[ipad] ios12 causing proxy issues???

[Bev]

This week I pushed out the iOS12 update to our iPads, coincidentally?? I have had a lot of iPads losing their proxy settings. They are all setup in Lightspeed and they get the proxy settings from a profile. The profile is still on the iPad but the proxy is off/missing in the Wifi Setup. Entering the proxy manually resolves the issue, but I am getting more and more, and some pupils seem to be getting reset every day.

[Bev]

Is noone else having this issue? Lightspeed have said they believe it's an Apple issue, but if it is Apple then wouldn't it be affecting more of us?

What's frustrating me is the profile with the proxy is sitting on the iPad but the iPad isn't using it. I don't understand how there can be a profile there but it isn't getting used.

[DalekSec]

Updated our iPads to iOS 12 couple weeks back, not had any problems. How are yours setup? Our are logged in with a generic Cred with student internet restrictions and a cert for HTTPS inspection. We use Moysle not Lightspeed

[Bev]

They are 1:1 iPads which also go home. They all have student profiles on them and the profile includes the Wifi and Proxy details. The profile is still on them after the update but for some reason the information has been removed from the actual wifi settings. Even if they update at home, where they would still have internet access, the profile isn't being used after the update.

[Bev]

i;m not 100% convinced it is the update, as I've just updated one myself and it retained it's proxy settings. I don't know what else to think though

[jessica]

did you work out what was causing this? we updated ours to ios 12 and got this issue. updated to ios 12.1 yesterday and it doesn't appear to have resolved it

[Bev]

No, I have been onto Apple repeatedly over the last few weeks. They are now acknowledging that we aren't the only people experiencing this but don't seem to know how to fix it.

ios 12.1 is no better than ios12, in fact in someways it's worse.

 

I've done loads of tests and found resetting the network settings causes it in 11/12 and 12.1, and if you resync the profiles and switch the wifi off/on, then that causes it but only in ios12.1, but what causes it to randomly happen I don't know, as noone is doing a network reset or switching their wifi off/on intentionally.

[jessica]

I've just spoken with lightspeed who have a ticket raised with apple on the issue. They reckon a fix we be available in the next couple of weeks.

They have advised it currently seems to occur in the wifi payload and the workaround is to use Global Proxy instead of the Wi-fi Payload.

[Bev]

The issue with a global proxy is it will try and apply it when the iPad goes home.

I think the answer to that is a pac file, but I haven't yet worked out where best to host a pac file.

Edited December 5, 2018 by Bev

[jessica]

i believe it to be on the policies section rather than setting the proxy in wi-fi set it in global proxy

[Bev]

I changed my comment while you were replying, as I remembered I'd discussed this with lightspeed and the issue for is that the ipads go home.

[jessica]

hopefully there will be a fix soon as they reckon it would be in the next couple of weeks.

[wisski]

Is this still an issue for you (like it is for us)? I would appreciate any suggestions or workarounds that work out, except setting it manually on each device. We are using jamf and it is an issue since ios 12.

[jessica]

We have been using the Global Proxy since and had no issues

[Bev]

Is this still an issue for you (like it is for us)? I would appreciate any suggestions or workarounds that work out, except setting it manually on each device. We are using jamf and it is an issue since ios 12.

 

I managed to fix it recently by setting up a pac file which is ignored if they are not on our wifi. You have to use this with a Global Proxy.

[wisski]

I managed to fix it recently by setting up a pac file which is ignored if they are not on our wifi. You have to use this with a Global Proxy.

 

Thank you both for your answers. I will try the second one, as we have 1:1 iPads that go home, too. Is there a good resource for templates of pac files you could recommend?

[mavhc]

https://findproxyforurl.com/example-pac-file/

 

Note that timerange in its extended format doesn't work in IE/Edge, https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Proxy_servers_and_tunneling/Proxy_Auto-Configuration_(PAC)_file#timeRange()_2

 

Only in the 2 parameter format. Also GMT doesn't work in anything I've tried (Chrome and Edge)

 

But just set a simple one "use proxy for everything", then at home when it can't find the server, it'll default to no proxy

[Sheridan]

We're having this problem as well - mainly with ipads prepared with AC2 but managed with Meraki. Proxy is setting on the Wifi not as a global and is switching to 'Off' randomly. Putting it back to Manual and entering it again solves the problem. Using a Global proxy won't work for us either as these usually go home (staff) and its a bit annoying as they've worked for years!

 

This now appears to be a widespread problem with all of our iPads, if they're on iOS 12 or later. Proxy randomly switching Off. Apple support appears to be offline at the moment as well. So we now have dozens of unusable ipads.

Edited March 7, 2019 by Sheridan

[Bev]

Ours also go home, but there is a setting in lightspeed to say that if the pac file can't be found then just go out direct. It was driving me mad but the Global Proxy using a pac file is working.

 

My pac file is extremely simple - it could probably be more complicated but it is literally

 

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {

return "PROXY xx.xxx.xx.xx:8000";

}

 

If the iPad is connected to school wifi, then it finds the pac file, and it uses, if it's at home it can't find the file so it ignores it and goes out direct.

Looking at Meraki, if you tick PAC fallback allowed, then this should work in the same way.

Edited March 7, 2019 by Bev

[Sheridan]

Ours also go home, but there is a setting in lightspeed to say that if the pac file can't be found then just go out direct. It was driving me mad but the Global Proxy using a pac file is working.

 

My pac file is extremely simple - it could probably be more complicated but it is literally

 

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {

return "PROXY xx.xxx.xx.xx:8000";

}

 

If the iPad is connected to school wifi, then it finds the pac file, and it uses, if it's at home it can't find the file so it ignores it and goes out direct.

Looking at Meraki, if you tick PAC fallback allowed, then this should work in the same way.

 

Where did you put your PAC file out of interest? Have you got on an intranet server or similar? I don't want to advertise the PAC file through DNS so I wonder if I can put the direct path to it in Meraki (such as http://server/proxy.pac)

Edited March 7, 2019 by Sheridan

[Bev]

I followed this instructions

 

https://marckean.com/2010/02/09/setting-up-proxy-pac-files-in-iis7-for-proxy-use/

 

I had some difficulties getting it to work, and then it did work and I can't honestly tell you what I did that fixed it, as once it was working I didn't touch it again!

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

and yes, i put http://server/proxy.pac into lightspeed (but Meraki looks the same)

[Sheridan]

Anyone else still having problems with this? We've got a few now on iOS 12.1.4 which will literally set the proxy to Off whilst using an app! I was on Safari on one and it worked, a few minutes later no internet access and I realised it had flipped again in Settings.

 

Its a right pain, and must be iOS related, but Apple don't seem to have any solution for it

[Bev]

Apple phoned me last week to say that the latest iOS has fixed it. I think it's 12.2

 

I have now implemented a Global Proxy so I haven't tested it out.

[Sheridan]

Apple phoned me last week to say that the latest iOS has fixed it. I think it's 12.2

 

I have now implemented a Global Proxy so I haven't tested it out.

 

I've just seen 12.2 starting to appear, I'll have to test a few of those as all the failing ones are 12.1.x!