Configuring Defender for a Proxy Server

[Guest]

Although other discussions here mentioned this, I feel none of them addressed
configuring Windows Defender for a single-use password-protected proxy
server, which, needs a different password for each session. The passwords are
randomly generated and require me to log in to my company network to receive
the password, even if using the internet from a remote location.

Windows Defender Version: 1.1.1051.0
Engine Version: 1.1.1185.0
Signature Version: 1.0.0.0

Ideas?

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I don't think your issue is so much the proxy server as it is your companies
corporate policies.

Can you update Windows via this proxy?

Can you reach Windows Update?

Does AutoUpdate function? If so, does it reach a corporate server, or
Microsoft? If Corporate, is this WSUS, or some other update mechanism?

 

[Guest]

To be precise it's a university proxy, but it does indeed allow me to use
Windows & Microsoft update, although the Automatic Updates feature of WinXP
doesn't seem to work, as I upgraded the Defender signatures and along with
that came several other security updates.

The proxy server has a address to which IE connects, and upon the first
session it requires me to log in via the IE window, and then gives me a
one-time password, which IE then asks when I view a website. Windows Update
asks this password also, and after completing it it works fine.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

If you want to dig further, you could invoke an update from within Windows
Defender (help, about, check for updates)--wait for it to fail, then open
%windir%\windowsupdate.log in notepad, and extract the entries relating to
that last update attempt--and see what useful info there is there--if you
are not getting a failure message, you may be reaching a University server,
which may simply not have these updates available. If it is a SUS server,
it never will. If it is a WSUS server, the administrator could make them
available. If it is some other kind of critter, I don't know whether it is
possible or not.

Updates within the program use the AutoUpdate mechanism--so if that fails
routinely, Windows Defender won't update automatically either.