Auto-update impossible for proxy-server connected client

[Robospark]

All of my clients use a proxy-server to connect to df, but today I noticed that the clients just don't want to fetch the new update. I've tried several public proxy-server with one client without any luck. The client starts to update immediatly when I remove proxy.cfg, so the client is connected directly to the internet.

The clients fetch the server.status file, but don't seem to do anything with it. It is impossible for me to update all the clients manual every update and I want to keep using the proxy-server.

[Brian the Fist]

Your proxy server may be caching our server.status page which indicates when an update is available. Try waiting at least 48 hours for your proxy to flush its cache next time, or use your own proxy server that you have control over and turn off caching (or lower it to 10 minutes or something)

[Robospark]

I am currently using my own proxy-server and caching is disabled. This is the server.status I receive (hope it helps :) ):

[From Req: GET http://www.distributedfolding.org:80/server.status HTTP/1.0]
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 21:47:57 GMT
Server: Apache/2.0.40 (Red Hat Linux)
Last-Modified: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 20:12:18 GMT
ETag: "1ff90-7c-fcd46c80"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 124
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

130 118 120 5000 130 118 120
SERVER DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE, TRY AGAIN LATER
ftp.mshri.on.ca /pub/distribfold/download/patch/

[Robospark]

This file is indeed different than the file I get when I use internet explorer, but I'm very sure that caching is disabled:

135 119 121 5000 135 119 121
SERVER DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE, TRY AGAIN LATER
ftp.mshri.on.ca /pub/distribfold/download/patch/
distfold.paratima.com /

Can I change the contents of this file manually in the proxy-server without setting of some hacking signal in the client?

[Stardragon]

I am not sure how you would go about this manually. The client needs to receive the correct version of server.status via an HTTP request in order to detect the new update. I would venture to say your proxy should have cleared or updated the cache by now, so you should have no trouble getting the update directly.

[Robospark]

I have written te proxy server myself and am 100% certain that it doesn't cache files. It looks like the server is sending an old version of server.status to proxy-servers. I don't know how this is possible, but the following lines in the http-header (from the DF-server) point to that:

Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 21:47:57 GMT
Last-Modified: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 20:12:18 GMT

It's obvious that the file was sent by the server at Fri, 23 Apr 2004 21:47:57 GMT, but somehow modified at Wed, 14 Jan 2004 20:12:18 GMT for the last time.

Will the client update if I catch the requests for server.status in my proxy and return a handwritten server.status? Or is there some kind of anti-hack mechanism?

[Brian the Fist]

Does your proxy forward the HTTP Host: tag? The location of server.status was changed a while back and if you are missing the Host: tag this could happen (because www.distributedfolding.org is a virtual domain and the file is not really at the root of the web server

[Robospark]

The Host-tag was indeed empty and the clients are updating.

Thanks!