For all configurations you may want to do you need the following two data elements
Some browsers for instance Netscape offer a ‘automatic proxy’ feature. If possible try to use it. You’ll get the following advantages
How do I configure
Select Network Preferences from the Options menu. On the Proxies page, click the radio button next to Manual Proxy Configuration and then click on the View button. For each protocol that your proxy server supports (by default HTTP, FTP, and gopher) enter the proxy server’s hostname and put the HTTP port number for the proxy server in the Port column. For any protocols that your proxy does not support, leave the fields blank.
Netscape automatic configuration
Netscape Navigator’s proxy configuration can be automated with JavaScript (for Navigator versions 2.0 or higher). Select Network Preferences from the Options menu. On the Proxies page, click the radio button next to Automatic Proxy Configuration and then fill in the URL for your JavaScript proxy configuration file in the text box. The box is too small, but the text will scroll to the right as you go. Use in this case at DESY the URL http://www-cache.desy.de/
% export http_proxy=http://www-cache.desy.de:3128/
% export gopher_proxy=http://www-cache.desy.de:3128/
% export ftp_proxy=http://www-cache.desy.de:3128/
For Lynx you can also edit the lynx.cfg file to configure proxy usage. This has the additional benefit of causing all Lynx users on a system to access the proxy without making environment variable changes for each user. For example:
http_proxy:http://www-cache.desy.de:3128/ ftp_proxy:http://www-cache.desy.de:3128/ gopher_proxy:http://www-cache.desy.de:3128/
Microsoft is also starting to support Netscape-style JavaScript automated proxy configuration. As of now, only MSIE version 3.0a for Windows 3.1 and Windows NT 3.51 supports this feature (ie, as of version 3.01 build 1225 for Windows 95 and NT 4.0, the feature was not included).
If you have a version of MSIE that does have this feature, elect Options from the View menu. Click on the Advanced tab. In the lower left-hand corner, click on the Automatic Configuration button. Fill in the URL for your JavaScript file in the dialog box it presents you (URL at DESY http://www-cache.desy.de/). Then exit MSIE and restart it for the changes to take effect. MSIE will reload the JavaScript file every time it starts.