Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Anu
If you want to setup yourown proxy on your home computer you are able to do it by using Squid.Squid is a caching proxy for the Web supporting HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and more. Itreduces bandwidth and improves response times by caching and reusingfrequently-requested web pages.
Whywould you want to use Squid?
- If you travel abroad and you want to browse the Internet as you were home with no restrictions.
- If you want to help people that are located in countries like Iran, UAE, Thailand, etc. by allowing them to access restricted sites via your computer.
- If you want better performance when browsing your frequently-visited sites.
- If are about to get shaped and want to reduce your quota consumption.
InstallSquid on Windows
1. Download Squid for Windows
2. Extract that zip archive, and move the “squid” folder to the root of yourdrive (probably C:\).
3. After moving the squid folder, open “C:\squid\etc\squid.conf” in yourfavorite text editor (not Word).
4. Configure the DNS name servers on the line that says “dns_nameservers” topoint at your ISPs DNS servers.
5. You should lock the access to only certain IP addresses.
Inside the text editor search forthe line “http_access deny all” and change it to “http_access allowall“.
This will make your proxy open and accessible to the world. If youwould like to limit your proxy to certain IP blocks, change “http_accessdeny all” to “http_access allow TRUSTED“.
Add a line (BEFORE thehttp_access line to setup an access control list [ACL]). This ACL line thatdefines TRUSTED IPs should be:
aclTRUSTED src xx.xx.xx.xx yy.yy.yy.yy zz.zz.zz.zz
where xx.xx.xx.xx, yy.yy.yy.yy andzz.zz.zz.zz are allowed IP addresses.
6. Setup “visible_hostname”(normally just the public IP address).
7. Turn off logging by adding these two lines:
access_lognone
cache_store_log none
8. Setup the Squid cache by issuingthe following command: “c:\squid\sbin\squid -D –z” (No quotes).
Setup Squid to run as a service by issuing the following command:“c:\squid\sbin\squid –i”.
Setup Squid to run as a service by issuing the following command:“c:\squid\sbin\squid –i”.
InstallSquid on Linux
If you’re using CentOS/Redhat, it’spretty straight forward to setup a proxy.
Login as root and run the following
yuminstall squid
nano -w/etc/squid/squid.conf
Setup the trusted IP addresses inthe same way as for Windows.
Turn off logging by adding these twolines:
access_lognone
cache_store_log none
Save the config file and as rootissue the following command to start the Squid proxy server:
servicesquid start
Important!
You should not run Squid on amachine that you’re worried about or is used for production. Make sureyou take basic security precautions, like moving ftp off the defaultport, using a firewall, etc.
