FC5: Preferences, Network Proxy. What's the point?

[Palmetto]

Does ANYTHING use the proxy settings set in Preferences, Network Proxy? Firefox doesn't, yum doesn't, Add / Remove Software doesn't. What does? What file do I need to edit to set a system-wide proxy server variable?

[wdgiles]

edit /etc/profile and add the following lines to the end of it:

export HTTP_PROXY="http://your.proxy.address:8080"
export FTP_PROXY="http://your.proxy.address:8080"

works for me.

[Palmetto]

Thanks. I still wonder if anything uses the proxy server as set in the GUI.