Configuring network connections

If your environment requires a proxy, you can configure the network connections to permit web help access from your help server.

Procedure

To configure your network proxy settings:

  1. In a browser, open the Help Administration page by typing a URL that is in this format: http://server:port/help-name/updater/admin.jsp
  2. Click the Network connections tab. The Proxy page opens.
    Manage Proxy page
  3. In the Network Connections page, enter your proxy server information.
    Table 1. Network Connections Preferences
    Option Description Default
    Active Provider Specifies the settings profile to be used when opening connections as follows
    • Direct: All of the connections are opened without using a proxy server
    • Manual: The settings that are defined in the help WAR file are used
    • Native: The settings that were discovered in the operating system are used. This selection is only available on some platforms.
    		 Native, if present

    Manual, otherwise
    Proxy entries The following table shows entries that are available for all of the providers. The check boxes in the first column of the table indicate entries that are to be used for the currently selected provider.
    When you use a Manual proxy provider, you configure settings for three predefined schemas: HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS.a Configuration for each schema is displayed in the Proxy entries table. To edit settings for a particular schema, double-click the entry or select the entry, and then click Edit. If you leave the Port field blank, the default port number is used. This table lists the default port numbers for predefined schema.
    Table 1. Proxy entries ports
    Schema Default port
    HTTP 80
    SSL 443
    SOCKS 1080
    		 
    Proxy bypass Use this table to specify, either by name or pattern, which hosts must not use a proxy. A direct connection is always used for matching hosts. The check boxes in the first column of the table indicate entries that are to be used for the currently selected provider.  
    Table notes:
    1. The SOCKS proxy support in Java™ 1.4 has limitations. Because of these limitations, when a Java virtual machine (VM) 1.4 is used, the SOCKS system properties are not set. The SOCKS proxy might still be used by tools such as CVS when running on a 1.4 VM. However, full SOCKS proxy support, requires a 1.5 (or 5.0) VM.
  4. After you enter your proxy server information, click OK.
Related concepts:
Configuring the help server to provide local or intranet help by using administration tools

Configuring proxy settings with a script

To configure the proxy settings for multiple computers at the same time, use a script.

Procedure

  1. On each computer, open the Help Administration page in the Network connections tab, set the Active provider value to Manual.
  2. Create a script to update the help.ini with the proxy settings.
  3. Include the following information in the script: 
    -vmargs
-Dorg.eclipse.ecf.provider.filetransfer.excludeContributors=org.eclipse.ecf.provider.filetransfer.httpclient 
-Dhttp.proxyHost=proxy_host
-Dhttp.proxyPort=proxy_port 
-Dhttp.proxyUser=proxy_username 
-Dhttp.proxyPassword=proxy_password
-Dhttp.nonProxyHosts=localhost_or_127.0.0.1
  4. Run the script on the computers that require the proxy information.
Related concepts:
Troubleshooting process overview
Feedback