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How to review current proxy settings

When I visit Starbucks I fire up my browser and I get the Starbuck page. Recently when I visted an airport I fired up my browser and I got an airport page. Back at home, I get the normal default page I have set. I'm trying to understand how proxies work. Sometimes at home when I fire up my browser, I'll see the message "detecting proxy settings" in the status bar of IE. This will last sometimes for a minute before my page loads. Once that's done however, surfing is at normal speed.

So 1, I'm looking for a good explaination of what's going on when I on the road and simply fire up my browser, and 2, I'm looking for a way to review my proxy settings so if I want to I can see what proxy I'm connected to.

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LeftofCool

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djluff

Wireless access networks often run a transparent proxy that redirect all HTTP requests to their home page. This is normally so you can login or whatever you need to do to get access. Once you're authenticated or whatever you can access the internet as usual.

A transparent proxy is different to a normal proxy. With a transparent proxy, you don't need to configure the proxy in your browser. The network is configured so that all HTTP requests go to the proxy, whatever IP address they were originally addressed to.