11. Proxy Server Configuration

 A proxy server is very useful for a local network accessing many web pages across a slow, or relatively slow, connection. It maintains a cache of most visited pages so that they don't need to be retrieved again from the Internet if requested by different users. This wizards sets up the Squid proxy server.

First of all you need to choose a port for the proxy to listen to requests on. Users have to configure their web browsers to use this port as the proxy port and your server's name or IP address as the proxy server.

Figure 15.13. Choose the Cache Size

Choose the Cache Size

Depending on your machine's available memory, you can allocate more or less to the proxy. The bigger the memory cache, the fewer disk accesses on the server. Depending on your available disk size you can allocate more or less room for cached pages. The more the space, the less accesses to the Internet. The wizard chooses appropriate values for your system, if in doubt just accept the proposed ones.

In the next step, some access levels are available for clients wishing to use the proxy:

Figure 15.14. Restrict Access to a Particular Sub-network

Restrict Access to a Particular Sub-network

If you have previously chosen the Local Network access policy, you can choose to restrict even more the access to a particular subnetwork or domain. The wizard will detect your LAN's network address and will offer it by default: make modifications if needed.

Finally, if your server itself has access to another larger proxy connected to the Internet, you can choose to Define an upper level proxy to which requests will be forwarded. If so, the next step will ask you for the name and port of that server.