"smart proxy" proposal and brainstorming
The idea here is to set up a linux box that can act as a WAP/gateway with optional LTSP support, host local instances of some sites (e.g. wikipedia via Wikipedia for Schools), and transparently direct all content requests that go through it to (in order of preference):
- The corresponding local content, if present
- The requested remote content, if present and there is internet access
- bonus points for caching along the way
- ..and also for having a switch we can flip to not bother with this step if we know there's no Internet
- A default catch-all page if all else fails
This issue is being used to track work on this project. Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions there.
My hope is that this can be done using a combination of iptables and nginx.
- iptables redirection to proxy
-
nginx for proxying (and caching?)
- I am assuming/hoping that the proxy_intercept_errors directive can be used to facilitate the multiple levels of fallback described above. If not, and there isn't another way to do this, we may be stuck.
This flowchart attempts to illustrate the idea in more detail...