Hey there,

I am wondering if anyone knows how to set up a proxy server or the program needed to make it work. I am no computer whiz but I am pretty sure everyone can do this.

Would greatly appreciate your help!

1. Which OS?

2. Intel or PPC? (doesn't matter too much).

CONFIGURATION
Assuming you're running snow leopard - aka 10.5 or 10.6 or later AND you're doing IP proxy versus web proxy (aka they gave you an IP PROXY address - looks something like this: aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd where a-d are numbers usually between 0-9, do this:

1. System Preferences>Network (the menu under the apple icon).
2. Assuming you're using Apple's built-in Airport - select the Advanced button.
3. You should see a window with several tabs near the top, select PROXIES.
4. Most people only need proxies for web browsing. Email IMAP and SMTP accounts usually come with their own secure proxies and port numbers, so we'll skip that and just configure for web proxies:

4.1 Next to the "Configure Web Proxies title, select MANUALLY (as opposed to PAC file, unless you got a PAC file).
4.2 Check √ the WEB PROXY checkbox (web means http).
4.3 Under the WEB PROXY SERVER title, enter the IP PROXY address AND port number your web proxy company gave you and enter in the appropriate boxes. The IP address goes first. The PORT number follows the colon ":". Sometimes a service provider will provide the web proxy IP address and port number like this:

aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd/xxxx, where xxxx is the port number.

Secure web proxies "usually" don't require the proxy server, but if you can't connect via secure (aka ), then also check the SECURE WEB PROXY (HTTPS) button.

4.4 If you're doing streaming video - then also select the RTSP box - assuming your streaming video company uses the RTSP protocol (most do these days).

4.5 If you FTP and can't get FTP to work - you MAY also need to set up a the FTP and or SFTP to route through the proxy. Check the FTP checkbox. For SFTP - use the SFTP IP address provided (you may need to request the address) by whomever you're trying to FTP to or from.

Good luck - you can also check apple's support threads: apple.com/support for how to configure proxies...

If you (or I) screwed it up - uncheck all the boxes.

TESTING
1. test a normal http web site - I like to use apple.com and a .gov or .mil website - assuming you're proxy server is in the USA.
2. test a secure web site - anything beginning with https://
3. If you FTP (download from a server somewhere), test the FTP. You can do this from the web: ftp://somedomainname.com OR use an FTP utility (I use Cyberduck and the ancient but reliable command line mode in TERMINAL mode).

Enjoy.

Apologies for the crappy formatting, but I'm too lazy to use the HTML formatting to make this look nicer...and if my instructions were crap - go to the "source" - apple.com/support and search for "proxy configuration". They have several articles with pictures on how to do this under various Mac OS flavors.

Also, if you use PC emulation software, such as Parallels or VMWARE - this may muck up your internet connections in windows/unix/linux/whatever emulation mode. To get around this, set up a special user account just for windows etc emulation and make sure the proxy settings are UNCHECKED (no http(s), ftp, etc boxes checked in the network settings).