What to do if the "proxy doesn't work"

Here are suggestions to help you get your browser to work with the DISS Web proxy. Mostly, problems are encountered by home users, using ISP-specific dial-up connections, rather than those on-campus and these suggestions reflect that.

1. Make sure that when entering the URL for the automatic proxy configuration that you use forward slashes (/) and not backslashes (\) as the latter won't work (at least not with Internet Explorer, and you won't receive an error message telling you so either)
    
2. Be aware that a Web proxy should be independent of your selected method of connecting to the Internet. A proxy is a function of your browser and is not expected to depend on whether you have a dial-up or broadband (ADSL for example) connection.
   
   Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will configure the browser they distribute via CD such that it has a proxy already set up. Normally, it is possible to change this setting, just as you would in any browser. There have been reports of some users being unable to do so (perhaps because their ISP has turned this feature off in their distributed browsers). In such cases, the only option is to use another browser.
   
   Your computer can have more than one browser installed and it can run more than one at a time: if it is running Internet Explorer then it can also run Netscape or Opera, for example. If you really are sure you cannot change the proxy settings in your browser, you will need to consider downloading and installing a substitute. For information, the smallest (and hence the fastest to download) browser available is Opera from www.opera.com (it's around 3.5Mbytes in size if you choose the basic, non-Java, version). You should be aware that some Web sites are designed to work best (sometimes only) with Microsoft's Internet Explorer and browsers such as Opera or Netscape may have difficulty displaying these correctly.
    
3. Make sure that the autoproxy is set correctly in your browser. If you are using Internet Explorer make sure that the "automatically detect settings" box is not checked but that the "use automatic configuration script" is.
    
4. If you are using a dial-up connection other than the University's own and the proxy is correctly configured in your browser, then the first Web page you visit should pop-up a window asking you to enter a username and password - enter your academic or student login and the matching password - do not enter your e-mail address, your student id number, your course number or any other identification, you must enter the same login that you would use to gain access to the teaching classrooms were you on campus. Both the login and password are case-sensitive, meaning that a password in UPPER case letters is not the same password if it was written in lower case letters. If your login name and password are rejected, check carefully what you typed and try again.
    
5. If you are not prompted to enter a login and password, then either your browser is using the facility described below at (6) or you have entered the proxy details incorrectly - double-check them. In this case, your browser will not be using a proxy at all and you will not be able to access many electronic resources.
    
6. If you are using Internet Explorer, it has a facility to remember logins and passwords to save you having to type them each time: try turning this feature off. You can do this from Internet Explorer's menu sequence Tools | Internet Options | Content | AutoComplete and turning off AutoComplete for User names and Passwords.
    
7. If you cannot get the automatic proxy configuration to work, try setting a specific proxy instead.
    
8. If your browser reports that it cannot find the proxy, check that you have entered the correct details for the proxy in your browser. Check also that your PC actually can locate sites on the Internet (and therefore also the proxy) by doing the following:
   
   a) open a "MS-DOS Prompt" or "Command Prompt" window (you'll find these on the Windows' Start button | Programs menu).
   b) enter the command  ping www.opera.com
   
   * if you then see a message "ping request could not find host" then your PC's network connection is not configured correctly (you have a "DNS problem") and you should check with your ISP that you have the connection configured properly.
   
   * if you see messages similar to "Reply from 193.69.116.2 bytes=32 time=57ms TTL=46" then your PC can indeed locate sites on the Internet (and hence, most likely locate the required proxy). Your problem is then most likely one of the earlier possibilities listed above.
    
9. If you use the Opera browser, then note that versions 5 and earlier do not support automatic proxy configuration at all; in these cases set the proxy manually as described here. Versions 6 and later do support automatic proxy configuration, but you must set the URL for the automatic configuration script to:
   
   http://www.abdn.ac.uk/local/autoproxy.php
   
   Notice the suffix is .php and not the usual .pac (in fact, this alternative URL should work with most other browsers too). More details for Opera are available.
    
10. Internet Explorer requires that you specify the proxy autoconfiguration URL fully, do not omit the http:// part, otherwise IE will silently ignore the proxy settings.
     
11. If you are using a dial-up connection with Internet Explorer, make sure you choose IE's Settings button for the dial-up connection and not that for the LAN settings when you configure it to use the proxy.
     
12. If you are using the proxy server with Internet Explorer 6 SP1 (see IE's Help About menu for details of the version you are using) over a dial-up connection then, immediately after logging in to the proxy server, you may see a page with the message:
    
    The page cannot be displayed
    The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.
    
    If you simply reload the page, it should then be correctly displayed. This appears to be a feature of IE6 SP1, it does not occur with IE5.5 nor with other browsers (such as Opera).
     
13. The streaming media players, RealPlayer and Quicktime, have options to use a proxy server: they must, however, be configured to use an explicit proxy server as neither will work with the automatic proxy configuration method. Use the proxy proxy.abdn.ac.uk on port 8080.

If all else fails, you can contact the Service Desk on 01224 273636, e-mail servicedesk@abdn.ac.uk.