[squid-users] 2.5.STABLE5-CVS: Assistance determining "hangs" and pauses

Hello, I'm using version 2.5.STABLE5-CVS according to squid -v. It is
running on gentoo linux, running kernel 2.6.7.

Most of our users here log into a Windows 2003 enterprise server, using
terminal services. They are all configured to use this squid proxy for
http, https and ftp. The rest are standalone systems like mine. In other
words, most of the connections come from a single ip.

Every few minutes, or sometimes more, users viewing web pages will run
into hangs and pauses. These can last anywhere from a few seconds to as
long as a minute. From what I can tell, it affects anybody using the
proxy all at the same time. Immediately using a client not using the
proxy, going out the same gateway the proxy is, has no problems on the
same pages.

I am not using ident lookups in squid. I have checked the dns setup on
the system squid is running on, that's fine. I am not using any type of
authentication. We aren't using reverse lookups.

We are using a hostname to point at the proxies ip, however setting the
proxy to use by ip in a client still results in the same problems, at
the same times the rest see them.

The only thing I do notice is that we used to see 3 - 9 concurrent
connections to the proxy port, now it's common to see 20, 30, even 40.
These numbers rise from about the usual 5, quickly to 20, 30 then 40 or
so. After this, they slowly die off.

What I'm wondering is, is squid automatic in setting up "children" if
that's the right term? Or what might be some configuration options that
I can tweak with?

I'm interested in any input you might have, thanks a lot!

Below is the output of squid -v:

Squid Cache: Version 2.5.STABLE5-CVS
configure options: --prefix=/usr --bindir=/usr/bin --exec-prefix=/usr
--sbindir=/usr/sbin --localstatedir=/var --mandir=/usr/share/man
--sysconfdir=/etc/squid --libexecdir=/usr/lib/squid
--enable-auth=basic,digest,ntlm --enable-removal-policies=lru,heap
--enable-digest-auth-helpers=password
--enable-storeio=ufs,diskd,coss,aufs,null
--enable-basic-auth-helpers=PAM,LDAP,getpwnam,YP,NCSA,SMB,MSNT,multi-domain-NTLM,winbind --enable-external-acl-helpers=ldap_group,ip_user,unix_group,wbinfo_group,winbind_group --enable-ntlm-auth-helpers=SMB,fakeauth,no_check,winbind --enable-linux-netfilter --enable-ident-lookups --enable-useragent-log --enable-cache-digests --enable-delay-pools --enable-referer-log --enable-async-io --enable-truncate --enable-arp-acl --with-pthreads --enable-htcp --enable-carp --enable-poll --host=i686-pc-linux-gnu --enable-snmp --enable-ssl
Received on Tue Sep 07 2004 - 10:36:49 MDT