Which Linux distro would you suggest for squid proxy ?

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Wong

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Looking to setup a cache proxy read up quite a bit about squid just not sure which distro to use , Which distro would you suggest and why ?

any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance :D
 
Whichever one you think you will like the most or are the most comfortable with.

If you really, really want to get every possible bit of speed and performance, you would probably rather be looking at a BSD type derivative: other than that, any mainstream linux distribution probably already have squid included or you should be able to install with the package manager.

The difference between your squid's ability to process data vs. your modem's ability to send and receive data is so great that the performance of your box / operating system really doesn't matter that much.

We run Squid on a Pentium 1 until recently, very happily caching data and blocking ads ...
 
ClearOS is the simplest and if you have to ask this question.
 
I'd go for ipCop - small, lightweight and there is a built-in web interface to control the proxy.
 
If you want to do things yourself then I would suggest Ubuntu server edition. Its lightweight with out all the GUI.
But if it is too much of a mission then consider all-in-one solutions like IPFire, IPcop and other software. They normally do use Squid for the proxy section.
 
I like ubuntu and clearos - my question is, is it possible to join the clear os/ubuntu server/pc to an existing windows domain ? (pretty sure thats a no) I have installed the clearos i just want to use it as a proxy/firewall for my windows domain how can i get my existing clients to use the clearos server as its proxy ? sorry if my q's are silly I am new to Linux :D

With regards to clearos defaulting to a PDC server - how would this affect my current windows domain ? if i export my current AD users to csv and add them to the clearos AD do i have to register those pc's now to the clearOS in order to use it as a proxy/firewall?

Thanks for your help so far guys :>
 
This might quickly get a bit complex, but there is a few ways to integrate squid into your network.

The easiest way, and the most manually intensive, is to just add the proxy server under your network connections: would usually be something like proxy address: 3128

The 'coolest' way I know about, is to change your firewall to redirect all web traffic to your squid server: This means people browse as normal, but 'automagically' your firewall translates any requests to squid.

Then you can look at ways of setting up auto proxy scripts; etc, etc.

To be honest: I have never had the need to look into AD/LDAP / whatever for this type of gateway machine.
 
We have an Ubuntu server running Squid, which authenticates against a Server 2008 domain for user authentication. NTLM enables silent authentication if the machine and user logged in authenticate, otherwise pops up a login window if the user logged in is not a valid user. The setup uses Group Policy to point the browser to the proxy. On a separate network, I use a proxy.pac script to setup the proxy settings in my browser. I prefer this setup, because Firefox is able to use this. Firefox ignores the Group Policy setup. Anything is really possible these days.

As mentioned above, the firewall can be set up to act as a transparent proxy.

We are using delay pools to trickle feed certain websites, block undesirable ones, and obviously as a cache. We are able to log traffic per user, hence the NTLM authentication.

Squid is best configured by hand, not GUI.
 
I really liked clearos - struggled to get it to do what i want it to do ( will try again at a later stage )

With the IPCOP, I have downloaded the url filter on my windows pc - how can I install it on the IPCOP pc ? flash driver cd ? via the web console? I updated the ipcop via the web console , thanks again for your help so far guys/girls
 
Wong said:
I like ubuntu and clearos - my question is, is it possible to join the clear os/ubuntu server/pc to an existing windows domain ? (pretty sure thats a no) I have installed the clearos i just want to use it as a proxy/firewall for my windows domain how can i get my existing clients to use the clearos server as its proxy ? sorry if my q's are silly I am new to Linux :D
Click to expand...

Don't know much(anything) about windows domains, but if you're running ClearOs just as a proxy/firewall, you could set it up as a transparent proxy and just have your DHCP server point to the ClearOS box as your gateway.
 
I used IPCop for years, and recently swopped over to Endian. They have the fully commercial units, but also a community version. http://www.endian.com/en/community/overview/ .
The really nice thing is that it can do authentication off a ldap server (windows domain included) and you can mix time and authentication settings to make a really powerful system.
 
Ubuntu with Webmin makes life easy, but you may still need to do some manual configs there ( I had to the one time I messed with it).
Otherwise ClearOS is nice. Also, Mitel.
 
Wong said:
I like ubuntu and clearos - my question is, is it possible to join the clear os/ubuntu server/pc to an existing windows domain ? (pretty sure thats a no) I have installed the clearos i just want to use it as a proxy/firewall for my windows domain how can i get my existing clients to use the clearos server as its proxy ? sorry if my q's are silly I am new to Linux :D

With regards to clearos defaulting to a PDC server - how would this affect my current windows domain ? if i export my current AD users to csv and add them to the clearos AD do i have to register those pc's now to the clearOS in order to use it as a proxy/firewall?

Thanks for your help so far guys :>
Click to expand...

Its not going to be easy. You need to disable ldap and use the windows authentication, you are going to need someone who knows what they are doing for that.

If you are going to make ClearOS the PDC, then its much easier. You are going to have to detach all your current clients from your current ad, and reattach them to your PDC.
 
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