33.7. squidGuard

This section is not intended to explain an extensive configuration of squidGuard, only to introduce it and give some advice for using it. For more in-depth configuration issues, refer to the squidGuard Web site at http://www.squidguard.org.

squidGuard is a free (GPL), flexible, and fast filter, redirector, and access controller plug-in for Squid. It lets you define multiple access rules with different restrictions for different user groups on a Squid cache. squidGuard uses Squid's standard redirector interface.

squidGuard can do the following:

squidGuard and Squid cannot be used to:

Before it can be used, install squidGuard. Provide a minimal configuration file as /etc/squidguard.conf. Find configuration examples in http://www.squidguard.org/config/. Experiment later with more complicated configuration settings.

Next, create a dummy “access denied” page or a more or less complex CGI page to redirect Squid if the client requests a blacklisted Web site. Using Apache is strongly recommended.

Now, configure Squid to use squidGuard. Use the following entry in the /etc/squid/squid.conf file:

redirect_program /usr/bin/squidGuard

Another option called redirect_children configures the number of “redirect” (in this case squidGuard) processes running on the machine. squidGuard is fast enough to handle many requests: on a 500 MHz Pentium with 5,900 domains and 7,880 URLs (totalling 13,780), 100,000 requests can be processed within 10 seconds. Therefore, it is not recommended to set more than four processes, because the allocation of these processes would consume an excessive amount of memory

redirect_children 4

Last, have Squid load the new configuration by running rcsquid reload. Now, test your settings with a browser.


SUSE LINUX Administration Guide 9.3