Chapter 2. Configuring Squid

We have learned about compiling Squid source code and installing Squid from a source and binary package. In this chapter, we are going to learn to configure Squid according to the requirements of a given network. We will learn about the general syntax used for a Squid configuration file and then we will move on to exploring the different options available to fine tune Squid. There will be a few options which we will only cover briefly but there will be chapters dedicated to them while we will explore other options in detail.

In this chapter, we will cover the following:

• Quick exposure to Squid

• Syntax of the configuration file

• HTTP port, the most important configuration directive

• Access Control Lists (ACLs)

• Controlling access to various components of Squid

• Cache peers or neighbors

• Caching the web documents in the main memory and hard disk

• Tuning Squid to enhance bandwidth savings and reduce latency

• Modifying the HTTP headers accompanied with requests and responses

• Configuring...