SQUID PROXY INSTALLATION

How to install and configure the Squid proxy on Windows, Mac and Linux. There are many binary packages available for many type of operative systems at the Squid proxy wiki site, below is some quick instructions to get you started.

NOTE: the Squid proxy has a lot of features and can be configured to do many things although in our case, we can use it as a pure web proxy (caching is optional).

LINUX (Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get install squid

Linux is the recommended platform. For other Linux versions see the Squid proxy wiki.

WINDOWS

Install the latest Squid version by following instructions here http://wiki.squid-cache.org/SquidFaq/BinaryPackages#Windows.

NOTES

Squid should start immediately after the installation (and at boot) and its default port is 3128.

Although Squid is a caching web proxy you can use it as a non-caching proxy by adding this entry at the top of its config file, /etc/squid/squid.conf

cache deny all

After changes to the config file restart Squid:

sudo service squid restart

OTHER NON DEFAULT INSTALL SQUID CONFIG CHANGES

Change Squid port from default 3128

http_port xxxx

By default the Squid proxy accepts local access which is fine if you also install the Gridlastic Connect tunneling client on the same machine (recommended). If you have separate machines then you need to enable access to the squid proxy by enable/edit these config entries, like:

acl localnet src 10.0.0.0/16
http_access allow localnet

For the acl entry, add your network CIDR like 10.0.0.0/16 OR ip xx.xxx.xx.xx/32 of the machine where the Gridlastic Connect tunneling client resides. Note: do not just add these to the top of the conf file, enable them at their location in the conf file (location important).

LOCAL DNS ROUTING TIP

Squid is using its own DNS client which queries the local OP system to resolve DNS and usually it all works fine after a standard install. However, if your internal DNS names are not resolved you can add your own DNS server IP's to the squid.conf like:

dns_nameservers xxx.xxx.x.xxx 8.8.8.8 208.67.222.222

Note: very important, always add your internal DNS IP's first in this entry! Restart Squid after updating/adding this entry.

DEFAULT SAFE PORT RESTRICTIONS

Squid comes with several default safe port restrictions that you might want to add to in a test environment, specially if you have servers using non standard ports:

acl SSL_ports port 443
acl Safe_ports port 80		# http
...