Problems

I cant surf the web.

If you are on a lab machine or a proxy limited host and you attempt to surf out of hours, then you will get a message saying that you can only surf 9am-5pm.

If the message is one about unable to contact the proxy, then you might have to restart the proxy server as outlined below.

The proxy server wont restart.

Probably /var is full. Clear out /var/log or /var/tmp to free some space.

People need to surf out of hours.

Well you can sites that can be visited out of hours to the file /etc/squid/squid.conf and restarting squid.

An example of the config file that allows hotmail access out of hours.

acl hotmail dstdomain   hotmail.com
acl hotmail2 dstdomain   hotmail.passport.com
acl hotmail3 dstdomain   hotmail.msn.com

http_access allow hotmail
http_access allow hotmail2
http_access allow hotmail3

This can be found in the # TAG: http_access section of the config file.

I cant get cookies to work

Are you using the junk stripping proxy (port 8000 or proxy_noads.pac)? If so, you can either just switch over to the real proxy (port 3128 or just proxy.pac) or you really need cookies all the time, then you can add them to the file /etc/junkbuster/cookiefile.local and regenerate the junkfile config file as mention below.

Proxy operation

The proxy server is squid, running on the server proxy.earth.monash.edu.au. The proxy provides the service on TCP port 3128 of this host.

When the ITS manditory proxy use comes in, we should hopefully be pointing our proxy server at their proxy server. We will then need to carve up the web use costs by individual based on IP number and/or user name.

(I intened to make the public lab's require authentication, and the desk top machines just be charged by IP number).

sh /etc/rc.d/init.d/squid start will start the squid server. status, stop, restat are all obvious.

Advert stripping

Junk buster runs on the proxy machine also, providing a proxy service on port 8000 that strips advertising banners and cookies from surfing.

The control files can be found in /etc/junkbuster. Read the documentation in /usr/doc/junkbuster-2.0.2/.

To update the junkbuster list:

sh /usr/doc/junkbuster-2.0.2/junkbuster.weekly 
sh /usr/doc/junkbuster-2.0.2/junkbuster.monthly

proxy.pac file:

//
// Earth science proxy.pac file.
//
function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {
  if (isPlainHostName(host) || dnsDomainIs(host, ".earth.monash.edu.au"))
     return "DIRECT";
   else
     return "PROXY proxy.earth.monash.edu.au:3128; DIRECT";
}

proxy_noads.pac file:

//
// Earth science proxy.pac file.
//
function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {
  if (isPlainHostName(host) || dnsDomainIs(host, ".earth.monash.edu.au"))
     return "DIRECT";
   else
     return "PROXY proxy.earth.monash.edu.au:8000; DIRECT";
}