221583 - backup or fallback proxy server

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Core :: Networking, enhancement)

Description

[Jason House]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20030925
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20030925

This is a feature request

I would like to be able to configure backup proxy settings.  Where I work, I
have access to at least 3 proxy servers, each with different proximity (ie
located in different states).  I have the misfortune of an unstable connection
to any given proxy server (ie. 95% of the time I use the local proxy, 4% of the
time I use the first backup and 0.1% of the time I use the last proxy).  

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:

Comment 1

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Use a PAC file !
(I think this is a dupe of a WONTFIX bug because you should use a PAC file for that)

Comment 2

[Jason House]

You're right, I should!

I have looked it up and have found documentation on the file format at
http://wp.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/relnotes/demo/proxy-live.html

I guess now my only request would be to have the help documentation to include a
section on creating your own proxy.PAC file (or at least indicating what they
can do).

Comment 3

[Jason House]

Actually, when I think about it, here's what I would consider to be the "ideal"
implementation.  (It is sort of based off the way OpenOffice.org handles
creation of equations)

The "Manual Proxy Configuration" section is replaced with
Local Proxy Configuration File [Create/Modify]  ____file location____
  (where [text] is a button and _____text_______ is a text box)

When the Create/Modify Button is clicked, a new window opens.  The window is
split into two halves.  The top half is the standard manual configuration
information and the bottom half is the actual file.  There is check box for
"create .PAC file manually".  When the checkbox is unchecked and user modifies
the standard fields, it will update the configuration file displayed at the bottom.

Comment 4

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

-> networking

Comment 5

[Jason House]

Well, my good proxy has been taken away by my local corporate think tanks and I
now have two remotely located proxies.

"ping proxy1" shows 100% completion rate and tolerable delay (252 msec)
"ping proxy2" shows 100% completion rate and tolerable delay (249 msec)

For whatever reason, proxy1 fails to load www.google.com via some kind of
timeout error ("Connecting to www.google.com..." followed by a dialog with "The
operation timeoud out when attempting to contact www.google.com.").  proxy2
succeeds with little trouble.  My problem is that proxy2 is never even tried! 
Below is the content of my .PAC file.  Is there anything that I can do or some
netscape internal means to solve this problem?

function FindProxyForURL(url, host){
  if (dnsDomainIs(host, ".my.com" 
      || host == "127.0.0.1" 
      || host == "localhost"))
    return "DIRECT";
  else
    return "PROXY proxy1:80; PROXY proxy2:80";
}

Comment 6

[Darin Fisher]

Jason,

Proxy failover should work out of the box.  Can you please capture a HTTP log by
following the instructions given here:

  http://www.mozilla.org/projects/netlib/http/http-debugging.html

If you can either attach that log file to this bug report (click the "Create a
New Attachement" link) or send the log file to me ([e-mail]), I would
greatly appreciate it.  Thanks!!

Comment 7

[Jason House]

My company has the nasty habit of fixing problems when they arise...  Next time
this happens, I'll definitely start up ethereal and see what I can sniff.

Also, as part of alpha/beta releases, there are debug and QA options in the
menu...  Would any of those work for capturing internal state?  (Actually, I
don't see why such items are not included in a normal release, but that's
another issue)

Comment 8

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 9

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.