[squid-users] force caching (or High availability config)

Hi,

I have squid configured as a transparent proxy in front of application server
(ApS). Data generated by ApS gets updated infrequently and sometimes ApS gets
slow doing it's internal "housecleaning". What I want to do is for Squid
to "fudge" response times a bit by timing out connections to ApS after, say
20s and using cached data instead (even if it's outdated). This would also
help with ApS reboots so that data is available at all times regardless of
responsiveness or availability of ApS.

Looking through documentation and Google searches didn't bring up any relevant
information.

I do realize that this violates HTTP and is not widely applicable but in my
situation I can live with consequences (I think).

-- 
Dmitry Makovey
Web Systems Administrator
Athabasca University
(780) 675-6245