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I've recently installed OpenSUSE on a VMWarePlayer VM on a windows server 2008R2 (x64) machine.

I'd like to set up a SOCKS(?) proxy that allows me to relay connections via my home network from anywhere if required.

What I'm looking for:

  • Light-weight (Not critical but desirable - No need for bloat)
  • Accessible from anywhere
  • Can be turned on/off JUST by configurtin
  • Allows me to restrict access to myself and selected others. Access completely controlled by me.
  • Ideally perform some configurable caching (don't want to waste bandwidth, don't want to waste diskspace on an otherise unused VM)
  • The ability to log would connections be nice but not required

Things I'm aware of:

  • The VM is set up to use Bridged Netowrking and gets an IP address from the router via DHCP. The IP address is mapped to the MAC address so should be static.
  • The Router will need to forward the appropriate ports - no problems here.
  • The VM will be always-on (It's on a server specifically for VMs inside my home network)
  • In case it helps, I've got a full EV SSL cert for the DNS entry which point at my gome network. It isn't installed on the OpenSUSE server yet
  • The Server only has 1 (virtual) NIC and I don't require it to act as a firewall/gateway/anything else.
  • I don't require the proxy to be transparent ever.

The problems:

  • I'm a linux newbie. I've used the CLI for years to fix minor problems for my LAMP dev environment whilst relying heavily on the internet. Assume I know ls, cat, vi, putty, scp, mount, cron and similar level commands but not much else beyond configuring a LAMP environment. I've used iptables but don't underst\and them
  • I've been using a flavour of Ubuntu (Turnkey LAMP) without a GUI which works for 99% of my LAMP serving needs. Unfortunately, I need to get my dev environment in line with a new production one - hence OpenSUSE. Unfortunately, this means I've only seen a linux desktop for the first time today.
  • I found Yast and it seems to help a lot but I'm not confident that I'll use it without bricking something unless I've got a guide. I've done this twice already and I'm getting bored of re-installing.
  • I'm aware that Hyper-V comes with my server but I'm using VMWare Player to emulate a production VM, so it's not optional.

Noe, I used to have a SmoothWall installation and it used (I believe) Squid which seemed perfect - but I don't even know what distro that was running on. I assume Squid is available for OpenSUSE as it's in yast but there are multiple versiobs. In addition, the smoothwall box used 2 NICs and the VM only has one - so I'm not sure it applies.

In short, I believe I unserdtand the problem but would appreciate some expert guidance.

  • Should I be trying to get Squid?
  • Is OpenSUSE the right server? I picked it as it can double as LAMP dev environment if required.
  • Where can I find a good tutoriual for newbies?

I'd normally spend a few weeks googling and testing but unfortunately, I've got a time constraint on this and ideally need it up by the weekend.

Thanks for your time and help.

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  • You seem to be asking multiple different questions here. The Q&A format used here is intended for one question per question.
    – freiheit
    Jan 20, 2012 at 23:09
  • @freiheit I'm not sure I agree. The only reason I explain my (lack of) experience and is to allow others to tailor their answers accordingly. My question is "Which caching proxy most closely fits the specified criteria". What else do you think I'm asking?
    – Basic
    Jan 21, 2012 at 3:16
  • "should I use squid?", "should I use OpenSUSE?", "where can I find a tutorial?"
    – freiheit
    Jan 21, 2012 at 3:47
  • @freiheit Sorry you feel that way - feel free to vote close if ytou wish.
    – Basic
    Jan 21, 2012 at 3:48

1 Answer 1

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I liked wwwoffle when I still used slow lines. I used it on a Debian system. In wwwoffle you could still use the cache, even when offline (hence the name).

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  • Thanks for your answer. I went with squid as noibody had replied but I'll give this a spin - the offline feature sounds neat although I can't see much use for it on a desktop, I might install it on my laptop
    – Basic
    Jan 20, 2012 at 22:46

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