Name: nt126004 Date: 05/19/2003


A DESCRIPTION OF THE REQUEST :
Java Web Start can be configured to read it's Proxy Settings from the default browser on the system, in which case it will set the corresponding system properties in the Java VM. For example if Internet Explorer is configured to use Proxy Host x.x.x.x on port yyy, then the properties proxyHost and proxyPort will be set. This works as expected.

However, if Internet Explorer is configured with a SOCKS proxy, Java Web Start does NOT set the corresponding properties socksProxyHost and socksProxyPort.

JUSTIFICATION :
We have an application that opens a socket connection back to the server it was downloaded from. If the user is behind a firewall, the socket connection should be made via SOCKS proxy. This works if the properties socksProxyHost and socksProxyPort are set manually (in our application) before the connection is made. It would require much less user intervention (i.e. support), if these properties were read from the default browser's settings. Also, this would not seem like a big change, as (on Windows/IE at least) it is simply a couple of registry settings that need to be read.

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
If Java Web Start is configured to use the default browser's proxy settings, and a SOCKS proxy is specified in the default browser, Java Web Start should set the properties socksProxyHost and socksProxyPort accordingly.
ACTUAL -
Java Web Start ignores the default browser's SOCKS settings.

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
1. Provide a configuration screen in our application where the user can specify SOCKS proxy settings.

2. Try to connect to the proxyHost on the default SOCKS port (1080) as chances are reasonably good that the HTTP proxy and SOCKS proxy is the same host, and SOCKS has not been configured to run on a different port. This should work in many cases, but not all.
(Review ID: 186002)
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