Configuring a caching proxy server

Because the Firebox's HTTP proxy does no content caching, the Firebox has been designed to work with caching proxy servers. Because company employees often visit the same Web sites, this greatly speeds operations and reduces the load on external Internet connections. All Firebox proxy and WebBlocker rules that are in place still have the same effect.

The Firebox communicates with proxy servers exactly the same way that clients normally do. Instead of a GET request from the Firebox to the Internet looking like this:

GET / HTTP/1.1

It ends up looking like this, and the request is sent to the configured caching proxy server instead:

GET www.mydomain.com / HTTP/1.1

The proxy server then forwards this request to the Web server mentioned in the GET request.

To set up an external caching proxy server:

Configure an external proxy server, such as Microsoft Proxy Server 2.0.
Open Policy Manager with your current configuration.
Double-click the icon for your HTTP proxy service.

This can be either Proxy, HTTP, or Proxied-HTTP.
Click the Properties tab. Click the Settings button.
Enable the checkbox marked Use Caching Proxy Server.
In the fields below the checkbox, enter the IP address and TCP port of the caching proxy server. Click OK.
Save this configuration to the Firebox.

Related topics:

Selecting an HTTP Service

Adding a proxy service for HTTP

Incoming service guidelines

Outgoing service guidelines

Configurable parameters for services

Defining Firebox Users and Groups for Authentication

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