Windows Updater Behind an Internet Proxy

This page explains how Bruce got the windows updater working on his computers at Brookhaven National Laboratory. BNL uses a proxy to manage most of its internet traffic off site, so a computer has to be configured correctly to use the proxy in order for the Updater to work. Here is what I did.

See this page for an explanation how the updater is supposed to work.

If you are not at BNL, hopefully this page will still be useful for.

Step 1: Verify the system-wide proxy setting

If you;re computer can access the web using Internet Explorer, then you probably already have the system-wide proxy setting configure correctly. Here is how you verify. First, go to the Control Panel and double click on the Internet Options icon:

That will bring up the Internet Properties dialog. Click on the Connections tab, then on the LAN Settings button:

The LAN Settings dialog is where the proxy is configured. At Brookhaven, we typically use the LAN-wide automatic configuration script, which is found at http://security.bnl.gov/proxy/cfg.pac. You don't need to download this file -- just set the script address to that address. If you are not at Brookhaven, you will need to fill in this dialog appropriately for your institution.

Step 2: Verify your environment variable settings

You should not explicitly set an http_proxy environment variable. If you have done so, you will need to delete it to get the Updater working. Hopefully this will not bork anything else on your computer.

To verify the environment variable settings, go to the Control Panel and double click on the System icon:

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In the System dialog, click on the Advanced tab then on the Environment Variable button:

In the environment variables dialog verify that http_proxy is set neither as a user variable nor as a system variable.

Step 3: The Ifeffit Updater's config.ini file

Finally, take a look at C:\Program Files\Ifeffit\config\config.ini. With the system-wide proxy setting, you should leave the http_proxy setting in this file empty.

[updater]
next_checktime = 
update_site = http://cars9.uchicago.edu/~ifeffit/updates/
timestamp = 1222433741.82
http_proxy = 
timeout_connect = 60.0
timeout_download = 1800.0
timeout_test = 30.0

At this point, if all went well, the next time you run one of t he programs and there is an update available, you will see this before the program starts: