Mail.app Proxy Issues

Question

Hello Everybody,
I cannot get the Mail app to use the systemwide proxy settings for some strange reason. I am at college adn I need to use a proxy to access the internet. Now, this proxy works fine for every other program (As far as I know) except for Mail. I am trying to connect my Gmail account, and I just keep getting the response that Mail cannot establish a connection.  The college uses an automatic pac file to configure the proxy, which I will add below. It doe snot seem to be using a SOCKS server, although I am not sure what that is, and that option is not checked. It does not make a difference if it is checked or not.
Thanks
Here's the text of the .pac file with some information starred out. (They probably don't want everybody to know their server settings)
function FindProxyForURL(url, host){
          pacver = "************";
// Convert the host expression to lower case and set host variable
          var lhost = host.toLowerCase();
          host = lhost;
// Set the default variables
          myip = myIpAddress();
          caproxy = "PROXY ";
          noproxy = "PROXY ";
// Localhost and loopback handling
          if ((host == "localhost") ||
          (host == "************") ||
          (shExpMatch(host, "localhost.*")))
          {return "DIRECT";}
// Exclude plain host names
          if (isPlainHostName(host))
          {return "DIRECT";}
// Exclude all FTP traffic
          if (url.substring(0, 4) == "ftp:")
          {return "DIRECT";}
// Exclusion of special domain host names
          if (dnsDomainIs(host, "************") &&
          !(host == "************") &&
          !(host == "************") &&
          !(host == "************"))
          {return "DIRECT"};
          if (dnsDomainIs(host, ".************") &&
          !(host == "************") &&
          !(host == "************"))
          {return "DIRECT"};
          if (dnsDomainIs(host, ".************") &&
          !(host == "************") &&
          !(host == "************") &&
          !(host == "************") &&
          !(host == "************") &&
          !(host == "************"))
          {return "DIRECT"};
// Exclude special non-domain host names
          if (host == "************")
          {return "DIRECT";}
// Resolve the host and set the host IP address variable
          var resolved_ip = dnsResolve(host);
          host = resolved_ip;
// Exclude IP Address of all hosts within the same subnet
          if (isInNet(host, "************"))
          {return "DIRECT";}
          if (isInNet(host, "************"))
          {return "DIRECT";}
// Exclude special IP addresses/clients:
          if ((host == "************") ||
          (host == "************") ||
          (host == "************") ||
          (host == "************") ||
          (host == "************") ||
          (host == "************") ||
          (host == "************") ||
          (host == "************"))
          {return "DIRECT";}
// Return the default action (direct to proxy server)
          return caproxy;}

Answer 1

You really should take your questions to the specific forum for your issue.  In this case, it would be Mac OS X v10.7 Lion.
However, it is really easy to choose email send accounts on the Mail app.  As you are aware, the email goes through your default account which you can choose that in Mail>Preferences>Compose.  There should be a dropdown menu to choose which account you send from.
To override that whenever you want, when you create a new message (including replying or forwarding), right under the subject line is a drop-down menu to change the send account. 
I wish that Mail could read my mind as to which one to use, but you have to remember to do that.  I actually keep all of my business mail on a Outlook (since my business server uses Exchange, so it's easier to use) just to keep everything separate.  I had a friend who didn't keep his accounts straight on Mail, and sent out a rather improper photo and joke through the corporate email rather than his personal one.