How to Setup Internet Access Control Using Squid

Free Proxy Server Software Allows Effective Management of Web Usage

Oct 25, 2009

Installing a squid server will not only give the company the ability to control Internet access, it will also save valuable bandwidth.

A proxy server is a software application that controls, limits and monitors Internet access. Installing a squid server gives additional benefits.

Advantages of a Web Proxy Server

One advantage of a web proxy server is that it will access web pages on on behalf of the user. Any commonly accessed web pages that are in cache will be given to the users browser instead of re-requesting the page from the Internet, thus saving Internet bandwidth.

Another advantage of a web proxy server is the control and reporting functionality it provides. Many companies control Internet access in order to limit the personal use of the web by employees during company time. Managers need to be able to see if their employees are visiting work related websites or not and block Internet access to undesirable sites.

Free Web Proxy Server

Linux uses Squid to control Internet access and is included in most distributions. Since squid is “Open Source”, it is a free web proxy server. Once the Linux server has been installed it is very easy to install and set up Internet access control. With Squid, the manager can limit access by time, by password and by subnet. A manager might simply want to monitor users access or block Internet access to certain unsavory sites.

How to Setup a Free Web Proxy Server Using Squid

Install squid from the installation CD or download from the latest version from the Internet. Once squid has been installed edit the “/etc/squid/squid.conf” file and make the following changes to enable a very basic proxy server.

Remove the “#” in front of the following lines that start with the following:

Next go down to the “access control” and change “deny all” to “allow all”.

Starting the Squid Web Proxy Server

Start the squid server with the command “service squid start”. In order for squid to always start at boot, type the command “chkconfig squid on” at the command prompt.

The squid server will now serve web pages to users that have the correct proxy server settings in their Internet browsers. To allow users to connect to the proxy server, set the browser's proxy server setting to point to http://companyproxyserver with the port set to 3128. Managers can now monitor Internet access by installing a reporting tool such as Sarg. Unless password access control has been setup the reports generated will only give access reports based on the users IP address.

Once the basic web proxy server has been set up it can be adjusted to control Internet access as desired, including acces control by user name and password.

The copyright of the article How to Setup Internet Access Control Using Squid in Internet Security is owned by Fleur Hupston. Permission to republish How to Setup Internet Access Control Using Squid in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.