Setting YUM proxy settings in Redhat

If you are behind a proxy YUM won't be able to connect to its repositories. To fix this you will need to add your proxy setting to /etc/yum.conf

If you are using an anonymous proxy, only the following line needs to get added to yum.conf

proxy=http://<poxy-server>:<proxy-port>/

In case your proxy server requires authentication also add the following lines in addtion to the above

proxy_username=<proxy-user>
proxy_password=<proxy-password>

Fixing "authentication is required to set the network proxy ..." on Redhat/REL/OEL

Whenever i started  a vncsession i would get an popup window stating :

authentication is required to set the network proxy used for downloading packages.  An
application is attempting to perform an action that requires privileges.
Authentication as the super user is required to perform this action" and asking
for the root password.

I didn't have the root password for this machine and hitting cancel would just bring back the pop-up in a few minutes. After googling here is the best way i found to fix this problem:

From a terminal window run "gnome-session-properties" and un-check "PackageKit
Update Applet"

Finally restart your vncserver and the issue should be gone.