Configuring Computers temporarily for proxy and configuration script

[Pulsar]

We have a bunch of people coming in to our robotics facility over the next 5-6 months, and they need to have wireless access. IT has set up a wireless router for them to connect to, however, our site requires that settings be set up to use an automatic configuration script located on our network and use a proxy.

Needless to say, these aren't settings these people will normally have set on their computers.

Is there an easy way, short of print out instructions telling them how to go into internet explorer and adding the path to the script and allowing the proxy, to have them configure and un-configure their settings? I'm thinking of a shortcut or a batch file we can put on each computer with a usb stick that allows them to turn this configuration on or off.

 

[TheKub]

Will they be using their own PCs or yours?

 

[Pulsar]

That's the rub - they'll be bringing in their own laptops. So we need to be able to give them a file that turns the settings on and off when they want.

 

[tomt4535]

You can probably distribute a registry key that will set all of that for them. That would assume the have admin rights on their PCs and possibly access to a file server or something. A quick google search turned up this: http://nscsysop.hypermart.net/setproxy.html However it says how to do it with the proxy server and not the autoconfig script. That shouldnt be terribly hard to work out though.

 

[jlazzaro]

you can pass a PAC file to clients using DHCP option 252, but they will have to have "automatically detect settings" enabled in their browser. i used this method for some smaller installations and it seemed to work OK.

alternatively, you can simply use a VBScript and set the PAC in the registry:

const HKEY_CURRENT_USER = &H80000001
strComputer = ".": proxyPath = "http://proxy/accelerated_pac_base.pac"
Set oReg = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\default:StdRegProv")
oReg.SetStringValue HKEY_CURRENT_USER,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings", "AutoConfigURL", proxyPath

since this value is in CURRENT_USER, they do not need admin privledges. also, if the hostname isn't resolvable (computers are taken off site) the browser will continue to function as if the proxy was never assigned.