How to Setup Squid Proxy Server on Ubuntu 18.04 & 16.04

Squid is the most popular Proxy server for Unix-like operating systems. It is also used for web filtering. Squid also useful as caching proxy server for the HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP protocols.

This article will help you to set up Squid Proxy Server on Ubuntu 18.10, 18.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS, and 14.04 LTS systems.

Step 1 – Install Package

Squid packages are available in default yum repositories. Execute the below command on your server to install the SQUID proxy server.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install squid

Step 2 – Configure Squid Port

The default port for the Squid proxy servers is 3128. You can change this as per the requirements. To set up Squid on different port, Edit squid configuration file and change http_port value with new port.

/etc/squid/squid.conf

 http_port 3128

After making changes let’s restart the Squid service to reload the configuration changes

sudo service squid restart

The next steps will help you to set up Squid Proxy Server on Ubuntu systems. Use only those settings, which is required for your proxy server.

Step 3 – Allow All Traffic

Sometimes you are required to allow all traffic on your proxy server. In Squid server open Squid configuration file. Comment the http_access deny all line and add the http_access allow all entry this file.

/etc/squid/squid.conf

 http_access allow all
 #http_access deny all

Step 4 – Block Specific Website with Squid

Let’s start with the additional configuration like blocking any website using a squid proxy server. Add below rules to block specific websites before any allow all rules. The below example will block yahoo.com and www.rediff.com.

/etc/squid/squid.conf

acl blocksite1 dstdomain yahoo.com
acl blocksite2 dstdomain www.rediff.com
http_access deny blocksite1
http_access deny blocksite2

If you have a long list of domain names, Create a file /etc/squid/blockwebsites.lst and put domain names one per line and add the below rule in the squid configuration file.

/etc/squid/squid.conf

acl blocksitelist dstdomain "/etc/squid/blockwebsites.lst"
http_access deny blocksitelist

blockwebsites.lst file content example:

cat /etc/squid/blockwebsites.lst

yahoo.com
www.rediff.com

Step 5 – Block Specific Keyword with Squid

Add below rules to block specific websites before any allow all rules. The below example will block all pages having the keyword yahoo or Gmail.

/etc/squid/squid.conf

acl blockkeyword1 url_regex yahoo
acl blockkeyword2 url_regex gmail
http_access deny blockkeyword1
http_access deny blockkeyword2

If you have a long list of keywords, Create a file /etc/squid/blockkeywords.lst and put keywords one per line and add the below rule in the squid configuration file.

/etc/squid/squid.conf

acl blockkeywordlist url_regex "/etc/squid/blockkeywords.lst"
http_access deny blockkeywordlist

blockkeywords.lst file content example:

cat /etc/squid/blockkeywords.lst

yahoo
gmail
facebook

Congratulation’s you have successfully install and configured Squid proxy server. Read next article to Configure Squid for Mac Address Based Filtering.