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Install Squid Proxy Server on CentOS / Redhat enterprise Linux 5

Posted by Vivek Gite [Last updated: February 24, 2008]

I've already wrote about setting up a Linux transparent squid proxy system. However I'm getting lots of questions about Squid basic installation and configuration:

How do I install Squid Proxy server on CentOS 5 Liinux server?

Sure Squid server is a popular open source GPLd proxy and web cache. It has a variety of uses, from speeding up a web server by caching repeated requests, to caching web, name server query , and other network lookups for a group of people sharing network resources. It is primarily designed to run on Linux / Unix-like systems. Squid is a high-performance proxy caching server for Web clients, supporting FTP, gopher, and HTTP data objects. Unlike traditional caching software, Squid handles all requests in a single, non-blocking, I/O-driven process. Squid keeps meta data and especially hot objects cached in RAM, caches DNS lookups, supports non-blocking DNS lookups, and implements negative caching of failed requests. Squid consists of a main server program squid, a Domain Name System lookup program (dnsserver), a program for retrieving FTP data (ftpget), and some management and client tools.

Install Squid on CentOS / RHEL 5

Use yum command as follows:
# yum install squid
Output:

Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Package squid.i386 7:2.6.STABLE6-4.el5 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
 Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
 squid                   i386       7:2.6.STABLE6-4.el5  updates           1.2 M

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install      1 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       0 Package(s)         

Total download size: 1.2 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing: squid                        ######################### [1/1] 

Installed: squid.i386 7:2.6.STABLE6-4.el5
Complete!

Squid Basic Configuration

Squid configuration file located at /etc/squid/squid.conf. Open file using a text editor:
# vi /etc/squid/squid.conf
At least you need to define ACL (access control list) to work with squid. The defaults port is TCP 3128. Following example ACL allowing access from your local networks 192.168.1.0/24 and 192.168.2.0/24. Make sure you adapt to list your internal IP networks from where browsing should be allowed:
acl our_networks src 192.168.1.0/24 192.168.2.0/24
http_access allow our_networks

Save and close the file. Start squid proxy server:
# chkconfig squid on
# /etc/init.d/squid start

Output:

init_cache_dir /var/spool/squid... Starting squid: .       [  OK  ]

Verify port 3128 is open:
# netstat -tulpn | grep 3128
Output:

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:3128                0.0.0.0:*                   LISTEN      20653/(squid)

Open TCP port 3128

Finally make sure iptables is allowing to access squid proxy server. Just open /etc/sysconfig/iptables file:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables
Append configuration:
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW,ESTABLISHED,RELATED -m tcp -p tcp --dport 3128 -j ACCEPT
Restart iptables based firewall:
# /etc/init.d/iptables restart
Output:

Flushing firewall rules:                                   [  OK  ]
Setting chains to policy ACCEPT: filter                    [  OK  ]
Unloading iptables modules:                                [  OK  ]
Applying iptables firewall rules:                          [  OK  ]
Loading additional iptables modules: ip_conntrack_netbios_n[  OK  ]

Client configuration

Open a webbrowser > Tools > Internet option > Network settings > and setup Squid server IP address and port # 3128.

See also

You may find our previous squid tips useful:

Squid Security and blocking content Related Tips

Squid Authentication Related Tips

Squid Other Tips

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Discussion on This Article:

  1. manivannanan Says:

    i need linux el e 5 ,how to configure cui mode in

    example el 4 netconfig ip ,subnet,gateway

    but same command not working in el 5 kindly send to me command

  2. Pkhunter Says:

    Hi,

    I just need to use Squid as a cache for Apache’s requests, not for any filtering or such. Is there anyway I can set it up on CentOS?

    Thanks!

  3. jessica koh Says:

    thanks for the tutorial.

    Now, I got everything working. I am trying to browse google.com using newly configure proxy. I get the below error

    “The requested URL could not be retrieved”

    Access Denied.

    How can I go about this? Thank you.

  4. kunal Says:

    How to set up reverse squid proxy server2.6 on CentOS

  5. Kunal Says:

    how to install Squid reverse proxy2.6 on CentOS

  6. kunal Says:

    how to install and configure reverse squid proxy for caching images for a long time and please explain refresh_pattern of squid and how to use it in Reverse Squid Proxy.

  7. shankar kumar Says:

    iam shankar kumar from bangalore. i have problem in dansgaudian problem how to configure dansguardian with squid and how to block downloading and uploding and some websites i want to block

  8. Ananda Bhattacharjee Says:

    Hello everybody,
    Can any body tell me how to block or restrict web sites via squid i386 7:2.6.STABLE6-4.el5 and is it possible to enable content filtering in squid if yes please tell me the steps to.

    Thanking You
    Ananda Bhattacharjee.
    ananda.bhattacharjee@gmail.com

  9. ASP Consultant Says:

    how to install squid guard on centos? how to block all external ip and allow some specific one from network?

  10. hasan Says:

    i want a brief method to install squid on CentOS 4.3 final….with trouble shooting..send me e books or physical magazine to my home address.Madina Mobiles Chowke Farooq-e-Azam Peco road link Multan road Lahore Pakistan.

  11. Ritesh Says:

    Hi!I m Ritesh,
    I just want to know what are the proceedures to configure transparent suqid proxy server.can anyone help?

  12. Andy Says:

    Hello, I get an error when I tried to do the command /etc/init.d/iptables restart, here was the output I received:

    [root@andydaykin ~]# /etc/init.d/iptables restart
    Flushing firewall rules: [ OK ]
    Setting chains to policy ACCEPT: mangle filter [ OK ]
    Unloading iptables modules: [ OK ]
    Applying iptables firewall rules: iptables-restore: line 1 failed
    [FAILED]

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