Smoothwall Ucas site problems

[Jose]

We are having problems when students try to use they Ucas site,

 

We have recently stopped using the pac script method due to IE7 not enforcing them properly ( not smoothwalls fault)

 

our proxy settings are these

 

http 172.16.0.36 800

secure 172.16.0.36 442

socks 172.16.0.36 800

https traffic works to other sites

I have added all ucas domains to the not cached bit of smoothwall and also added them to the trusted sites list but students always comeup with a "pages cannot be displayed" when trying to access this url

 

https://apply2.ucas.com/appreg2010/SecurityServlet

UCAS - Apply

 

I have a feeling its to do with the secure port number but just need some help

 

ta

[gmiller]

Hello Jose

 

We had this previously, once it was because we had added the ucas sites to the proxy bypass list but then i upgraded to school guardian and the old route was not available, so removed the bypass entry in gpo. Second time more recent was an internal dns issue. Smoothie box could see the site but clients could not. Added smoothie ip address as dns forwarder and could connect.

 

If you get access to the smoothie command line or the ip tools can you ping apply2.ucas.com?

 

Smoothie support are v good, contact them.

miller

[rob_f]

Hey Jose - all ports should be the same, so 800 by default - so it looks like using 442 there is the problem. Strange that it would work for some sites though...

 

I'd give that a try first, and if still fails let me or support know.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Rob.

[tom_newton]

You need to tell squid which ports it is allowed to "connect" on - see web proxy page (allow proxy ports or some such) - am on hols ATM or i would be more thorough. Now... further drinking (sigh).

[ibpalle]

Hi

 

The proxy setting for the secure https should not be set to 442 - that is not a port the SmoothWall Filter is running on - that should be 800 like the rest.

 

That it could work for https sites is likely that IE has decided that there is no proxy on that port and is going out directly.

 

Also as Tom says, if this https site run on another port than the standard (does not look like it though) then that port needs to be added as an allowed port on the Guardian - proxy - web proxy page. You will need to expand the advanced section to see this setting.

[cookie_monster]

@ tom_newton,

am on hols ATM or i would be more thorough

 

put the work down and enjoy yourself

[ibpalle]

We have recently stopped using the pac script method due to IE7 not enforcing them properly ( not smoothwalls fault)

 

You should have a look at this KB article. IE has a proxy caching mechanism that can be a bit annoying to troubleshoot at times:

 

https://support.smoothwall.net/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=263

and

https://support.smoothwall.net/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=16&nav=0

[christwbs.co.uk]

We have recently stopped using the pac script method due to IE7 not enforcing them properly ( not smoothwalls fault)

 

Hi,

 

Do you have any further details on this? I think we are experiencing the same issue...

[ibpalle]

May be an idea to try to serve the proxy.pac file from another location than the SmoothWall - at least we can see if the problem persists which could point to the SmoothWall and make us look twice.

 

We have not had any massive amount of reports of this from other customers though but we wont rule anything out.

[pete]

We're having an issue where kids can log on fine, but some staff are having problems. (Just had it reported today).

 

Bear in mind that historically, the ucas sites haven't always been glitch-free, though there's been less "site did stupid thing" reports this year.

[bjohnny42]

Just have a problem today with ucas and the certificate they use being an untrusted one. Unknown issuer. How could a big gov dept use one of these. Could untick "Block invalid ssl certificates" but hoping to add this as an exception.

[tom_newton]

Add it as whitelisted (in custom allow is easiest) and it won't get cert checked.

 

HTH.

 

Tom

[bjohnny42]

Smoothwall support chap did a super job and added a couple of certificates so that it now works.

[tom_newton]

Ah, great to hear that. Sounds like it was a subtly different problem to the one I was solving