Your proxy is doing name resolution for the clients. Some proxy clients
don't allow the client to resolve stuff, even if you put it in hosts or
dns.
The idea is to restrict the viewable content with a proxy, so by limiting
all name resolution to the proxy you, in effect, gain control of what the
browser can do.
Here's how you see what kind of setup you have.
Add the clarity site to your hosts file on the local machine.
xx.xx.xx.xx claritysite.com
Add the clarity site back into the proxy exclusion list.
See if site loads.
If it doesn't load, uncheck the proxy in the browser settings so the
browser doesn't use the proxy at all, in other words, disable the proxy on
the client.
See if site loads.
If it loads with proxy enabled, clarity in the exclusion list, and clarity
in the hosts file, you just need to add clarity to the DNS in your
company, and add the site back in to the proxy exclusion list.
If it loads with proxy disabled, and in hosts, but not
when proxy is enabled and clarity is in exclusion list you have a proxy
client that disables all name resolution that doesn't happen at the proxy.
It will ignore hosts and DNS entries as long as the proxy client is active.
In this case you are stuck with going through proxy, unless you want users
disabling their proxy. This is pretty retarded, but then again, it's to be
expected. I guess limiting outside access isn't enough, MS's product
needed to limit what's viewable on the intranet too. I guess this is good
to keep the rogue intranet sites from being viewed o/
I have the same issue where I work... It will ignore anything you put in
hosts until proxy client is disabled. It makes developing and testing
software a real PITA because our proxy also happens to be
painfully slow. I disable and reenable my proxy client over 30x a day
sometimes because I can never tell if a performance or page issue is
coming from proxy or my applications. I can't see the HTTP headers my
server is sending either without disabling the proxy, since the proxy
takes those headers and forwards what it wants to the client. You never
get the real scoop through a proxy. One example is 404's. My proxy
rewrites 404 headers as a 500. Everything that's not a 302 or 200 becomes
a 500 error.
Exasperating when troubleshooting...
-Neil
