I need to know what the address for my proxy server is so I can configure another program to also use it. If I go into IE, Internet Properties, LAN Settings, then all I see is an automatic configuration script but not the actual proxy address. How can I get this?
I'm using Windows XP.
The auto proxy detection system works by downloading a file called wpad.dat from the host wpad. First confirm this host exists from a command prompt:
ping wpad
If it doesn't exist, you may have to put the correct DNS suffix. In the same command prompt, type
ipconfig /all
You should see a Primary DNS Suffix and a DNS Suffix Search List
Try appending each of these with a . to wpad:
ping wpad.<primary dns suffix>
If any of these work, then in your browser enter http://wpad.<suffix>/wpad.dat. This will download the proxy auto configuration file you can open in notepad.exe
Toward the bottom of this file, you should see a line saying
PROXY <host:port>;
It might be repeated if you have multiple proxies available. The host and port are what you need.
If this file doesn't exist, then either there is no proxy server, or the proxy server is being provided by dhcp (note that this would only work with IE, so if firefox can surf, this is not the method being used). If you don't have access to the dhcp server to see what it is sending, the easiest way would be to open a site in ie, then go to a command prompt. Type
netstat -ban
This will provide a list of connections made with the process id of each process. Go to Task Manager, and select View/Select Columns and enable PID (Process Identifier). Look for the PID of iexplore.exe in the list returned by netstat -ban This will reveal the proxy ip and port.
See edit below.
I have one more easy way to find it. Install chrome and go to below URL to see the proxy details
chrome://net-internals/#proxy
You will be able to see all the details
EDIT September 2020
As stated in the comment by @RMorrisey, you can use the following link (Chrome 85.x.x.x)
chrome://net-export/
Try the following command in cmd:
reg query "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings" | find /i "proxyserver"
Hope helps
The following command also seems to work. As a bonus it avoids contacting lots of DNS servers that might or might not work, and it avoids querying the registry, so it functions even in fairly locked-down environments:
Windows Vista or later:
netsh winhttp show proxy
Windows XP or earlier:
netsh diag connect ieproxy
Some additional work is required to extract the proxy address from the output, so the registry approach is simpler if you know it's going to be available.
Update:
I've found that on windows 7 netsh sometimes returns different results depending on how I call it. If I run the above command manually in a prompt, I get 'Direct Access - No Proxy'. However, calling netsh from SAS results in an actual proxy being listed!
You can also get the automatic configuration file URL from the registry by running:
reg query "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Wpad" /s | find /i "WpadDetectedURL"
If you are using an auto-detect proxy settings then do in the address bar of you browser (no matter which one you have installed)
Then you will get a javascript file describing which proxy server is used according to what are you trying to visit on the network...
I have created a simple WinProxyViewer.exe to show Windows proxy settings. It's purpose is that a common user is able to run it and send the output to the admin (tech. support, etc.).
Related to Nimble Fungus's Answer, as Nimble's answer no longer work in recent versions of Chrome. The following works in the Google Chrome Version 83.0.4103.116 (Official Build) (64-bit) (Released 2020-05-19)
Go on Google Chrome, go to this link chrome://net-export/ in the browser.
Click on 'Start Logging to Disk', choose a place to store the log file. Now on a new tab, go to a random website (I went to google.com in my case). Then go back to the chrome://net-export/ tab, and click 'Stop Logging'. Click 'Show File'.
Open up that file, search for the key word "proxy_server", that variable will tell you the proxy server plus port number that you are using to connect to the internet.
Not a perfect solution but worked for me when needed quick lookup in corporate network. NetStat in cmd lists current connections. IP with port 8080 or 9090 is most likely the proxy.
Just to clear up some confusion about proxies in windows that i had when reading all kind of blogs and answers on stack overflow:
internet option windowproxy settings / Network & internet > Proxy windowComputer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings.netsh winhttp set/show/reset proxy ....
To learn lots and lots about your current internet connection and set-up, including the proxy server you are using at the moment, go to the following address in Chrome:
chrome://net-internals/
You'll see a column on the left-hand side of the page which gives you a list of different types of information you can request, among them "proxy."
NOTE: it's perfectly possible to add the "chrome:" URI scheme to windows, so that you can get this information by going to "chrome://net-internals/" from ANY browser, not just chrome. But since the handler for this URI scheme needs to be chrome, you need to have chrome installed in any case. Adding the URI scheme "chrome" to your registry is therefore only really useful if you use a different browser and want to avoid the clicks/typing required to first bring up chrome (and thence to go to chrome://net-internals/)
Put the script path into an ie window and it will either download or open the wpad script - if it downloads it, use notepad to view as it is text based.
WPAD is a logic driven file to sent internet requests to different proxies or direct to the internet depending on a number of factors such as source, destination, IP or url (even parts of the dns name). In some cases it could be quite hard to read depending on how complex the file is - I've seen some beauties, but it is fairly intuitive.
Non of the above hints worked for me (working in a big company using Windows 7 Enterprise, "completely closed" for endusers).
I finally found this little Java program, which worked fine for me: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4933677/detecting-windows-ie-proxy-setting-using-java
