How do I use a "proxy" server?

ricodelfuego · Post by **ricodelfuego** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:28 pm

I can login to my university's library webpage (beckerproxy.wustl.edu), supply my username:password, and from there search Pubmed (via a web browser) with access to all PDFs through our subscriptions.

I can also login to our VPN, and then fire up Bookends to search pubmed and download all PDFs.

HOWEVER, I would like to avoid the VPN. It seems like there should be a way for Bookends to search Pubmed via my university's proxy and get access to PDFs without having to be connected to the VPN.

IF this is possible, where do I enter the proxy server info? Under System Prefs>Network>Proxies, you can set up proxy info for FTP, http, https, etc and it asks for a username:password.... is this where i would put my info (beckerproxy.wustl.edu?????), and if so, exactly how? I don't want to ALWAYS got through the proxy, just when using Bookends... Any step-by-steps would be very helpful at this point... maybe it's just not possible?

Post by **Jon** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:47 pm

Bookends 10.1.3 will use the proxy info it finds in System Preferences automatically. So make sure the proxy setup there is correct. The username/password is there if you are going through an authenticating proxy server.

Jon
Sonny Software

ricodelfuego · Post by **ricodelfuego** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:56 pm

Jon wrote:Bookends 10.1.3 will use the proxy info it finds in System Preferences automatically. So make sure the proxy setup there is correct. The username/password is there if you are going through an authenticating proxy server.

Jon
Sonny Software

yeah, i guess that's my question - how do i set it up "correctly" in the System Prefs page? (which protocol, check "exclude simple hostnames" etc?)

also, do i put the username/password in bookends, system prefs, or both?

finally, how would i set it up so that all my web traffic doesn't go through the proxy all the time (only when using bookends?)

Post by **Jon** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:11 pm

You'll have to ask your IT people how to configure your computer for their server.

Jon
Sonny Software

ricodelfuego · Post by **ricodelfuego** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:46 pm

Jon wrote:You'll have to ask your IT people how to configure your computer for their server.

they're not too helpful - has anyone on this forum successfully used a university library (that requires authentication) as a proxy similarly to how I described? if so, exactly how did you do it?