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I have a funny problem with Internet Explorer 8 where I set up a proxy server under Tools - Internet Options - Connections - LAN Settings - Proxy Server and IE basically ignores it.

For example, if I set up the proxy server to use (Random IP here) 245.245.245.245:80 and then go to a website such as whatismyip.com, it still shows my ip instead of the ip of the proxy.

To add further confusion, this only happens sometimes(!!)

Any ideas appreciated Regards Adam

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    Is the *sometimes* consistant? I.e., site X is always sent locally, while site Y is always sent through the proxy? – Darth Android Oct 05 '10 at 20:14
  • Did anyone come up with a resolution for this problem? I have a similar problem on my Windows 7 machine,where the proxy settings are randomly ignored. Sometimes switching from wireless to LAN or vice versa gets it working sometimes not. This only started happening when the company moved me to a new apartment with a DoCoMo hotel type shared internet service which requires a periodic login. – user23523 Mar 21 '11 at 05:04

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If it only happens sometimes then my first thought would be that the proxy server is maybe only properly working sometimes. Are you reviewing the logs on the proxy server to see what happens? Using tools like wireshark to see what traffic the browser is sending, and where to?

Rob Moir
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  • Hi Robert, thanks for the feedback. I'm unsure of how IE works if it cannot connect to a site via a proxy; I would have thought that it would not connect at all and timeout. With the problem I am having it sets the values in the settings correctly but then looks like it continues to browse using my local IP address and not that of the proxy server. –  Oct 05 '10 at 20:05
  • I'm not sure either. I'm on vacation at the moment so not able to dial into work and fire up the lab and check, sorry. I know that in some cases it (+ other browsers) can "fail back" between alternatives, so I don't know if its doing this all the time. If it can't reach the proxy then its not entirely unreasonable behaviour. Like I say, I'd check the traffic log on the proxy at the time of a "known fail" to see what happened there, I'd also think about putting wireshark on the problem workstation to see what the browser is doing (e.g. ignoring the proxy, trying, failing and failing back, etc). – Rob Moir Oct 05 '10 at 20:20
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Are you always setting the proxy IP or you are using a PAC file?

In this latter case, if the browser cannot download the PAC file, it tries a direct connection.

marcoc
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  • Hi, thanks for your help :), I am setting the proxy manually by going in and adjusting the settings in IE –  Oct 05 '10 at 21:15
  • Thanks for everyones help. it appears that I cannot alter the proxy dynamically and just continue. If I restart IE after setting the proxy it works 100% of the time. If I adjust the proxy and continue without restarting it *sometimes* works; weird behaviour I know but hopefully tis helps someone else out who has the same problem –  Oct 06 '10 at 19:56