Re: [squid-users] Problems with Internet Download Manager and Squid 2.7 Stable 9

On 19.01.2012 07:16, Saiful Alam wrote:
> Hi,
> I am using Squid 2.7 Stable on Ubuntu 10.10 x64
>
> Files like
> mp3 which have a refresh_pattern defined, and downloaded within the
> browser download manager is cached, but if I download the file with
> Internet Download Manager 6.05, the file is not cached. Note that IDM
> by
> default uses 8 connections to download a single file. Again, if I
> reduce the default connection number to 1, and try to download again
> with IDM, then the file is cached instantly.
>

"cached instantly" is a bit of a strange description. Surely it
requires download time before caching? or did you means something else
entirely?

Consider what that download manager is doing. Splitting the file into
8+ pieces and requesting each of those pieces as different HTTP
requests. Squid cannot cache partial files, only whole files.

You can check for the download manager User-Agent value with a
"browser" type ACL and also a "maxconn" type ACL to block more than 1
connection at a time by it.
  The range_offset_limit and abort settings will also help with these
partial file requests. Their use is best known for WU, but applies to
any big partial file. http://wiki.squid-cache.org/SquidFaq/WindowsUpdate

Alternatively you can balance the users mistaken perception of DL
manager benefit with delay_pools which use the "browser" ACL type and
slow its rate of download so that users see it as worse than normal
traffic when they use it. Migration away from the manager

It is polite to inform your users about the proxy and the effect these
managers are having before going to such extremes. If you can make them
understand that they get *faster* downloads by working with the proxy
cache sharing. You can perhapse advise alternative methods of getting
fast download at the same time to encourage the change. see below.

> Most users in our
> network have IDM as their primary download manager, and if we can't
> cache objects downloaded with IDM, then :((((((((((((((((
>

This is a strong sign that they perceive the multiple connections the
manager provides as a faster network connection than the proxied
traffic. I've usually seen this sort of perception growing out of the
old browsers limitation of only opening ~2 connections to a proxy, which
makes things appear really slow when big objects are filling one of the
connections.
  There is a "connections to server" setting in browsers which can be
raised to 8-10 to double or quadruple the bandwidth availability for
each user without needing a manager to do it specifically. NP: be
careful you have enough FD available on the Squid before letting them
know about that.

Amos
Received on Wed Jan 18 2012 - 22:22:27 MST