Re: [squid-users] ftp reverse proxing

From: Colin Campbell <sgcccdc@dont-contact.us>
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 15:03:34 +1000 (EST)

Hi,

On Tue, 9 Apr 2002 czeritis@agl.com.au wrote:

> After reading the FAQ and other associated docs i have come to the
> conclusion that Squid cannot play the part of a transparent FTP proxy, it
> can only talk http to the client and then do the ftp request to the server.

Correct. Squid only talks HTTP. This should also answer your next
question.

> This situation is fine for me however what I would like to know is if it
> can perform this service in reverse (ie accelerator mode). I have an FTP
> server running behind a firewall and Squid installed in a webserver in the
> our DMZ. I have Squid running in accelerator mode to proxy/cache HTPP I
> would like external clients to connect (via http if necessary) to Squid and
> have their requests relayed (via ftp) to the real ftp server.

You run into trouble here because of the way browsers handle FTP. If they
are not using a proxy, they make an FTP connection to the FTP server. No
HTTP anywhere. To handle these clients squid would have to behave like an
FTP server. It isn't one. The second type of client is configured to use
an HTTP proxy. In this case the browser talks HTTP to the proxy but the
proxy talks FTP to the server. Same problem. Squid speaks HTTP, not FTP to
its clients.

> Ideally it would be nice if the clients could connect to Squid using FTP -
> i.e. a completly transperant proxy however im assuming that this is not
> possible with Squid - would this be correct?

Yes, squid is an HTTP proxy.

Colin
Received on Mon Apr 08 2002 - 23:03:43 MDT

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