automatic proxy configuration
always thought that the Automatic Proxy Configuration script in IE nd other browsers was somethin complex.. but never really bothered about it, coz I never had to use it before.. I used to think that it's a shell script.. now that I got a hub, I can share my net conn b/w my laptop and home sys.. the only way I could find was to use a proxy at my home sys and use it from my laptop to connect to net..
but now came the horror of configuring a proxy every day at home and removin it @ office! I'd have to configure it every day at home and reset it @ the office, coz it's a direct conn @ office.. then I remembered abt this Automatic Proxy Configuration script and thought abt explorin it. after a lil googlin it turns out that it's a plain javascript function which returns a string which's the proxy url! it's damn simple.. here goes my script

function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
{
var proxyHost="172.16.10.71";
var httpProxyPort="808";
var ftpProxyPort="2121";
var sslProxyPort="808";
var gopherProxyPort="808";
var socksProxyPort="1080";
var telnetProxyPort="23";
var newsProxyPort="119";

if (url.substring(0, 5) == "http:") {
return "PROXY "+proxyHost+":"+httpProxyPort
 +"; SOCKS "+proxyHost+":"
 +socksProxyPort+"; DIRECT";
}
if (url.substring(0, 4) == "ftp:") {
return "PROXY "+proxyHost+":"+ftpProxyPort
 +"; SOCKS "+proxyHost+":"
 +socksProxyPort+"; DIRECT";
}
if (url.substring(0, 7) == "gopher:") {
return "PROXY "+proxyHost+":"+gopherProxyPort
 +"; SOCKS "+proxyHost+":"
 +socksProxyPort+"; DIRECT";
}
if (url.substring(0, 6) == "https:") {
return "PROXY "+proxyHost+":"+sslProxyPort
 +"; SOCKS "+proxyHost+":"
 +socksProxyPort+"; DIRECT";
}
if (url.substring(0, 6) == "telnet:") {
return "PROXY "+proxyHost+":"+telnetProxyPort
 +"; SOCKS "+proxyHost+":"
 +socksProxyPort+"; DIRECT";
}
if (url.substring(0, 6) == "news:") {
return "PROXY "+proxyHost+":"+newsProxyPort
 +"; SOCKS "+proxyHost+":"
 +socksProxyPort+"; DIRECT";
}
return "PROXY "+proxyHost+":"+httpProxyPort
+"; SOCKS "+proxyHost+":"
+socksProxyPort+"; DIRECT";
}

well, I kno that's an ugly piece of code :D but couldn't get much time to tweak it.. moreover I don't even kno if the autoconfiguration script can have any other functions for me to cleanupthe code..
my home system is the proxy which gets the priority.. whenever it goes down, my laptop attempts a direct connection.. this's just perfect for me :)
this script works with both IE and Firefox.. not sure if there's anythin browser specific even here
oh! btw I forgot to add the links.. consult these for further details:
http://wp.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/relnotes/demo/proxy-live.html
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/ie/reskit/6/part6/c26ie6rk.mspx