Autodiscovery of proxy settings from a python script

[Robin Becker]

In article <R%5i8.1615$K%4.11598019 at news-text.cableinet.net>, Andy Robinson <andy at reportlab.com> writes
>A firm we are working with want to demonstrate some Python web services
>software, which will connect from a windows desktop to a known server on the
>internet.  It is a safe bet that the demos will be given behind firewalls,
>but that the customers will be able to browse the web from either IE or
>Netscape.  The problem is that both the guys giving the demos and the
>potential customers will not be very technical, and saying "what's your
>proxy server settings" will likely spark fear, paralysis and wasted visits
>:-)  If they have a locked down IE distribution, the settings will just say
>"auto detect" and the salesman won't be wiser.
>
>Ideally I'd like a script that knew where IE and Netscape and a few other
>packages kept their proxy settings, and also know about the most common
>auto-discovery protocols.  It could try various things in succession until
>it made a comnnection, or gave up and asked.  The salesmen could email a
>small program to the client and say "try this" ahead of time and would at
>least know what to expect.  We're already committed to installing python and
>COM so can use just about any tools needed.
>
>Has anyone done this before?  Any suggestions how to go about it?
>
>
>Best regards,
>
>Andy Robinson
>ReportLab Inc.
>
>
I found the following using google find proxy server python

http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=10&q=http://compnetworking.about.com/library/weekly/aa061000b.htm&e=922
http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/4970/fid/245

The first mentions the wpad protocol which is recognized by IE.
-- 
Robin Becker