Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-edu (110 mails)

["npauli" <npauli@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Phillip Deackes <gsmh@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <suse-linux-uk-schools@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 6:07 PM
Subject: [suse-linux-uk-schools] I am now trying to set up my squid machine
. . help!!!

I'm setting up squid here as well so I'm deeply interested in all that
you're going through.


> A couple of weeks ago, many of you gave me some invaluable help on
> setting up squid on a machine at school. The aim was to use it as a web
> proxy cache on an RM Connect network.

I had a merry few days simply trying to get my linux box to use our ISDN
router. My biggest problem was getting past the preferences bit on Netscape
[it had an idiot proof lock on it, it seems... : ) ]

> OK. I have the machine connected to the network and have configured it
> so that I can connect to the Internet through the network card. I put
> the address of our router as the gateway. I installed squid and made
> changes to /etc/squid.conf as suggested by Simon Rainey. I quote his
> comments below:
>
> cache_peer icpcache-1.rmplc.co.uk parent 8080 3130 no-digest
> cache_peer icpcache-2.rmplc.co.uk parent 8080 3130 no-digest
> cache_peer icpcache-3.rmplc.co.uk parent 8080 3130 no-digest
> cache_peer icpcache-4.rmplc.co.uk parent 8080 3130 no-digest
>
> # define the local network
> acl local-network dst 212.132.119.128/255.255.255.192
> acl all src 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
> # force all requests for local resources to go direct
> always_direct allow local-network
> # force all requests for non-local resources to go via a parent
> never_direct allow all

What I am learning is that alot of the art and magic and pitfalls in setting
up squid is in this bit of the config file so I'll give this a try myself.

> You will need to reconfigure the browsers on all your stations to use
> your
> new proxy. By default Squid will listen on port 3128 wheras the IFL
> proxies
> listen on port 8080. If you want to keep your local proxy consistent
> then
> add this to the Squid config:
>
> http_port 8080
>
> So far so good.
>
> My ignorance is almost total - I have a few questions:
>
> How do I make it so that other machines on the network can see the new
> linux machine?

If you are on an RM network you cannot simply add the IP address and name of
each of your linux machine to each of your other machines C:\windows\hosts
files. Unfortunately : ) there is an easier way to do it. See P. 37 in the
RM Connect Reference Manual where you add a line to the HOSTS file and then
re-allocate the INETOpts package.

> When I set it up I could not get it to assign an IP address
> automatically - don't understand dhcp. I am not sure how it can use the
> dhcp services of the server. I assigned it the last IP address in our
> allocated block, assuming the dhcp server would then not assign this
> address to another workstation.

DHCP sounds scarier than it is. Do you have an NT4 server involved in this
equation? If so, reading the Help files associated with Start -> Programs ->
Administrative tools (Common) -> DHCP Manager is actually very helpful and
it will sort you out with regards to dhcp scopes and leases and excluding
addresses otherwise within the scope.

> What do I set as the hostname and domain? On my home machine I just used
> a made-up hostname and the domain of my ISP. At school, my email address
> is p.deackes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; we run our own mailserver at
> mail.oadby-gartree.leics.sch.uk.

Our domain is st-johns.org.uk and the hostname of the machine I'm setting up
as a squid proxy cache is oak which means that its full name is
oak.st-johns.org.uk. Through the Linux For Schools Project I've got another
machine, called beech, set up to run accounts including email and webspace
for our chaps and so on that my email address is
npauli@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx but don't try emailing me at that address
because its entirely internal -- and seeing what I'm letting them get out of
their system in the way of enormous ASCII-art .sig files, the world should
be grateful that it is internal!
In other words, your domain is set for you but you can give the machines
within that domain any host name you like. (We're in the Chilterns so out of
my IT room window I see oak, ash and beech.) Just make sure that each
machine has its own unique line in \etc\hosts along the lines of:

127.0.0.1    localhost
192.168.346.1    kauri.st-johns.org.uk    kauri    squid-cache

The first line is one that is reserved, by convention, as the loopback
address for 'the machine that is known as this machine' i.e. the 'localhost'
and is damned useful for talking to yourself in a tcp/ip kind of way. The
second line is the address of this machine within the 192.168.346.0 subnet
and it tells you that its hostname is kauri and, unless someone is being
cute and amusing, it looks like its spending a bit of its time being a proxy
cache server. Notice that there is no truth value in anything on these two
lines. Line one is pure convention and, because of it, very useful. The
second line doesn't make kauri a proxy caching server; but it will be if
squid is running in the background at that ip address and if client browsers
turn up there at a mutually convenient port - whether its 8080 or 3128 is
simply a matter of convenience, consistency and, above all, agreement.

> When I enter the proxy details in Internet Explorer on the Windows
> workstations what do I actually put for the new machine? I gather
> Simon's suggestions mean that the port is 8080, but what about the proxy
> address?
>
> I hope things are vaguely on target since I can surf the web OK. I am
> currently using isdncache.rmplc.co.uk:8080 as the proxy in Netscape.
>
> Many thanks indeed for your help - and sorry to be so dense!

Thanks very much for the questions - and if anyone wants to disagree with
the way I've explained things here, please do get stuck in because I'm sure
I'll learn from the resultant debate.

Nigel Pauli
St. John's School, Northwood
Test bed for the 'Linux for Schools Project'

>
> --
> Phillip Deackes
> Using Storm Linux
>