How to make Firefox re-autodiscover proxy autoconfiguration?
Firefox supports automatic discovery of a proxy autoconfiguration script. Specifically, in “Preferences | General | Network Proxy | Settings”, I can choose “(*) Auto-detect proxy settings for this network”, and Firefox will attempt to download <http://wpad/wpad.dat> and use it as the proxy autoconfiguration script.
Sometimes, I want to add another condition to wpad.dat. In order to do that, I use ssh to log in to the machine that hosts wpad for my home network, and edit the wpad.dat file.
Now my question is, how can I reliably cause my running Firefox to re-download wpad.dat, without having to restart Firefox?
Things I have tried (that don’t solve my issue):
- Turn “≡ | More | Work Offline” on and back off.
- In “Preferences | General | Network Proxy | Settings”, choose “(*) No proxy”, then choose “(*) Auto-detect” again.
- In “Preferences | General | Network Proxy | Settings”, choose “(*) No proxy”, click “OK”, click “Settings” again, then choose “(*) Auto-detect” again.
Also, there is an option “(*) Automatic proxy configuration URL” that has an input box and a “Reload” button. Entering “http://wpad/wpad.dat” in the box and clicking “Reload” does in fact reload wpad.dat, but requires entering the URL. I would like to avoid that, preferring autodetection via DNS. The “Reload” button is disabled when autodetection is selected.
Solution choisie
Okay, I am getting a vibe of “no, there is no simple button in Firefox that you can click to re-autodiscover proxy settings”. Perhaps I will file a bug.
This is a network in a single apartment used by two people living in it, myself included. There is only so much added complexity that I can tolerate to remove complexity of applying new settings.
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Try this extension:
- Reload PAC button
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/reload-pac-button/
@cor-el
I have read its source code and it will only work when proxy autoconfiguration URL is explicitly configured, not for autodetection.
Might I recommend as it appears you wish to not have said url snooped on (or in some other manner manhandled the following.
Have a local script or service running and have that in the url for reload via autodetect and have your script locally reload things and feed the updated settings when you hit reload.
I might not have explained the issue clearly.
I have a simple home network consisting of a router, two desktop computers and a laptop computer.
On all computers on my network, I want to have Web access to several sites that are hosted on IP addresses that are blocked by my Internet provider (because other sites sharing these IP addresses are deemed illegal by the government, and these guys do not know how to block some but not all traffic to a certain IP address). I do that by running Tor on the router, and exposing it to the local network as a SOCKS proxy.
I want to access most sites directly, because going via Tor adds some inconveniences such as increased frequency of CAPTCHAs. I only use Tor for sites that are normally unreachable. I do that by having a proxy autoconfiguration script.
I want to make it easy for my users to configure their browsers to use my proxy. I do that by exposing the router under the well-known name “wpad”, and serving the autoconfiguration script from that name under /wpad.dat, so that the user only has to enable proxy autodetection, without having to remember the URL or for me to dictate it over the phone.
Finally, when I or my users discover another site that is unjustly blocked, I want to be able to add it to the proxy autoconfiguration script and have it instantly available to the user. I do that by logging on to the router over SSH and editing wpad.dat, and I am looking for the easiest way for the user to get their browser to reload it.
With the increased clarity of the topology, I have a few more questions and a potential set of fixes:
Q: are these network devices in a internet cafe style ( they are always there) or BYOD style?
Q: It would appear that the router is playing dhcp /dns for a both normal and split socks traffic, is this indeed true.
Q: For these new sites, would it be something you can find out immediately or is this a ticket support concept where you are alerted to them?
I could see using a circuit refresh for them
Also I can see having a lease refresh where during the dhcp assigning the new script configuration would be loaded.
Solution choisie
Okay, I am getting a vibe of “no, there is no simple button in Firefox that you can click to re-autodiscover proxy settings”. Perhaps I will file a bug.
This is a network in a single apartment used by two people living in it, myself included. There is only so much added complexity that I can tolerate to remove complexity of applying new settings.