Proper setup for BWM bridge and Squid transparent proxy

I'll post this explanation here because there are a lot of people who couldn't get the BWM bridge working properly.
Main problem is the loss of internet connectivity on the server (gateway) itself, and the inability to use Squid in combination with BWM in bridge mode on Microsoft Windows.

First part: Setting up the bridge.
This information was taken from [www.softperfect.com]
The bridge will function without applying these settings, however, you will lose Internet on the server.
Setup the network cards with IP's in the same range.
The WAN side gets DNS and default gateway, the LAN side only gets an IP address. Leave DNS and gateway empty.
Open TCP/IP properties from the network card on the lan side, click on advanced and set the metric as 1.
After that, open TCP/IP properties from the network card on the WAN side and set the metric to 30.

Setup a static route and make it permanent:
Open a command prompt and type

route -p add (IP from your router/modem) mask 255.255.255.255 (IP from the nic on the WAN side)

You can check if the route is added to the routing table by typing "route print". This is the most important step, without the static route it just won't work.

When this is all done, and the rules of BWM are setup the right way, all the computers on the LAN and the server can access the web.

Second part:
Now setup squid in transparent mode. It's easy to do, and there is a lot of documentation available on the net. I use version 2.7 stable.
Let it listen on port 3128, no need to configure a specific interface.
You do have to configure the "acl" access control list to match your network.

If Squid is setup and running properly (check the logs in the var directory) it is time to change a setting on BWM.
On the main menu choose tools-port mapping and define a new mapping to port 3128, that is the Squid port. When the mapping is setup correctly, you have to change te -upload- rule, if you have separate rules like me.
Go to the advanced tap, choose "process through the following port mapping" and select the mapping you created previously. Use port 80.

When requests are coming in you should see this in Squid's access log.

My experience in networking is very limited, but if I can help anyone with it please go ahead and ask.

Cheers,
Arthur.

Hi Arthur, thank you very much for sharing your solution and sorry that we were unable to give it you and you had to find it in your own.

All the best.

That's ok Andrew, after all the static route was your idea so you did help me out.
If the server cannot access the internet, neither can Squid so that was the reason it didn't work at first.

Looking forward to the new version.

Cheers
Arthur.

Arthur,

Would you mind doing a step by step of the squid config you have please?

I'm okay with the bandwidth manager but not with squid. I would appreciate if you could elaborate a bit more on the squid config specifically.

Thank you

I am after exactly what you have, a bridge with squid running. Thanks.

I have squid working on the localhost. I can browse through squid locally by pointing the browser to localhost and port 3128.

I have confirmed the acl for my LAN and have tried the port redirection rule, but i am still not getting anywhere.

Can anyone shed some light, like with a step by step click here then click there type setup. It's easier for people to learn if they have easier instructions.

Please, anyone willing to share how to get squid working on a bridge in transparent mode, please do so.

Can softperfect not perhaps create a FAQ of hot to do this?

I will continue to play, but after a while i'm going to have to move on and find a way to do this because i have a deadline to find something.

Thank you

Harry, I'll try to help you but you need to be more specific about the problem. Exactly at what point are you having problems?

I doubt Softperfect will create a FAQ. Squid has nothing to do with BWM so it seems logical to me that Andrew doesn't provide support for it.
Any help you receive from the forum members on Squid specific questions will be off-topic but I don't think it's a problem.
So please explain, where does your setup fail?

Cheers,
Arthur.

Sorry I forgot, please post me your squid.conf and I'll take a look.

Cheers,
Arthur.

Dear Arthur

The Bridges BWM and the Squid transparent proxy programs are in the same windows server PC. ?

Regards

Carlos

Yes Carlos, I have them running on the same system, windows XP Pro SP3.

Cheers
Arthur.