Hi Thanks for your reply. I do apologize for not being clear. I will try to restate what I want to achieve. For the sake of this discussion allow me to simplify the browser/internet interaction as follows:
User enters URL in browser -> **browser resolves domain name** -> connect to server x -> HTTP request.... In the way the browser **resolves** the DNS is where the pac file is used. This is what I would like to do: User enters URL in browser -> browser always connects to my proxy server -> HTTP request -> proxy receives req. -> **proxy uses a .pac to determine destination server.** -> HTTP request... Where with "proxy server" I mean apache configured to run as proxy with "mod_proxy". There are lot of problems involved with doing this (ie javascript interpreter), however the first one I have is to have a component that plugs in mod_proxy and allows me connect to whatever server it wants, instead of relying on regular DNS lookup. I hope it makes more sense now, thank you in advance, Giovanni Donelli On Jan 22, 2008 2:39 PM, Joe Lewis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Giovanni Donelli wrote: > > Dear mod developers, I would like my apache proxy (mod_proxy) to take > a > > .pac file for proxy chaining. > > To my understanding I can only set proxy chaining to a single server. > This > > is very unfortunate because pac is used by a lot of people: > > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_auto-config > > > > First, are you meaning how a web browser configures it's own proxy (the > above link talks about this)? Or are you talking about using apache to > create a .pac file (a topic for another list)? Or are you writing a > module that will support the DHCP and/or DNS to handle the WPAD look > ups? (If using a .pac file, just place the .pac file in a directory and > configure the web browser. If using the fully automatic, you have to > reconfigure DHCP or DNS to handle it. The web browser itself only > replies with the .pac or .dat file if specified.) > > Question number 1: > > - is there a way, if you know, to configure apache to support " > > Proxy_auto-config" proxy chaining? > > > > See the above answer regarding setting up the other services. > > > if there is not... then I am willing to write a mod to do it, which > leads me > > to second question: > > > > Question number 2: > > - At what stage (which hook) does the actual selection&connection to the > > remote server occur? Will it be possible to override it? > > > > There is no "selection" to the server. All web connections happen over > TCP on IPv4 or IPv6 - "selection" would be more of a term for > broadcasting a packet (UDP) or multicasting - none of which apply to the > web server. > > All that I've said so far can be summed up succinctly : a connection to > a web server will not be made until the web browser has been configured, > or tries to retrieve a configuration file, which only comes from DHCP or > DNS requests for a wpad host on the network. > > Joe > -- > Joseph Lewis <http://sharktooth.org/> > "Divide the fire, and you will sooner put it out." - Publius Syrus >
