Windows dns enable wpad

While WPAD might be a useful feature on some business and school networks, it can cause big problems on public Wi-Fi networks. You have to enable WPAD if you want your device to automatically discover proxy settings. This is not true on Windows. Windows enables WPAD by default, so it will automatically configure the proxy server settings provided by any network you connect to.

If your system is configured to use a dangerous proxy by a malicious Wi-Fi network, your browsing could be vulnerable to snooping and other attacks. HTTPS encryption normally helps protect the content of your browsing on sensitive websites. But, if your PC is browsing through a proxy server, your computer tells your proxy server the full address, which could contain potentially sensitive information.

The proxy server could also modify web pages you access. Learn more. Weird wpad DNS queries, anyone seen this? Ask Question. Asked 11 months ago. Active 9 months ago. Viewed 3k times. Feb 17 dns dnsmasq[]: query[A] wpad. Improve this question. Dave M 4, 21 21 gold badges 29 29 silver badges 30 30 bronze badges. Alexander Kolodziej Alexander Kolodziej 83 1 1 silver badge 8 8 bronze badges.

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Hiran Chaudhuri Hiran Chaudhuri 4 4 bronze badges. In my machine I could not directly stop and disable this service. I hope this helps. Paul Bateau Paul Bateau 21 2 2 bronze badges. Oh my god, yes that explains a lot. Those ISPs This is a permanent link to this article. Copy the link below for further reference. Syntax example In this example, when the client makes a request to a website, the web browser refers to the PAC file.

Use Notepad or another text editor to open a new text file Paste the text from the example above into the text editor. Replace the IP address and subnet mask with those of your network. Save the file to a server within your network, naming it proxy.

Select Use automatic configuration script. Type the path and filename of your PAC file. Click Settings. On the wpad. Add any internal networks to the Exceptions list using the Add New button. Use these to instruct the web browser to connect directly to hosts on those networks.