One of the things I constantly find frustrating in my workplace is configuring programs to use our proxy server. Home users typically never have to worry about this little detail, but most corporate environments include some type of proxy server. This has been the case for at least a decade now, so WHY do so many programs ignore it or make it so tough a setting to locate?? For example, we recently purchased some inexpensive Brother HL-2040 laser printers. Their software includes a one-click "auto update" feature, but it immediately says the "site can't be found" when you try to use it. Yep, it tries to establish a direct connection to Brother's server and can't get past our proxy! There appears to be NO place to configure one, so you just can't ever do this update on our corporate network.

AVG Anti-Virus software is another offender, in my opinion. Yes, it has a tab to fill in proxy server information - but why is it even necessary? Can't it get the existing information from the "Internet Settings" already configured in the Windows control panel? Each time you install it, you have to suffer through error messages while it tries to update itself and fails, followed by manually keying in the appropriate settings in the right place in the software.

Tags: proxy printers network