Technical Note - Web Browser Setup

Summary

Normally, the web browsers at ECS are setup for you. If you are setting up a personal machine, or are having difficulties with your account on an ECS machine, you can follow the steps here to setup your web browser to have access to the web.

Some accounts have limited web access (especially first-year students) which is detailed in the Access to Internet Resources Tech Note.

Details

ECS has a web cache proxy server which all HTTP traffic must be routed through in order to access non-Victoria University web pages. Your web browser must be configured to use this cache in order to operate on the ECS network.

The proxy configuration file can be found at:

http://ecs.victoria.ac.nz/proxy.pac

It is recommended all users use this file, as we may upgrade the file with new functionality.

proxy.pac tries to work out if your browser is running on the VUW network and only direct traffic to the proxy if it thinks it is (as if you are outside the VUW network you will want to go direct). Unfortunately browsers can be problematic in reporting their local address so sometimes you will get a situation where the proxy.pac tells you browser to try going direct when it should be going via the proxy, resulting in long pauses then failure to connect to off campus resources. If this happens to you try using th following as your proxy configuration file:

http://ecs.victoria.ac.nz/proxyalways.pac

This version doesn't bother with the checks of your local address and always tries to connect to the proxy.

Setting up your browser

Konqueror

Go to the Settings menu and choose Configure Konqueror and click on Proxy. Click Use the following proxy configuration URL and enter the address above.

Mozilla Firefox

Go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences. Click on Advanced then the Network tab. Click the Settings button and then select the Automatic proxy configuration URL radio button. Enter the address above.

Internet Explorer 6

Go to the Tools menu and choose Internet Options. In the window that then appears, choose the Connections tab. Now click on the LAN Settings button. Click on the Use automatic configuration script checkbox, and type the address above.

Internet Explorer 7

In addition to the requirements for IE6, go the the Tools menu and choose Internet Options. In the window that appears, chose the Advanced tab. Unselect the option Enable Integrated Windows Authentication. Click OK, then restart Internet Explorer.

This will not fix Windows Update. In order to make WIndows Update work, you need to install the "Windows Support Tools" from a Windows XP CD. Go to Run... from the Start Menu and type cmd. In the new window, type the commands:

ksetup /setrealm ECS.VUW.AC.NZ 
ksetup /addkdc ECS.VUW.AC.NZ krb1.ecs.vuw.ac.nz
ksetup /addkdc ECS.VUW.AC.NZ krb2.ecs.vuw.ac.nz
ksetup /mapuser ecsusername@ECS.VUW.AC.NZ "localusername"

then reboot the computer.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X uses a centralised proxy system that most Mac OS X programs will respect. Notably, Mozilla Firefox will not. You should follow the Firefox instructions if you are using that, rather than Safari or Camino.

Open System Preferences. Click on Network. Select "Built-in Ethernet" and click Configure or Advanced. Click the Proxies tab. For 10.4 (Tiger) and below, untick all the proxy servers in the list but check Automatic Proxy Configuration and type the address above. For 10.5 (Leopard), change the Configure Proxies drop-down to "Using a PAC file" and enter the address above. Click Apply Now.

If you use a laptop, you might want to create a new location in the Network preference pane. This will save settings for a specific location. Usually you would have one to use with ECS, and one to use with your home network. You can switch between locations quickly by selecting Location... from the Apple menu in the top-left.