Re: Best way to transparent proxy?

In article <35FA9113.2E12EEEE@hem.passagen.se> you wrote:
> Paul Gregg wrote:

>> My Question is: Having read the Squid Transparent Proxying FAQ -
>> What is the *best* and/or fastest way to provide transparent proxying.

> The best at this moment is probably to run Squid on your favorite
> server, and have a TCP switch redirect the traffic to your Squid
> server(s). The TCP switch is placed on the network path between your
> clients and the outgoing router. Using a TCP switch provides both good
> network performance and Squid fault tolerance (redirection is skipped if
> Squid fails), and it is easy to plug in another Squid if the first one
> gets overloaded.

Perhaps this is a rudimentary question - but what is a "TCP switch"?

>> What hardware is required? Cisco router, Linux box with single NIC?
>> or Dual-NIC Linux box configured as a router and just not use the
>> backbone router at all?

> Which one to use is a matter of taste, workload and wallet. Both share
> the property that if Squid or the Squid server fails then Internet
> access is blocked.

> =================================================================
> Problem | TCP switch | router + Linux | Linux router |
> --------------+-------------+----------------+------------------+
> Squid faiure | OK. Direct | HTTP blocked | HTTP blocked |
> --------------+-------------+----------------+------------------+
> OS failure + OK. Direct + HTTP blocked + Internet blocked |
> --------------+-------------+----------------+------------------+

> The cases marked as "HTTP blocked" can be eleminated by using monitoring
> that automatically disables the redirection if Squid or the OS fails.
> This is also true of the "Internet blocked" case of a failed linux
> router if there is a backup route (may need active route reprogramming
> since it may be possible that parts of Linux IP is working).

I think it comes down to "best" as in reliability and quality of service from
the proxy.

Thanks,

Paul.

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