Re: Comparison squid - Netscape Proxy

On Thu, 22 Jun 2000, Thomas Mueller wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> our company will install a proxy server soon.
>
> Has anybody experience with both products and give some advice, which
> one should be preferrable. Some benchmarks would also be very nice so I
> could show my chief something.

Unless the Netscape Proxy Server has changed significantly in the last 2
years, you are looking at a products that have two different primary
functions. Netscape Proxy Server addresses Web Server issues while Squid
addresses Web Client issues.

You would use Netscape Proxy Server as a common front-end to a web server
farm. You would use it to distribute HTTP client request over a group of
web servers that serve the same content. Or, direct HTTP client requests to
a web server that serves the content for a specific branch of your Web
hierarchy.

When I last used it in 1998, it was definitely not intended to serve as a
general-purpose Web Client Proxy. In a reality its a set of modules that
were ripped out of the Netscape Enterprise Server so that the marketdroids
had something that competed directly with the Microsoft Proxy Server.

If you are trying to distribute incoming HTTP requests over a web farm, you
can use Netscape Proxy Server, Microsoft Proxy Server, or Squid running in
an accelerator mode. Or, you can use a real server such as Apache.

If you are trying to make better use of your available bandwidth rather
than CPU horsepower, you want Squid. If you look at Netscape or Microsoft
Knowledgebases, you will discover that both their products suck when used in
this mode and become an administrative nightmare.

Merton Campbell Crockett
Received on Thu Jun 22 2000 - 07:43:20 MDT