10
noder
5y

F**king hate Windows for its insanely confusing proxy setup required for software development...

> Setup proxy in Windows network settings
> Then, setup HTTP_PROXY & HTTPS_PROXY environment variable at the system/user level.
> Followed by separate proxy settings for java, maven, docker, git, npm, bower, jspm, eclipse, VS Code, every damn IDE/Editor which downloads plugins...
> On top of everything, find out the domains which does not need to go through proxy and add them to NO_PROXY.. at each level..
> It does not end here. Sometimes, I need to setup proxy for SSH connections... like, if I have to use git with SSH and not HTTP/S... Uhhh....

More than half of the problems me and my dev team face is related to setting the right proxy. Why can't it be like, set in one place and everything picks up from there, like in any linux machine or for God's sake, a Mac ?

Worst of all is, my org uses a configuration script, which resolves into a list of proxy servers, from which one of them will be used. So, I need to download that script, find out which is the right proxy server and then, use it in all the aforesaid places... WTH ?????

Is this a common workplace problem for all developers ??? Will this be solved by Windows Subsystem for Linux ???

Comments
  • 1
    I have not used proxy since 1997 so no its not been a problem during the last 20+ years of development.
  • 1
    No that won't be fixed by wsl. And no, linux won't make it any easier.

    How about scripting your configuration changes? And wrapping your apps' launchers to scripts so they would pick up proxies as they are launched?

    P.S. Hiding everything behind proxies is a silly solution. Tho I wonder why did your company chose that path...
  • 0
    @netikras Thanks. Scripting all startup scripts is what I am trying in my machine these days. Works with some of them, not for others, especially IDEs.

    Bigger problem is, when other devs in my team come to me with their build issues, npm/maven dependencies not getting downloaded, external API calls failing from their code etc.. Like, why their auth server is returning HTTP 401 even with a valid token, whereas the actual problem is the validation API could not even connect to the auth server, hence throws the 401. So, I have to go into their machine, check all levels of proxies and find out which one of them incorrect :(
  • 1
    @noder hey here's a crazy idea.. How about setting up a custom gateway [linux pc?] that would act as a proxy btwn your computers and the actual gw [but you'd use it as a gw, not as a proxy; an infra abstraction layer]? This way you'd only have to do proxy configurations on that gw rather than on every app in every dev's pc, every day.
  • 0
    Start recording the amount of time you and everyone else spend dealing with proxy issues. After a month add up the time, and multiply it by a reasonable salary. Then send that to your manager and ask them if they want to increase the companies profits by that much, every month. Then tell them how (@netikras seems to have a really nice solution)
  • 1
    @netikras That's usually for "security" reasons. Any medium to big company uses some kind of man-in-the-middle-crapware these days to run some antivirus and other checks on the network traffic.

    Usually combined with incompetent PKI configuration.
  • 1
    @ddephor yeah, but a proxy configuration at the osi7...?
  • 0
    We had that problem, you'll have the same issues on WSL and Linux.

    Problem is with your network restrictions. We gave all our developers "off network" development machines to alleviate the problem.
  • 0
    @netikras It's the easiest way to create a bottleneck to plug all those tools to.

    Thing is, the non-tech people just don't care, they only create traffic over standard ports with a few tools the IT dept knows about. But devs have to use stuff, IT dept can never think of. So sometimes it's a fight to get everything working.

    I still have two issues driving me crazy every other day, but they will not be solved, because IT dept argues about "security issues" and then no manager will decide against that decision. So I have to work my way around, it takes much more time, but I told 'em what I would need and as long as I get paid for that extra time, it's kind of OK for me.
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