Connect Unified Agent on a computer with an unreachable PAC file

Products

• Cloud Secure Web Gateway - Cloud SWG

Issue/Introduction

Your company or organization has configured its workstations to route traffic based on a proxy auto-config (PAC) script file that is hosted on a private network. Unified Agent (UA) detects this configuration and connects to the Web Security Service (WSS) following the logic of the script.

• How does UA connect to WSS when end users are working from home?
• How does UA behave when the PAC file is not reachable?
• Does UA close the connection if it cannot access the PAC file defined on the operating system?

Resolution

When UA detects a PAC file configuration on the operating system, it will first download this script before connecting to the WSS. If the proxy script cannot be downloaded for any reason, UA will normally connect to the WSS servers.

On a new browsing session, loading sites might take some time as the browser first tries to download the script. Web traffic and site loading times will return to normal after some failed attempts at accessing the PAC file.