Squid Proxy Server 3.1: Beginner's Guide

Reduce bandwidth use and deliver your most frequently requested web pages more quickly with Squid Proxy Server. This guide will introduce you to the fundamentals of the caching system and help you get the most from Squid.

• Get the most out of your network connection by customizing Squid's access control lists and helpers
• Set up and configure Squid to get your website working quicker and more efficiently
• No previous knowledge of Squid or proxy servers is required
• Part of Packt's Beginner's Guide series: lots of practical, easy-to-follow examples accompanied by screenshots

In Detail

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.

A practical guide to implementing the Squid Proxy Server in your network or for your website.

What you will learn from this book

• Discover which configuration option would best suit your network
• Gain better control over Squid with command-line options that help you to debug Squid
• Devise an Access Control List (ACL) to decide which users are granted access to different ports
• Understand logfiles and log format and how to customize them to suit your needs
• Learn about Squid's Cache Manager web interface so that you can monitor your traffic in real time to prevent any problems before they happen
• Implement a cache hierarchy to use in a large network
• Use Squid in Accelerator Mode to quickly boost the performance of a very slow website
• Write your own URL rewriters to customize the behavior of Squid
• Learn how to troubleshoot Squid

Approach

Part of Packt's Beginner's Guide Series, this book has lots of screenshots and step-by-step instructions to help you get to grips with the techniques as quickly as possible. Each chapter is dedicated to a different aspect of the Squid proxy server, so you will have a thorough understanding of how everything works and how it is connected by the end of the book.

Who this book is written for

If you are a Linux or Unix system administrator and you want to enhance the performance of your network or you are a web developer and want to enhance the performance of your website, this book is for you. You are expected to have some basic knowledge of networking concepts, but may not have used caching systems or proxy servers before now.

Kulbir Saini

Kulbir Saini is an entrepreneur based in Hyderabad, India. He has had extensive experience in managing systems and network infrastructure. Apart from his work as a freelance developer, he provides services to a number of startups. Through his blogs, he has been an active contributor of documentation for various open source projects, most notable being The Fedora Project and Squid. Besides computers, which his life practically revolves around, he loves travelling to remote places with his friends. For more details, please check http://saini.co.in/.