Does squid really improve server performance

[nitesh mehta]

Hi,
I read somewhere that Squid improves the server performance, is this true?

I really need to know more about the same & how the squid works?
Please let me know if anyone knows about squid.

[Modifier]

I have just set up squid on my proxy server and i think it is great..
I have the cache_mem set to 32mb and maximum size set to 150mb but i would like to boost the performance my computer is not the greatest it is intel celetron 500mhz with 390mb ram and i run ubuntu on cli only so it should not take up all that much ram so what should i put my cache_mem up to and does anyone have any suggestions to improve the performance. cache_mem is not the maximum amount of memory Squid will use. It's only a measure for the amount of popular files that will be kept in memory at all costs

[Itronix]

Squid is an Open Source proxy application that can also be used as a reverse proxy. The difference between a proxy and a reverse proxy is that a proxy delivers content from multiple webservers to one user, while a reverse proxy delivers content from one webserver to multiple users.

Squid is an application that caches HTTP requests, subsequently serving the same request more quickly. When requests are served from the cache, the webserver does not have to expend resources to regenerate pages, transfer images, and so on. Squid stores XHTML pages, images, CSS files, JavaScript and other data transmitted over HTTP via the proxy as long as the data is configured as cacheable by the application