protractor config file you can use without `webdriver-manager start` or `gulp webdriver_standalone`

gistfile1.js

var findSeleniumJar = function(dir) {
    var fs = require('fs');
    var _ = require('underscore');
    var files = fs.readdirSync(dir);
    var found;
    var count = 0;
    _.each(files, function (file) {
        if (file.match('^selenium-server-standalone-(.+)\.jar$')) {
            count++;
            found = file;
        }
    })
    if (count == 0) {
        console.error('No version of selenium driver was found. Run `webdriver-manager update`')
        return;
    }
    else if (count > 1) {
        console.log("Multiple versions of selenium driver found. Using " + found)
    }
    return fs.realpathSync(dir) + '/' + found
}

exports.config = {
  // seleniumAddress: 'http://localhost:4444/wd/hub'
  seleniumServerJar: findSeleniumJar('./node_modules/protractor/selenium')
};