Autodiscovery of proxy settings from a python script

[Andy Robinson]

A firm we are working with want to demonstrate some Python web services
software, which will connect from a windows desktop to a known server on the
internet.  It is a safe bet that the demos will be given behind firewalls,
but that the customers will be able to browse the web from either IE or
Netscape.  The problem is that both the guys giving the demos and the
potential customers will not be very technical, and saying "what's your
proxy server settings" will likely spark fear, paralysis and wasted visits
:-)  If they have a locked down IE distribution, the settings will just say
"auto detect" and the salesman won't be wiser.

Ideally I'd like a script that knew where IE and Netscape and a few other
packages kept their proxy settings, and also know about the most common
auto-discovery protocols.  It could try various things in succession until
it made a comnnection, or gave up and asked.  The salesmen could email a
small program to the client and say "try this" ahead of time and would at
least know what to expect.  We're already committed to installing python and
COM so can use just about any tools needed.

Has anyone done this before?  Any suggestions how to go about it?


Best regards,

Andy Robinson
ReportLab Inc.