari do not
have such a feature.

You set up FoxyProxy like this. (not exact syntax) 

One is a default of no proxy and the other is two for your web pages.
For example, assuming your site is aaa.com:

http://*.aaa.com/*		socks5:localhost:1080
https://*.aaa.com/*		socks5:localhost:1080
*.*				no proxy.


> I have to keep in mind the majority of users are not tech-savvy, so
> minimal intervention would be ideal after I've done an initial setup.

That's why I suggested FireFox. It's very smooth for me, to allow
my wife to access sites that block access from outside of the U.S.
(nothing nefarious here). She uses I.E. most of the time anyway and
switches to FireFox for those sites. 

If she goes to those sites, it uses the proxy, if she goes anywhere else
it does not. If you have the connection started, it's not noticable.

Since I don't want to stay logged on to the proxy site I have it set up
as an icon on her desktop, but you just as easily put it in your startup
folder.

If it's not connected you get an error that the proxy is not accepting
connections, not a time out, or even worse that horrid DNS search page.

When I or my youngest son use her computer, we use Firefox anyway.

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
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