Re: [squid-users] Squid3 issues

[Nyamul Hassan]

Your rant can be summarized as follows:

1.  You are using a OS (and version) which (according to you) has poor 
documentation or other info.  Ubuntu / Debian are very popular Linux 
flavours.  As someone who claims to have been a Linux administrator for 
"several years", haven't you ever come across the FD issue in any situation? 
Strange!

2.  You are a single man catering to "many" servers, so you don't want to 
"waste time" with a software that you could not get running on an OS as in 
#1.  The "we" in my email was meant to be my company.  I personally see over 
all the installations we have.  No one else as a helping hand.

3.  You find a lot of people complaining that they can't run squid.  But, 
you ignore a lot of other people (like myself and Jan who responded to your 
post) who are saying this is a brilliant piece of software.

Instead of ranting, I would suggest you change your attitude, and start 
laying down the problems that you are facing.  Someone from the community 
will always get back to you, as they have for me in the past.

I have no intention of starting a flame war here.  I just want you to calm 
down, and assure you, Squid in itself is a brilliant piece of code. 
Remember, this is the same software that serves Wikipedia, and that speaks a 
lot about how stable this software is.

Also, Squid 3.0 is still under active development, and is not suitable for 
all scenarios.  We use 2.7 because we use it as a forward proxy, and many 
features available in the 2.x branch have not yet been fully migrated to the 
3.x branch.  So, 2.7 suits our scenario more.  Perhaps you can also mention 
what your scenario is.

As for OS, I've seen some people say FreeBSD is one of the best OS for 
Squid.  But, we ourselves are pretty happy with CentOS 5.x.  So, find out 
what works for you.  Ubuntu / Debian are also very popular Linux flavours, 
so I think you need to search some more about how to increase FDs.

I hope you find solutions to your woes, and come to use Squid to your 
favour.

Regards
HASSAN



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gmail" <adbas...@googlemail.com>
To: "Nyamul Hassan" <mnhas...@usa.net>
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 00:01
Subject: Re: [squid-users] Squid3 issues


Hello,
I did say that some people would disagree, I know that there are people 
who might find it brilliant
I am not moaning, I was stating facts, you're talking about the version 
2.7 or whatever you're using
I am talking about version 3.0++.

All of the examples don't make any sense I have followed them to the 
letter and yet I still got lot of issues, as for the emails I did reply to 
both of them and twice
and I even sent another email asking another question, if it works for you 
then good for you, I am glad that some people like it.
but for me it didn't work, no matter what I tried, I am using Ubuntu, 
that's another thing you will find certain things in details for most OSes 
but not for Ubuntu or even a debian and if you do find anything it's 
always with the older versions., which you know most things in the v2.0++ 
are not recognised in version 3.0

I have been a webmaster for many years and I have used many linux distros, 
I have compiled, installed and ran countless programmes.
I also code in Java, and many other scripting languages, I am not exactly 
a novice.

If you think the programme is so brilliant, then don't take my word for 
it, just check out the forums, mailing lists etc.. you will see how many 
people are having difficulties with squid, since it started.
It hasn't got any better I had a go few years back I had the same problems 
back then.
If you do like it good for you, and to tell me if I don't like it I 
shouldn't use it, yes if we had another option yes, but we don't, and it's 
not as good as people claim to be, the truth is, people don't have a 
choice or an alternative.

If you're happy spending hours everyday solving one problem after another, 
be my guest but I hardly have the time to mock around with useless 
software, People should be able to use and run without having to become 
experts.
The same things applies to the Linux community, that's why most pople 
can't be bothered to have linux in their homes, even though deep down they 
know that Microsoft isn't reliable.

And you're talking in "we" meaning you have more than one person to run 
whatever you're running, as for me I am running everything all by myself, 
from the webservers, to the clients, to the DBs, to the chat servers, to 
the commercial websites, all by myself.
So I don't have the time to waste with one program that is supposed to be 
compiled, installed and ran without any difficulties, not even a read me 
on how to install it., unless you run .configure --help in order to find 
the list of options, and most of them are not recognised and so on and so 
forth.

on one hand solving problems caused by Squid and then solve problems on 
the system itself in order for it to recognise it,
not to mention the huge amount of errors you'll get when you try and 
configure it and then compile it etc...

You're right if I don't like it I don't use, that is exactly the attitude 
I am talking about, instead of trying to improve the software so people 
can use it, you give them the choice take it or leave it, is that it?
Listen my friend I am not here to pick an argument with people, all I am 
saying is people should come out of this mindset of "I am a volunteer" 
therefore I don't have to do anything, when you do something do it 
properly or don't bother.
Don't expect anyone who walks in will understand your software or your 
program, I make programs with perl and java I make sure that anybody can 
run it, install it and compile it with instructions step by step on how to 
use it.

Have a nice day and good luck to you and everybody else
Cheers! :)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nyamul Hassan" <mnhas...@usa.net>
To: <squid-users@squid-cache.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 2:12 PM
Subject: Re: [squid-users] Squid3 issues


Your email is one long whining without much substance at all.  I have 
been a
member of this list for over 3 years now, and been using Squid for a year
and a half.  During all this time, I have always found this list to be
hospitable, and helpful.

If you don't like the software, then don't use it.  It's not costing you
anything.  That being said, I have almost never found any attitude from 
any
person on the list that says RTFM.  Even when someone asks about obvious
things, someone is kind enough to point to the right direction.

We use over 4 Squid proxies (running 2.7STABLE7), running commodity
hardware, and their performance has been more than satisfactory to us.
However, we run all of them over CentOS 5+.  Last year, even commercial 
vendor Bluecoat could not give us a strong enough reason to show that 
their product performed any better than Squid to justify the cost 
differential.

If it is file descriptors that is creating problems, then you need to 
read the OS docs on how to increase that on the OS side.  On CentOS, 
running "ulimit -n" shows how many FDs are allowed by the OS.

As for Squid, a simple recompile with the "--with-maxfd=XXXX" flag worked
like a charm for me.  Using "squid -v" is always handy to get the 
existing compile-time flags first.

Whatever your frustration at this point, whining over at the forum, and
blaming everyone else and saying "admit that squid does not work", is 
pretty lame.

Oh, by the way, I searched my email archives of the Squid Mailing List, 
with your "email id", and it turned out there is only one email from you, 
and that was only 15 hours ago, within which there have been 4 email 
responses already.  You did not even reply to one of them saying what did 
not go as suggested.

Regards
HASSAN



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gmail" <adbas...@googlemail.com>
To: <squid-users@squid-cache.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 19:30
Subject: [squid-users] Squid3 issues


Hello everyone,
I have been trying for nearly 5 weeks now to get this piece of software 
to
work, I have tried several versions, I have tried it on several 
platforms,
all I got from it is frustration, I know that some people would say what 
a
fantastic piece of software.

I have used many softwares, packages, compiled stuff for years, never 
ever
had an experience such as this one, it's a package full of headaches, 
and
problem after problem, And to be honest the feedback I get is always
blaming other things, why can't you people just admit that Squid doesn't
work at all, and you are not providing any help whatsoever, as if you
expect everyone to be an expert.

I also don't like the attitude of some people, talking to you as if 
you're
an "idiot", while in fact you follow their suggestions to the letter and
yet it doesn't work, instead of blaming the operating systems and 
blaming
people for not knowing how to use it, why can't you try and do something
that works for a change, I have wasted nearly 5 weeks day in day out
sometimes I stayed til 3 or 4 am trying desperately to get this thing
working.

For instance if I compile with no options I know that somewhere down the
line I am going to find out that I needed this or that, if I compile it
with some options I get errors that don't make any sense, examples.

I uninstalled the version that was packaged with Ubuntu hardy, I am 
trying
to compile it so I won't have the same problem, with the file 
descriptors,
I followed exactly the suggestions in the configure --help menu, yet I 
am
getting an error,
like Compile cannot create executable, or something to that effect.

Not to mention when I tried to run it, it didn't forward any requests, I
have followed all of the configuration examples and people's 
suggestions,
never could forward any request to my backend server.

After three weeks I managed to get my clients to have access to the
internet, and many applications didn't work, such as Yahoo, Msn, Steam 
and
so on, when I ask for help, nobody has an answer including some members 
of
the team.

Yes I can hear some arguments, saying but we are volunteers, true, but 
you
either do something that works or don't.

If I needed help for say, Unrealircd or any other program I know I can 
get
help, and their documentaion, does what it says on the tin. you follow
their instructions, you will get it to work exactly as they say.

With squid, it doesn't work, that's all I am getting, I don't even 
believe
that it works now to be honest, I am sorry I am not moaning but it's 
true,
I have been on many forums for weeks and all I could see were problems
people are facing with any version of squid , and no solutions are given
very few and after you fix one problem 10 others pop up somewhere else I
certainly don't want to spend my life fixing and bashing my head trying 
to
find a solution, I want something that works, but unfortunately it
doesn't.

I am just going to try something else somewhere else,
Thanks all the same for anyone who tried to help, but this is not for 
me,
life is too short to waste anymore of my time, in trying to get 
something
that doesn't work, "working"

If anybody can prove me wrong:

Regards
All the best to everyone