Install Squid proxy server on Ubuntu 14.04

Installing Squid

Squid is available in the Ubuntu repositories. To ensure your system is up to date and then to install Squid, run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install squid

Copy the original configuration file to keep as a backup:

sudo cp /etc/squid/squid.conf /etc/squid/squid.conf.default

The first thing you may like to change is the Squid listening port. By default, Squid is listening on port 3128. To change the default listening port you need to edit the http_port directive. For example, if you like to set 8888 as Squid listening port, you should edit the directive to look like the directive below:

http_port 8888

To restart Squid you can use the following command:

sudo /etc/init.d/squid restart

Authentication

You will need the htpasswd utility. If you’ve installed Apache on your Linode, you will already have it. Otherwise run:

sudo apt-get install apache2-utils

Create your own user and password:

sudo htpasswd -c -d /etc/squid/passwords any_username_you_want
sudo chmod o+r /etc/squid/passwords

WARNING: At this point be careful your password should be 8 digits long otherwise it will use the first 8 digits off your password. You can use something shorter.

[IMPORTANT] Find INSERT YOUR OWN RULE(S) HERE TO ALLOW ACCESS FROM YOUR CLIENTS in the conf file and add the following lines just after it

I use Vim to edit config:

sudo vim /etc/squid/squid.conf

and add those lines to squid.conf:

acl allcomputers src 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
auth_param basic program /usr/lib/squid/basic_ncsa_auth /etc/squid/passwords
auth_param basic realm proxy
acl authenticated proxy_auth REQUIRED
http_access allow authenticated allcomputers

Like this:

#
# INSERT YOUR OWN RULE(S) HERE TO ALLOW ACCESS FROM YOUR CLIENTS
#

acl allcomputers src 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
auth_param basic program /usr/lib/squid/basic_ncsa_auth /etc/squid/passwords
auth_param basic realm proxy
acl authenticated proxy_auth REQUIRED
http_access allow authenticated allcomputers

Don’t forget restarting Squid with command:

sudo /etc/init.d/squid restart

To check access logs:

sudo tail -f /var/log/squid/access.log

Enjoy! 😀