Squidy - running a local proxy cache?

[Brett_Tabke]

I've got a second box here that doesn't get much use. Linux all installed and working a-ok (no X).

I keep wondering about setting it up as a proxy cache running Squid. I've never worked with it before. What kind of time frame would it take for me to setup? Is it even worth the hassle? I'm on 512 dsl, but the modern browsers really suck at caching.

Think it is something I would find useful?

[sugarkane]

In most cases Squid will work perfectly happily from the default configuration, so it'd certainly be worth giving it a go.

I don't particularly use it for its caching functions, more as an access controller, so I don't know how much of an improvement it is over browser caching, but from the amount of tweakables in the config file I suspect it could be pretty effective.

[Air]

You'll get more bang by setting up the spare box as a DNS server. Then you can point to it as the primary and your usual DNS as the secondary.

[Brett_Tabke]

That's phase two (I'm a bit shy of Bind at this point). I want a 3-4 gig web cache first.

[Josk]

have you thought of running squid with junkbuster? caching and removes annoying banner ads...

[littleman]

I have bind running on my desktop so I could resolve when the ISP's dns wigs out. It seems to work fine, bind isn't a hog at all.

[gethan]

Slightly off topic.

Have you considered using ipchains to turn it into a firewall also?

My linux server was port scanned and attacked about once an hour. That was on dialup, on ADSL I think that number would be (finger in air) sixfold.

I never dial up using windows anymore -- too dangerous ;)

[scotty]

I have both bind9.1 and squid2.4 running on my home intranet server (a Mandrake 8.0 headless box). Time frame wise, I guess it is about as simple as

  $ rpm -U squid-*.rpm 
  $ rpm -U bind-*.rpm 
  $ rpm -U caching-nameserver-*.rpm 

Well, not exactly, but you get the point :) Squid is pretty good caching system, and I use it with Fredrik's Sleezeball ([boost.linux.kz ]) to filter the wanted ads. Sleezeball is not a second level proxy like Junkbuster, but it is a URL rewriter plugin for Squid, which rewrite all the banner ads to a static local image.

Setting up a local cache DNS server is easier with RPM-based system since it includes all the configuration file for you. Just install the caching-nameserver and then change your /etc/resolv.conf to

  nameserver 127.0.0.1 

It is definitely much better than the browser based caching, and you get much more options to tune with. Moreover, since it serves the whole intranet, not only your browser can benefit from cached data, so can all other users from the same network.