OK, maybe this is obvious, but considering how many apps out there still seem to ignore connection-specific proxy settings, I thought I'd dig a bit deeper into it and found a solution that developers can use.

The HTTP proxy currently in use is stored in .
Proxies for other protocols are in .

Since these are clearly backend files for gconf, I guess "the right way" would be to use some sort of gconf bindings, although I have no idea where these values will end up in the gconf tree.

Anyway, if you are an application developer, PLEASE USE THESE FILES so that your application will work behind a proxy

on my n900, there is only a directory called 'proxy' under /var/lib/gconf/system/, the file '%gconf.xml' is in there. I want to know whether this file is related to set username and pasword for proxy server? If it does, how to edit this xml file?

You don't even have to use GConfClient: Nokia's ConIC library is meant for this: http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/...Proxy_Settings (API reference: http://maemo.org/api_refs/5.0/5.0-fi...92c5711c7da716)

Ah, good. But did python-conic finally land in Extras ? Last time I checked, it was -devel only... maybe that's why devs won't use it.

I don't suggest you write to these files, ever; let the OS take care of that. The post was intended only as a hack to detect if a proxy is being used, something most applications still struggle with.