Browse Library
Sign In Start Free Trial
Close icon Search icon
Account
Browse Library Sign In Start Free Trial

Add to playlist

Create a Playlist

Modal Close icon
You need to login to use this feature.
  • Book Overview & Buying Squid Proxy Server 3.1: Beginner's Guide
  • Table Of Contents Toc
Squid Proxy Server 3.1: Beginner's Guide

Squid Proxy Server 3.1: Beginner's Guide

4.7 (13)
Buy this Book
close
close
Squid Proxy Server 3.1: Beginner's Guide

Squid Proxy Server 3.1: Beginner's Guide

4.7 (13)
Buy this Book

Overview of this book

Squid Proxy Server enables you to cache your web content and return it quickly on subsequent requests. System administrators often struggle with delays and too much bandwidth being used, but Squid solves these problems by handling requests locally. By deploying Squid in accelerator mode, requests are handled faster than on normal web servers making your site perform quicker than everyone else's! Squid Proxy Server 3.1 Beginner's Guide will help you to install and configure Squid so that it is optimized to enhance the performance of your network. The Squid Proxy Server reduces the amount of effort that you will have to put in, saving your time to get the most out of your network. Whether you only run one site, or are in charge of a whole network, Squid is an invaluable tool that improves performance immeasurably. Caching and performance optimization usually requires a lot of work on the developer's part, but Squid does all that for you. This book will show you how to get the most out of Squid by customizing it for your network. You will learn about the different configuration options available and the transparent and accelerated modes that enable you to focus on particular areas of your network. Applying proxy servers to large networks can be a lot of work as you have to decide where to place restrictions and who should have access, but the straightforward examples in this book will guide you through step by step so that you will have a proxy server that covers all areas of your network by the time you finish the book.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
close
close
close
Squid Proxy Server 3.1 Beginner's Guide
Icon
Squid Proxy Server 3.1 Beginner's Guide
Credits
Icon
Credits
About the Author
Icon
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Icon
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Icon
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Icon
Preface
Lock Free Chapter
1
Getting Started with Squid
Icon
Getting Started with Squid
Icon
Proxy server
Icon
Reverse proxy
Icon
Getting Squid
Icon
Time for action – identifying the right version
Icon
Time for action – downloading Squid
Icon
Time for action – using Bazaar to obtain source code
Icon
Installing Squid
Icon
Time for action – running the configure command
Icon
Time for action – compiling the source
Icon
Time for action – installing Squid
Icon
Time for action – exploring Squid files
Icon
Summary
2
Configuring Squid
Icon
Configuring Squid
Icon
Quick start
Icon
Syntax of the configuration file
Icon
HTTP port
Icon
Time for action – setting the HTTP port
Icon
Access control lists
Icon
Time for action – constructing simple ACLs
Icon
Controlling access to the proxy server
Icon
Time for action – combining ACLs and HTTP access
Icon
Cache peers or neighbors
Icon
Time for action – adding a cache peer
Icon
Caching web documents
Icon
Time for action – specifying space for memory caching
Icon
Time for action – creating a cache directory
Icon
Time for action – adding a cache directory
Icon
Tuning Squid for enhanced caching
Icon
Time for action – preventing the caching of local content
Icon
Time for action – calculating the freshness of cached objects
Icon
Playing around with HTTP headers
Icon
DNS server configuration
Icon
Time for action – adding DNS name servers
Icon
Logging
Icon
URL rewriters and redirectors
Icon
Other configuration directives
Icon
Summary
3
Running Squid
Icon
Running Squid
Icon
Command line options
Icon
Time for action – listing the options
Icon
Time for action – finding out the Squid version
Icon
Time for action – creating cache directories
Icon
Time for action – debugging output in the console
Icon
Time for action – testing our configuration file
Icon
Automatically starting Squid at system startup
Icon
Time for action – adding the init script
Icon
Summary
4
Getting Started with Squid's Powerful ACLs and Access Rules
Icon
Getting Started with Squid's Powerful ACLs and Access Rules
Icon
Access control lists
Icon
Time for action – constructing ACL lists using IP addresses
Icon
Time for action – using a range of IP addresses to build ACL lists
Icon
Time for action – constructing ACL lists using domain names
Icon
Time for action – building ACL lists using destination ports
Icon
Time for action – using a request protocol to construct access rules
Icon
Time for action – enforcing proxy authentication
Icon
Access list rules
Icon
Time for action – denying miss_access to neighbors
Icon
Mixing ACL lists and rules – example scenarios
Icon
Time for action – avoiding caching of local content
Icon
Time for action – blocking video content
Icon
Time for action – writing rules for special access
Icon
Testing access control with squidclient
Icon
Time for action – testing our access control example with squidclient
Icon
Time for action – testing a complex access control
Icon
Summary
5
Understanding Log Files and Log Formats
Icon
Understanding Log Files and Log Formats
Icon
Log messages
Icon
Cache log or debug log
Icon
Time for action – understanding the cache log
Icon
Access log
Icon
Time for action – understanding the access log messages
Icon
Time for action – analyzing a syntax to specify access log
Icon
Time for action – learning log format and format codes
Icon
Time for action – customizing the access log with a new log format
Icon
Selective logging of requests
Icon
Time for action – using access_log to control logging of requests
Icon
Referer log
Icon
Time for action – enabling the referer log
Icon
Time for action – translating the referer logs to a human-readable format
Icon
User agent log
Icon
Time for action – enabling user agent logging
Icon
Emulating HTTP server-like logs
Icon
Time for action – enabling HTTP server log emulation
Icon
Log file rotation
Icon
Other log related features
Icon
Summary
6
Managing Squid and Monitoring Traffic
chevron up
Icon
Managing Squid and Monitoring Traffic
Icon
Cache manager
Icon
Time for action – installing Apache Web server
Icon
Time for action – configuring Apache to use cachemgr.cgi
Icon
Log file analyzers
Icon
Time for action – installing Calamaris
Icon
Time for action – generating stats in plain text format
Icon
Time for action – generating graphical reports with Calamaris
Icon
Summary
7
Protecting your Squid Proxy Server with Authentication
Icon
Protecting your Squid Proxy Server with Authentication
Icon
HTTP authentication
Icon
Basic authentication
Icon
Time for action – exploring Basic authentication
Icon
Time for action – configuring NCSA authentication
Icon
Time for action – configuring PAM service
Icon
Time for action – configuring MSNT authentication
Icon
Time for action – configuring Squid to use SASL authentication
Icon
Time for action – configuring RADIUS authentication
Icon
Digest authentication
Icon
Time for action – configuring Digest authentication
Icon
Microsoft NTLM authentication
Icon
Negotiate authentication
Icon
Time for action – configuring Negotiate authentication
Icon
Using multiple authentication schemes
Icon
Writing a custom authentication helper
Icon
Time for action – writing a helper program
Icon
Making non-concurrent helpers concurrent
Icon
Common issues with authentication
Icon
Summary
8
Building a Hierarchy of Squid Caches
Icon
Building a Hierarchy of Squid Caches
Icon
Cache hierarchies
Icon
Reasons to use hierarchical caching
Icon
Problems with hierarchical caching
Icon
Joining a cache hierarchy
Icon
Time for action – joining a cache hierarchy
Icon
Controlling communication with peers
Icon
Time for action – configuring Squid for domain-based forwarding
Icon
Time for action – forwarding requests to cache peers using ACLs
Icon
Time for action – configuring Squid to switch peer relationship
Icon
Peer communication protocols
Icon
Summary
9
Squid in Reverse Proxy Mode
Icon
Squid in Reverse Proxy Mode
Icon
What is reverse proxy mode?
Icon
Configuring Squid as a server surrogate
Icon
HTTP port
Icon
HTTPS port
Icon
Time for action – adding backend web servers
Icon
Logging messages in web server log format
Icon
Time for action – configuring Squid to ignore the browser reloads
Icon
Access controls in reverse proxy mode
Icon
Summary
10
Squid in Intercept Mode
Icon
Squid in Intercept Mode
Icon
Interception caching
Icon
Time for action – understanding interception caching
Icon
Advantages of interception caching
Icon
Problems with interception caching
Icon
Diverting HTTP traffic to Squid
Icon
Time for action – enabling IP forwarding
Icon
Time for action – redirecting HTTP traffic to Squid
Icon
Summary
11
Writing URL Redirectors and Rewriters
Icon
Writing URL Redirectors and Rewriters
Icon
URL redirectors and rewriters
Icon
Squid, URL redirectors, and rewriters
Icon
Time for action – exploring the message flow between Squid and redirectors
Icon
Time for action – writing a simple URL redirector program
Icon
Writing our own URL redirector program
Icon
Time for action – writing our own template for a URL redirector
Icon
Configuring Squid
Icon
A special URL redirector – deny_info
Icon
Popular URL redirectors
Icon
Summary
12
Troubleshooting Squid
Icon
Troubleshooting Squid
Icon
Some common issues
Icon
Time for action – changing the ownership of log files
Icon
Time for action – fixing cache directory permissions
Icon
Time for action – creating swap directories
Icon
Time for action – finding the program listening on a specific port
Icon
Debugging problems
Icon
Time for action – debugging HTTP requests
Icon
Time for action – debugging access control
Icon
Summary
1
Pop Quiz Answers
Icon
Pop Quiz Answers
Icon
Chapter 1, Getting Started with Squid
Icon
Chapter 2, Configuring Squid
Icon
Chapter 3, Running Squid
Icon
Chapter 4, Getting Started with Squid’s Powerful ACLs and Access Rules
Icon
Chapter 5, Understanding Log Files and Log Formats
Icon
Chapter 6, Managing Squid and Monitoring Traffic
Icon
Chapter 7, Protecting your Squid with Authentication
Icon
Chapter 8, Building a Hierarchy of Squid Caches
Icon
Chapter 9, Squid in Reverse Proxy Mode
Icon
Chapter 10, Squid in Intercept Mode
Icon
Chapter 11: Writing URL Redirectors and Rewriters
Icon
Chapter 12: Troubleshooting Squid
2
Index
Icon
Index

Cache manager

As described briefly in the earlier chapters, cache manager (cachemgr) is a web interface for managing the Squid proxy servers. It is provided by default. This means that we don't have to install any additional module, or software, other than a web server to have a web interface to manage our proxy server. Also, cache manager is not just an interface to manage our proxy server. It provides various statistics about the usage of different resources that can help us in monitoring the proxy server from a web interface.

But before we can use the cache manager web interface, we need to configure Squid and our web server to use the cachmgr.cgi program for providing the web interface.

Installing the Apache Web server

Although this topic is out of the scope of this book, we'll have a quick look at installing Apache, which is a very popular open source Web server and is available for free from http://httpd.apache.org/. Apache is available in software repositories of most Linux/Unix-based...

CONTINUE READING
83
Tech Concepts
36
Programming languages
73
Tech Tools
Icon Unlimited access to the largest independent learning library in tech of over 8,000 expert-authored tech books and videos.
Icon Innovative learning tools, including AI book assistants, code context explainers, and text-to-speech.
Icon 50+ new titles added per month and exclusive early access to books as they are being written.
Squid Proxy Server 3.1: Beginner's Guide
End of Section 6
Next Section
notes
bookmark Notes and Bookmarks search Search in title playlist Add to playlist font-size Font size

Change the font size

margin-width Margin width

Change margin width

day-mode Day/Sepia/Night Modes

Change background colour

Close icon Search
Country selected
Close icon Your notes and bookmarks

Confirmation

Modal Close icon
claim successful
Order Page Read Now

Buy this book with your credits?

Modal Close icon
Are you sure you want to buy this book with one of your credits?
Close
YES, BUY

Submit Your Feedback

Modal Close icon
Modal Close icon
Modal Close icon