Book Image

Squid Proxy Server 3.1: Beginner's Guide

Book Image

Squid Proxy Server 3.1: Beginner's Guide

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)
Squid Proxy Server 3.1 Beginner's Guide
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Problems with interception caching


Although interception caching is attractive and there are a few advantages as well, it has got some serious disadvantages, which can make it painful to manage or debug if something goes wrong. Let's have a look at a few disadvantages of interception caching:

Violates TCP/IP standards

The routers or switches in a network are supposed to forward packets to the hosts to which they are destined. Diverting packets to proxy servers violates the TCP/IP standards. Also, the proxy server accepts TCP/IP packets which are not destined for it, which is another violation of the TCP/IP standards.

The proxy server often has a different OS to the client, which confuses the end-to-end packet management outside of the HTTP packets. Which in turn can cause servers and the remote networks to become completely inaccessible or the transfer rates may drop down considerably.

Susceptible to routing problems

Interception caching relies on stable routed paths and the diversion of the...