Not quite a FirstSpot question.. but related..

[SteveOllis]

Do you have plans and/or the capability to write a interception driver that would be compatible with Squid for Windows?

Steve

[alan]

This is an intriguing idea...

Technically, it matches our skill set very well. We need to ponder about the business side though since there is already a Microsoft ISA available on Windows. So you want to use Squid for Windows instead of ISA? Any special reason?
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~ Patronsoft Limited ~

[SteveOllis]

Microsoft ISA is a full blown product that does everything from filtering proxy to PPTP termination. And, of course, Microsoft charge an arm and a leg for it. And to be fair, it doesn't really play nicely with other proxy servers, like at an upstream ISP.

Squid has been around for UNIX for years, and the configuration of it is extremely well documented via Google, and via the Squid team themselves. The feature set of overall bandwith limitation, access control lists for content filtering and site access allow an incredibly fine level of granularity of control to the server admins. The level of control allowed over the caching of URLS, and content types.

So, a relatively inexpensive caching solution that would integrate cleanly into a FirstSpot hotspot server, to provide a better overall quality of service to the hotspot users, could only be a good thing right? WOuld definitely give you a competitive edge over other hotspot software providers.

You'll note, that I didnt make mention of bandwidth savings as an argument. I don't think proxy caches save bandwidth per se, but give the impression (to the clients) of having a larger network pipe than is actually there. And in a viral marketing environment like a hotspot, a lot of people can actually be pulling the same content from the same place.. serving the content from cache makes it seem faster, while freeing up the real bandwidth for fresh content.

Steve