Can u explain me the process of squid?

For example, in a network consisting of 2 computers. One is a server running squid and another one

is a client. Let's say the client want to request a page (ex: www.microsoft.com), so what are the

steps that squid takes to retrieve the requested page for the client?

Note: Assume that squid cache is disabled.

Am i right that when squid need to handle request from client, it needs to check linux routing

table?


Thanks,

Squid does not do anything with the routing table. There is no need for that sort of low-level access.
Squid just opens connections and the kernel handles routing.
If you're having trouble with squid, then first make sure your routes are setup properly.

Disabling the Squid cache pretty much defeats the major reason for using Squid to begin with!

I hope I can help you with squid.

Squid is what one could call a proxy server. It's main function in an intranet setting is
minimizing net traffic traffic by caching the most frequently web pages on a hard disk or in memory. Turning off the cache in squid is really self-defeating as this nullifies any bandwidth saving you may get by running it on your network. let look at the internetwork below:





micro$oft.com----rtr----inet----rtr/fw-----hub------workstation
|
|
server running squid (on port 3128)

note rtr=router; inet=internet ,fw=firewall

for squid to work you have to have the following set up correctly

A web browser on your workstation configured to use a proxy server at port 3128
(you can change the default port in squid's config files on the server )

A server running a squid process, listening on port 3128

a working lan (with working router/fw)

a working dns server

a working connection to the internet esp. one that allows for port 80 traffic

let say we want to see a page at www.micro$oft.com when a user types in

www.micro$oft.com the browser software on the workstation sends a request out on the
lan to 'talk' to a server listening on port 3128. The squid server if listening on that port
intercepts the request and processes it. If www.micro$oft.com has never been accessed
on the network by the clients(web browsers configured for squid proxy on port 3128 )
the server reports a "cache miss" and requests data from the web server answering to
www.micro$oft.com. After the data is downloaded to the squid server proxy cache it relays this data to the client that initiated the request. If the same client or another client requests the same URL the squid server will register a "cache hit" and will download the page stored on the server running squid
without accessing www.micro$oft.com. Bandwidth is saved by only requesting data that is not
stored in cache. Squid works great if you have a low-bandwidth pipe to the net and bandwidth is
at a premium.

I may have some info wrong here, but
you can get the whole story about squid at www.squid-cache.org

This really helps!


Thanks alot,

do not disable squid cache.. disabling squid cache defeats the purpose of squid...