diff --git a/README b/README
index 240a4cb..e3916bb 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -127,6 +127,23 @@ On success, tiipost.tcl will output a message that starts with "Success", in
 case of an error the line will start with "Error". The server-side description
 will follow this success or error status.
 
+HTTP client configuration
+-------------------------
+For both fetching and posting, you can configure several values in the config
+file (config.txt in the script directory, the example is included in the repo)
+that will allow you to set HTTP proxy and override the user agent. As of now,
+the file is a Tcl dictionary (`key "value"`) and has the following fields:
+
+* useragent: the user agent string to set for all HTTP requests
+* proxyhost: the HTTP proxy hostname to use (if empty or omitted, the scripts
+  will connect directly)
+* proxyport: the HTTP port to use on the proxy (only effective if proxyhost is
+  set to a non-empty string)
+
+Any of the fields can be omitted, as well as the file itself.
+You can also use torsocks with any script invocation in order to fully cloak
+your originating IP address.
+
 Message database format
 -----------------------
 The tiidb format is based upon the official ii/IDEC developer recommendations
diff --git a/config.txt b/config.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ebbf317
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+useragent "curl/7.54.1"
+proxyhost ""
+proxyport 0
diff --git a/tiifetch.tcl b/tiifetch.tcl
index aec0672..afd0e5b 100755
--- a/tiifetch.tcl
+++ b/tiifetch.tcl
@@ -294,8 +294,23 @@ set appdir [file dirname $scriptpath]
 if [string match *app-tiifetch $appdir] {
   set appdir [file normalize [file join $appdir ".." ".." ".." ]]
 }
-
 set localdbdir [file join $appdir "tiidb"]
+
+# populate general HTTP configuration 
+set cfgfile [file join $appdir "config.txt"]
+if {[file exists $cfgfile]} {
+  set cfg [readfile $cfgfile]
+  if {[dict exists $cfg useragent]} {
+    ::http::config -useragent [dict get $cfg useragent] 
+  }
+  if {[dict exists $cfg proxyhost]} {
+    ::http::config -proxyhost [dict get $cfg proxyhost] 
+  }
+  if {[dict exists $cfg proxyport]} {
+    ::http::config -proxyport [dict get $cfg proxyport] 
+  }
+}
+
 if {$argc > 0} {
   if {$argc > 2} {
     set localdbdir [lindex $argv 2]
diff --git a/tiipost.tcl b/tiipost.tcl
index 91808b3..6665f8f 100755
--- a/tiipost.tcl
+++ b/tiipost.tcl
@@ -57,19 +57,27 @@ set appdir [file dirname $scriptpath]
 if [string match *app-tiipost $appdir] {
   set appdir [file normalize [file join $appdir ".." ".." ".." ]]
 }
-# auth string mapping
+
+# populate general HTTP configuration 
+set cfgfile [file join $appdir "config.txt"]
+if {[file exists $cfgfile]} {
+  set cfg [readfile $cfgfile]
+  if {[dict exists $cfg useragent]} {
+    ::http::config -useragent [dict get $cfg useragent] 
+  }
+  if {[dict exists $cfg proxyhost]} {
+    ::http::config -proxyhost [dict get $cfg proxyhost] 
+  }
+  if {[dict exists $cfg proxyport]} {
+    ::http::config -proxyport [dict get $cfg proxyport] 
+  }
+}
+
+# get auth string mapping
 set authmap ""
 set authfile [file join $appdir "auth.txt"]
 if {[file exists $authfile]} {
-  set authdata [readfile $authfile]
-  set authlist [split $authdata "\n"]
-  foreach authline $authlist {
-    set authline [string trim $authline]
-    if {$authline ne ""} {
-      set parts [split $authline " \t"]
-      dict set authmap [string trim [lindex $parts 0]] [string trim [lindex $parts 1]]
-    }
-  }
+  set authmap [readfile $authfile]
 }
 
 if {$argc > 3} {