Problem with silent update and proxy server

[Martin]

Hi Wyatt and Sam.

I've earlier experienced problems when updating from behind a password protected proxy server. However, that problem was solved quite some time ago with a new release of the wyBuild/wyUpdate package, and since then my application has been updating fine in all cases.

Now I've recently created *another* product (a Windows service this time) that updates silently using the AutomaticUpdaterBackend class programmatically.

When not beind a password protected proxy server both products update just fine, but to my very big surprise the new product (the windows service) refuses to update when behind a password protected proxy server. The old product - that is an ordinary Windows Forms application based on the AutomaticUpdater component - continues to update like a charm.

As this is a big problem for some of our customers I urgent need some help from you on this one. Do you have any suggestions?

I use the most recent version of your software.

Thank you very much.

- Martin.

[Wyatt]

What exactly is the error? Are the proxies configured on the system level (i.e. in Internet Explorer) or are you passing the proxy settings to wyUpdate using the commandline arguments?

[Martin]

The exact error is: When checking for update with password protected proxy configured the AutomaticUpdaterBackend.CheckFailed event fires with the follow error message returned en event args:

"Error downloading "http://<updatesite...>/wyserver.wys": Unable to connect to the remote server"

Without proxy server my service updates fine.

Proxy is configured on the system level only (i.e. in Internet Explorer) - no proxy settings are forwarded to wyUpdate via command line arguments.

- Martin.

[Martin]

It should be noted, that the update site is exactly the same for my two products (although two different folders are used).

For both products the relevant wyserver.wys file can be downloaded with Internet Explorer in any case (i.e. both with proxy enabled and without).

- Martin.

[Wyatt]

My guess is that the proxy settings aren't system-wide. I believe you have to do that using the group policy editor.

The system services run as a different user than what you log in as. Try passing the proxy setting to wyUpdate by commandline and see that it's not a problem with wyUpdate's downloading code.

[Martin]

Thank you very much for your answer, that seems to be a very likely cause - I didn't consider that two different Windows accounts are actually involved.

I will try to pass proxy information via command line to see if it helps. If it does I have a new problem:

I don't want to ask my customers to manually enter proxy information into my product - they will most likely not be able to figure out what to enter and where to get the information from. Further, my old product could do without, so to the customer this new requirement would look very bad.

How can I make my new product dig up the required proxy information itself (from the OS)? Once my new product has the required information in hand it should be easy to pass it on to AutomaticUpdaterBackend - or?

What solution would you recommend?

- Martin

[Wyatt]

The question is whether the proxy settings are system wide or per-user. I don't know off the top of my head, but I think the proxy setting in Internet Explorer are per-user. However, you can set these system-wide using the Group policy editor.

So you can either tell your users to set the proxies system-wide or have them manually enter the proxy settings in your app.