[plug] List newbie asks dumb question - SQUID for home use?

[leon at brooks.smileys.net]

On 11 Nov, Tiwest JV wrote:
> Please excuse me (?flame me) if this issue has been covered before, but I am puzzled as to why you would install SQUID for home use when there is only one or perhaps two clients.  Surely SQUID is primarily a caching programme, not a proxy server (although perhaps it does "proxying" as well).  

Squid caches by proxying. Proxying is the method of accessing the
cacheing functions.

> If there is only a small number of clients, wouldn't they prefer to get "fresh" versions of the Web pages or files they are trying to access, rather the same ones they got before?  I know if I visit the same site repeatedly it is because the site changes rapidly and I specifically don't want a cached version.

Yes... and no. Many items on the page, such as logos, are static even
when the page content changes. You don't want to be pulling that down
the slow serial line again and again.

> Perhaps (this is very likely) I have a fundamental misunderstanding about the way SQUID operates... 

Yes. The source pages "know" when they will expire (in fact,
Microsoft ASPs and such-like have a nasty habit of being un-cacheable
even when they don't change for =years=), and Squid usually checks the
page first to see if it needs re-reading.