Bug 46014 - LibreOffice cannot connect to the internet via a proxy that requires authentification
Summary: LibreOffice cannot connect to the internet via a proxy that requires authenti...
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
3.5.1 release
Hardware: Other All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: BSA
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Network
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Reported: 2012-02-13 18:17 UTC by honfui
Modified: 2024-07-31 08:01 UTC (History)
12 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description honfui 2012-02-13 18:17:54 UTC
The proxy issue is a very long outstanding issue, since OpenOffice.org back to 2004. Every new version OpenOffice or LibreOffice came out, that is the first things I tested. It is the biggest barrier for me to move from other commercial spreadsheet to LO/OO. Below is the problem description.

Open a worksheet. Insert -> Link to External Data. Type a webpage URL that contain tables into the box, then press Enter. I tried various settings in the Internet Proxy - it still cannot connect to Internet. In OO bugzilla, someone recommended libproxy. Is that something can be done easily? I think the UI need bit of overhaul.. more friendly. Thanks.
Comment 1 sasha.libreoffice 2012-05-17 07:52:16 UTC
Thanks for bugreport
See also Bug 35040, Bug 47331, Bug 47603, Bug 49043 and some another. Very interesting problem.
Comment 2 Moritz Moeller-Herrmann 2012-08-09 09:41:52 UTC
Hello, I can confirm that LibreOffice is not able to access the internet under windows from within a common business network that restricts Internet access to a filtering proxy.

The Proxy is detected by setting a script or automatically by both IE and Firefox, but Libreoffice fails to detect the script or read the IE settings.

Blocks a lot of people from using libreoffice professionally and forces me to do updates manually (they are never detected).

The corresponding openoffice bug is here:

https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=59287
Comment 3 QA Administrators 2015-01-05 17:52:04 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 4 honfui 2015-01-06 01:52:23 UTC
As requested, downloaded and tested. Details are as follows:-

LibreOffice Version: 4.3.5.2 (Portable)
Platform : Windows (Windows 7 64 bit)

Test procedure:-
1. Test data/table download from M$ Excel from URL.
   (https://uniservices1.uob.com.my/jsp/finance/fin_xrate.jsp?)
2. Excel CAN download data from the URL.
3. Open Calc.
4. Calc -> Options -> Internet -> Proxy.
   Proxy server = "System".
5. Insert -> Link to External Data..
6. Error "Could not establish Internet connection to uniservices.uob.com.my."
7. Configured Calc Proxy = "None"
8. Close Calc & Re-open
9. Repeat step 5. Error (Step 6) appeared again.

Conclusion: Bugs still present. Software behavior is not per expectation.
Comment 5 Moritz Moeller-Herrmann 2016-02-18 16:00:30 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 6 Giuseppe Castagno (aka beppec56) 2016-05-06 07:10:19 UTC
(In reply to Moritz Moeller-Herrmann from comment #5)
> Still not fixed in version 5.1 - means LO is still not usable for the rare
> business that uses a mandatory filtering proxy (i.e. any decent size
> company).

I'm working on bug 99246, this is probably in the same area.

Couple of questions:

1) did you try with proxy manual setting on LO?
2) what kind of authentication do the server have?
Comment 7 Hans Deragon 2017-01-27 14:09:40 UTC
Works in manual setting on LibreOffice Version: 5.2.4.

Oddly, I cannot try "system" setting.  When I select "system" and click "ok", as soon as I return to the proxy dialog bug, the "manual" setting shows up.  LO refuses to go back to "system" setting.  No message shows up.
Comment 8 Xisco Faulí 2017-06-12 11:39:42 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 9 Moritz Moeller-Herrmann 2018-02-14 11:59:59 UTC
Still does not work in libreoffice 6.0 - neither setting proxy to "system" nor "manual" work, though an authentication dialog pops up once (and then fails to authenticate, if system credentials are chosen).
Comment 10 MarGeb 2018-04-18 14:55:08 UTC
Sorry, but actually LibO‘s proxy support is a very annoying thing.

I can confirm that LibO doesn‘t understand scripts or IE settings.

So I configured our proxy manually in the settings. Now when trying to access a weblink, LibO prompts me for credentials. Instead of entering them, ticking “use system credentials” let’s me access the web.

Why is “use system credentials” not the default behavior? I think that the integrated authentication would work in most cases and only if not, LibO should prompt the user for his credentials. The next problem here: this setting can't be set in the options and so users have to tick it again each time they start LibO.

To avoid that I decided to create a “proxy user” and stored its credentials in the settings for all users. On the first view it worked but then I noticed, that LibO for some weird reason doesn’t save this credentials for the proxy itself, but only for the accessed website and you have to re-enter it again and again.

Please fix that ASAP because at the moment LibO is unsuitable for all environments running a webproxy.

For now making integrated authentication as a default and saving the „use system credentials“ setting could be helpful.

Markus
Comment 11 QA Administrators 2019-05-16 03:13:42 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 12 AaronYan 2020-01-17 12:50:49 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 13 markwood 2020-02-19 03:54:15 UTC Comment hidden (spam)
Comment 14 Stephan Bergmann 2020-03-24 08:37:25 UTC
(In reply to Hans Deragon from comment #7)
> Oddly, I cannot try "system" setting.  When I select "system" and click
> "ok", as soon as I return to the proxy dialog bug, the "manual" setting
> shows up.  LO refuses to go back to "system" setting.  No message shows up.

that is bug 33697
Comment 15 QA Administrators 2022-03-25 03:39:17 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 16 Stefan M 2022-07-12 12:44:23 UTC
The bug still persists in LibreOffice 7.3.4.2 under Windows and Linux and a LibreOffice 7.2.7.2 under Linux. 7.3.4.2 shows no additional error message when searching for updates (the search simply fails there is no reason given).
7.2.7.2 under Linux fails with the additional info: Could not create SSL connection through proxy server: 200 Connection established.
Important fact: The Proxy here does /not/ require authentication!!
It looks like LibreOffice cannot connect to anything through a proxy regardless of an authentication at the proxy. In both cases connection to a webDAV server also fails going through the proxy. 
For the 7.2.7.2 under Linux I can configure no proxy and use a VPN to connect to the internet, then it works like a charm.
Comment 17 Robert 2023-10-06 09:19:48 UTC
(In reply to Stefan M from comment #16)
> The bug still persists in LibreOffice 7.3.4.2 under Windows and Linux and a
> LibreOffice 7.2.7.2 under Linux. 7.3.4.2 shows no additional error message
> when searching for updates (the search simply fails there is no reason
> given).
> 7.2.7.2 under Linux fails with the additional info: Could not create SSL
> connection through proxy server: 200 Connection established.
> Important fact: The Proxy here does /not/ require authentication!!
> It looks like LibreOffice cannot connect to anything through a proxy
> regardless of an authentication at the proxy. In both cases connection to a
> webDAV server also fails going through the proxy. 
> For the 7.2.7.2 under Linux I can configure no proxy and use a VPN to
> connect to the internet, then it works like a charm.

Dear Stefan,

I also experienced issue with an enterprise proxy. With libreoffice 7.4.4 on windows, no internet connection was possible using the standard system proxy settings.

- no insert of images via an URL from the internet
- no help -> check for updates
- no webdav remote file opening

Then, I switched the proxy settings to manual and added in front of the hostname of the proxy a schema "http://". This solved my problem.

I have discussed this with a German-based libreoffice company. They made me aware of recent changes to the code:

https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/157318 (for 7.6)

https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/157458 (backport for 7.5.8 or so)

Unfortunately, I am not admin in the corporate network, to check if this patch makes the manual proxy modification really redundant.
Comment 18 Stefan M 2023-10-06 11:59:05 UTC
Hi Robert,

that's good news. As soon as 7.5.8 is out I'll test it and report the results. 

Cheers
  Stefan
Comment 19 Regis Perdreau 2024-07-29 14:33:00 UTC
Hi,

So could we have the test result ?

Regards,

Régis
Comment 20 Stefan M 2024-07-31 08:01:12 UTC
Sorry, that slipped my attention. It works under Linux and Windows from 7.5.8.1 onwards. I can only test a non-authenticating proxy server, but that works. 
Thanks for reminding me and sorry again for not reporting the result.