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The Art of the Proxy Configuration

ChatZilla doesn't support HTTP proxies. Well, I say "HTTP proxies" but this particular thing apparently has far too many names:

  • HTTP proxy [X-Chat]
  • SSL proxy [Firefox]
  • CONNECT proxy
  • URL proxy
  • Secure proxy
  • (incorrectly) HTTPS proxy
  • "Proxy" protocol [mIRC]

Personally, most of them are completely meaningless terms. "HTTP proxy" is what everyone (except Ben C) calls it.

The problem that we face is relatively simple from the top, but a real pain to actually fix: we ask Necko (Mozilla's network layer) to pick the proxy to use.

The result is that it will ask PAC if so configured, just return the SOCKS v4/v5 proxy, or return no proxy. The user has no way to configure Necko to give IRC the HTTP proxy.

There are a few things we can do, none of which seem that good:

  • Add a single option to force ChatZilla to use Necko's HTTP proxy.
  • Add an option to pick between none, HTTP proxy and SOCKS proxy.
  • Add an option to override Necko, and also add host/port settings.

The real problem is that adding any options will be creating two locations for proxy configuration. Could we automatically pick when to ignore Necko's choice? Maybe. Should we? Probably not.

If only I got paid for doing this...

Permalink | Author: | Tags: Mozilla, ChatZilla | Posted: 03:48PM on Tuesday, 04 July, 2006 | Comments: 0

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