Teacher laptops / Internet at home

[itwasntme]

I am trying to give staff access to internet on their school laptops at home but am running in to a problem. I have experimented with vbs scripts and with pac files and have since decided I prefer the proxy pac method.
IE6 with all latest updates installed and used in all instances;
So, here is my proxy code (I have replaced my domain with 'mydomain' in all parts of this post)

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) 
{ 
	if (
		!isInNet(myIpAddress(), "10.112.0.0", "255.255.0.0") ||
		isInNet(host, "10.112.0.0", "255.255.0.0") ||
		dnsDomainIs(host, ".mydomain.local") ||
		isPlainHostName(host) ||
		shExpMatch(host, "*portal.mydomain.com*")
	)
	return "DIRECT";
	
	return "PROXY myproxy:8080"; 
}

This works flawlessly at home with one exception - the school OWA (may be worth noting that I had the same problem when using a VBS script also).
https://mail.mydomain.com/owa returns a 404 page (not expected)
https://mail.mydomain.com/ returns a default IIS page (expected)
http://mail.mydomain.com/owa returns the page saying can only be accessed with https etc (expected)
https://99.99.99.99/ returns default IIS page (expected)
https://99.99.99.99/owa gives me email working perfectly (expected)

nslookup resolves IP address correctly for OWA external address

I have checked that hosts file does not contain any entries for 'mydomain', I have checked intranet/restricted/trusted zones in IE and mydomain is not listed.
Exchange 2007 installed on Server 2003 Enterprise

Any other information I'm missing?
Anyone come across this anomaly? Have I missed something very obvious?

[itwasntme]

None of you guys have any idea about this problem? If someone there is thinking 'duh this is so obvious but I will spare this guys shame by letting him work it out himself', please put me out of my misery

Alternatively - did I post in the wrong section perhaps?

[fafster]

Any chance of upgrading to IE7? There's a free addon for it that, among other things, allows you to enable/disable the proxy with a key combination.

IE7pro for Internet Explorer 7

[Geoff]

There is nothing wrong with that proxy.pac file. Your problem lies elsewhere.

[itwasntme]

@Geoff - I had not expected the problem to be with the proxy.pac file, I posted it rather than just stating 'I use a pac file' and having people reply that I should include it in original message

@fafster - I would prefer not to upgrade to IE7 at least not for the timebeing

Any other suggestions?

[hotwired007]

what about adding a link in the hosts file pointing the domain to that ip?

[itwasntme]

I thought this would work too, but tried it and was unsuccessful. Later I realised it makes sense that this change shouldn't work since;

https://mail.mydomain.com/owa returns a 404 page (not expected)
https://mail.mydomain.com/ returns a default IIS page (expected)

I just cannot understand why I'm having this problem, I've spent some time hunting through the registry and the only references to /owa are inside recently visited websites etc.
I have looked at trusted/intranet zones and been playing around in here to see if this has anything to do with it but I can't understand why it should anyway.

[Geoff]

I thought the default url for OWA was http://server/exchange/

[itwasntme]

In 2007, it switched to /owa

[browolf]

tell em to use firefox at home to avoid proxy issues?

[hotwired007]

we basically have 2 shortcuts to reg keys that change the proxy... at school if they forget to do it the firewall is set to only allow internet access via the proxy... they soon remember...

[itwasntme]

tell em to use firefox at home to avoid proxy issues?

We do not want to allow staff to change proxies themselves, they inevitably get it wrong and cry that nothing works. It would also allow them to use a parent proxy instead of our inhouse proxies.

[itwasntme]

we basically have 2 shortcuts to reg keys that change the proxy... at school if they forget to do it the firewall is set to only allow internet access via the proxy... they soon remember...

It doesn't appear to be a fault of the proxy settings anyway, as even taking out all proxy information when at home still has this oddity when connecting to OWA through IE.

[hotwired007]

does it work correctly when your trying to use a not networked PC?

or just OWA doesn't work on any PC not in your network?

[craiglay]

I created a very simple AutoIT script with a dialog box to switch the proxy on and off. All it does is toggle the "Use a proxy server" tickbox so you'll need to set the proxies up before use.

Disclaimer: This is my own homebrew work, thrown together when a teacher asked if it could be done. It has been tested but I am not responsible for use / misuse / computer catches fire. etc.