I have dnsservers that aren being used, should I lower the number in squid.conf?
The dnsservers are used by squid because the routines to convert web sites names to their internet addresses (gethostbyname()) are blocking, i.e. the process that calls it has to wait for a reply. Since there is only one squid process, everyone who uses the cache would have to wait each time the routine was called. This is why the dnsservers are in separate processes, so that these processes that block, but not squid itself. Therefore it is important that there are enough dnsservers to cope with every access you will need, otherwise squid will stop occasionally. Therefore it is a good rule of thumb to make sure you have got at least the maximum number of dnsservers your squid has Ever needed, and probably add 2 to be on the safe side. In other words, if you have only ever seen at most dnsserver #3 being used, make at least 5 dnsservers. Remember that dnsservers are small and if they aren’t used they’ll just stay in swap anyway. Err on the side of caution.
