<P> The Web Proxy Auto - Discovery Protocol (WPAD) is a method used by clients to locate the URL of a configuration file using DHCP and / or DNS discovery methods . Once detection and download of the configuration file is complete, it can be executed to determine the proxy for a specified URL . </P> <P> The WPAD protocol only outlines the mechanism for discovering the location of this file, but the most commonly deployed configuration file format is the proxy auto - config format originally designed by Netscape in 1996 for Netscape Navigator 2.0 . The WPAD protocol was drafted by a consortium of companies including Inktomi Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, RealNetworks, Inc., and Sun Microsystems, Inc. (now Oracle Corp .). WPAD is documented in an INTERNET - DRAFT which expired in December 1999 . However, WPAD is still supported by all major browsers . WPAD was first included with Internet Explorer 5.0 . </P>

What is the winhttp web proxy auto-discovery service