Simplifying User Browsing with Squid Transparent Proxying

Transparent proxying frees you from the hassle of setting up individual browsers to work with proxies. If you have a hundred, or a thousand, users on your network, it's a pain to set up each browser and to use proxies -- or to try to convince users to go into their preferences and type in these symbols they don't understand.. . . Transparent proxying frees you from the hassle of setting up individual browsers to work with proxies. If you have a hundred, or a thousand, users on your network, it's a pain to set up each browser and to use proxies -- or to try to convince users to go into their preferences and type in these symbols they don't understand.

Using transparent proxying, you intercept their web requests and redirect them through the proxy. Nice and simple -- on the surface.

Transparent proxying (more commonly known as TCP hijacking) is like Network Address Translation (NAT) in some respects: It is to be avoided at all costs, and only used if there absolutely, positively, no other way.