Proxy settings and other issues

[Hassan Aurag <h_aurag yahoo com>]

Hi,

Maybe this should go to some other list but I'll send it here as I am
subscribed to this one because of my little private GMatH project.

Anyway, where I work everything is NT/95. However they don't mind if you
put Linux on your workstation. So I did that since I already use Linux
at home and am more confortable with it.

It might sound weird as most of the time Linux is in servers and people
use win95/98/whatever else as desktop. But in this case, I am using
Linux desktop with NT servers lying all around the place.

The trouble is that we have a firewall that I DON'T want to defeat with
something like http tunneling. I want to work with it normally.
Netscape/helix update are just about the only apps that can work with
it, it seems. Not even helix installer can get through it.

The other problem is that you have to set those proxy settings all over
the place assuming they work. This means in theory:

         gnome weather
        gftp
        ncftp
        slash applet
        gnorpm
        

and the list can go on like this for a looong time.

Now my question:

Can some kind soul code (because I wouldn't even know where to start)
some kind of tcp wrapper for gnome apps, so that I'd set proxy settings
under Control Center and be done with it once and for all. Mozilla and
helix update work well with those which means the code to do it must be
there somewhere. Btw, gftp and ncftp fail miserably or maybe I am just
dumb. Plain old ftp works like a marvel but you have to do it manually.

All one has to do is to be able to catch all network calls (wrapping?)
and handle them like Mozilla/helix-update do.

This way more people where I work can be convinced of switching to
Linux. For 90% of folks there, Unix means terminal, period. When they
look at my desktop they envy me. Which means GNOME HACKERS did a great
job. Now some polishing needs to be done and this proxy thinggy (or
think of it as INTERNET SETTINGS a la Windows) is one of those little
ugly details.

Finally, if it's already been done by someone, then pardon my ignorance
and point me to the solution.

Thanks


-- 
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Hassan Aurag
M.Sc. Mathematics
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CAE Electronics Ltd     |       Universite de Montreal
System update specialist|       Centre de Recherches Mathematiques
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Maximum Linux Magazine  |       Universite de Montreal
Contributing Editor     |       Departement de Mathematiques et
                        |       Statistique
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We can found no scientific discipline, nor a healthy profession on the
technical mistakes of the Department of Defense and IBM.
                -- Edsger Dijkstra
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