[ale] Linux proxy server

[ED PAYNTER]

Dear ALE:
	My name is Ed Paynter and I am the network administrator for
Greensboro Day School, a K-12 school located in Greensboro, NC.  Our
school has recently (last December) installed a campus Ethernet network
to connect our classrooms to file services and the Internet via a 256K
fractional T-1 line.  We have about 120 Macs (from LC-550s to PowerPC
5400s) and 25 PCs (486 and Pentiums). We use Windows NT 3.51 and
Microsoft IIS as our Internet server.
	I would like to use Linux as a caching proxy server to speed up access
since quite frequently 10-20 of our machines access the same sites in
classroom situations, often for a couple of days at a time.  I have
been told that this is possible but can find little information or
support from local sources as Linux is not a commercially profitable
item for consultants (they suggest Microsoft Proxy Server, etc.), but I
currently do not have funds for setting up such a system.
	What I do have is several extra 486 DX-100 machines with up to 32 meg
of RAM, a couple of 1 gig hard drives, several Intel EtherExpress
Pro-10 NICs, a new copy of RedHat Linux that was given to me and the
desire to make it work.  
	My first question is:  Will it work?  With the hardware I have, can I
build an adequate Linux-based proxy server that will help our Internet
access speed.
	My second question is: Assuming the answer to the first question is
yes, will I need additional software (proxy-services,etc.) in order to
setup the proxy or are they a part of Linux.
	And my last question:  Assuming that both 1 & 2 are answered yes,
could I use this same machine as a firewall for our network.  It seems
logical to assume that a proxy server could also act as a firewall. 
Currently, we have little protection from the Internet (our main
protection is that we are probably a very boring site and thus of
little interest to hackers) and the fact that our fileserver uses only
IPX and AppleTalk with no drive mapping to our Internet server.   We do
nightly backups just in case.
	I hope you may be able to advise me on this.  I am a newcomer to Linux
but it seems to be a very stable operating system and I intend to learn
as much as possible about it.  We have several teachers who may be
interested in making it part of their Introduction to Operating Systems
curriculum and I would be expected to support them.  Thank you for your
time and consideration.

Ed Paynter

-- 
Edward Paynter
Manager of Information Systems
Greensboro Day School
Greensboro, North Carolina