[users@httpd] looking for a proxy server

[Yi Fang <yi...@mail.widernet.org>]

Hello, all, Can anyone here help me out, 

Can you please help me?  I'm with the Widernet Project, a non profit 
organization helping universities in Africa to get access to digital 
academic resources. We are looking for a customized proxy server solution 
and need your guidance. 

With our eGranary Digital Library, we deliver -- with the authors' 
permissions -- 1.5 million Web documents to schools in Africa with little or 
no Internet bandwidth.  The eGranary Digital Library is currently installed 
at 30 schools in Africa (See http://www.egranary.org )  We're looking to 
customize a proxy server to use with this large information store, which we 
expect to grow to 5 million documents in the next few years. 

The particular proxy server we need is to be able to cache Internet material 
in it's native file/folder format (without using hashing table, or 
compressing, etc.)  Our ideal proxy server would never time out Web pages, 
it would allow everyone to surf through the cached documents and only people 
with special priveleges access to the Internet (since most universities in 
Africa charge their users for Internet access), it would be able to store 
surfed websites, broadcasted websites, and websites copied to it from CDs 
and DVDs but still have the exact URL as the real website out on the 
Internet.     

We have looked into Jigsaw, Squid, Apache, HttpD CERN, and other open source proxy 
servers, we'd like some advice on which ones we can easily modify to fit our 
needs, or if there is ONE which meet all our needs. 

Would you be willing to advise us?  Your help would be much appreciated.  As 
well, if you know others who could help us out, please let me know how I can 
contact them. 

I've added some background information about our project to the bottom of 
this letter that explains how the eGranary Digital Library overcomes the 
bandwidth crisis most schools in developing countries face. 

Thank you for any help you can give me.     

Yi Fang 


Background information 

Many African universities have no Internet connection.  Those that are 
connected to the Internet have such limited bandwidth that they cannot offer 
free Web browsing to the majority of their staff and students.  Bandwidth in 
Africa can cost up to 100 times what it costs in the U.S., so for some 
universities a slim Internet connection can consume the equivalent of 24 
full-time professor salaries every year. 

Even for those individuals who have the wherewithal to pay for Web browsing, 
the experience can be frustratingly slow -- it can take hours to download a 
single audio file. 


The Solution 

The eGranary Digital Library provides an information delivery system that is 
economically and technologically appropriate for African and other 
developing nations.     

Conceived by the University of Iowa's WiderNet Project, the eGranary Digital 
Library "Stores the Seeds of Knowledge" by moving a massive assortment of 
digital educational materials -- many readily available on the Internet in 
developed countries -- onto the local area networks of subscriber 
institutions.  This arrangement makes information available to everyone 
within the institution, freely and instantly, even when the Internet 
connection is malfunctioning or non-existent.  In other words, the rationale 
for this project is, "If you can't come to the Internet, we'll bring the 
Internet to you!" 

Through a process of mirroring (copying) Web sites and delivering them on 
inexpensive disk drives to systems INSIDE African institutions, the eGranary 
Digital Library provides millions of documents -- text, audio, video, 
animations - that can be instantly accessed.  Most participating 
institutions already have servers and local area networks in place, so they 
simply add the eGranary hard drive (the size of a paperback book) to their 
existing server.  (With some institutions, it is necessary to set up their 
first servers, often using donated computers and software.)  Thus, for a 
one-time cost (approximately $150 for a 120 gigabyte disk drive) the 
problems of adequate and reliable Internet access are nullified and no 
longer impede the flow of valuable and necessary information within 
educational institutions in Africa and other developing countries.     



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Re: [users@httpd] looking for a proxy server

[Alexander Stoll <te...@gmx.de>]

Yi Fang schrieb:

> The particular proxy server we need is to be able to cache Internet material 
> in it's native file/folder format (without using hashing table, or 
> compressing, etc.)  Our ideal proxy server would never time out Web pages, 
> it would allow everyone to surf through the cached documents and only people 
> with special priveleges access to the Internet (since most universities in 
> Africa charge their users for Internet access), it would be able to store 
> surfed websites, broadcasted websites, and websites copied to it from CDs 
> and DVDs but still have the exact URL as the real website out on the 
> Internet.     

I´m not aware of any out of the box solution that suits your needs 
exactly...
Just a hint how to achieve your requirements:

- deliver the content from discs via apache
- redirect DNS queries for the domains content provided via discs to 
your local apache servers
- set up a proxy chain (squid)
- parent squids expire their caches only if a privileged user fetches 
newer material or never expire (offline browsing configured)
- child squid consults parent first and delivers already cached content 
to all, fetches new only for privileged users

best regards, AS


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