squid keeps requiring restart/reboot

[keevill]

I have been running squid3 proxy on a Ubuntu 10.04 machine for several months with no problems.It serves about 50 users ( win and Lin clients ) and is usually rock solid.
However, over the last few days problems occur.
The users lose connection and I have to restart squid and all is ok again. Sometimes it drops 4-5 times in an hour ans sometimes not for 6 hours or more. I know the problem is related to Squid as the actual internet connection is on and the squid machine can access the internet.
Restarting squid cures the problem.
How can I troubleshoot this ?

Upon checking the cache.log I can see no errors but I can also see that no pages are being cached.
I check the conf file and realised that there is no path set for cache so I am running the proxy without any caching of pages taking place.
Is this causing the problem ?
Do I have to do a complete reinstall of squid in order to start caching?
Or can I just make the path in the conf file and restart it ?
There's a few questions here I know.
I am not really very good with this program and look for help here from someone more knowledgeable.
Many thx,
-keevill-

[keevill]

I have just noticed that this problem seems to occur only if the Internet connection drops ( if the ISP drops out and adsl is lost ).
When the connection comes back, squid requires a restart and won't start automatically.
Here's my squid.conf file for someone to take a look

#debug_options All,1

#33,2,28,9 other debug options
acl manager proto cache_object
acl localhost src 127.0.0.1
#acl to_localhost dst 127.0.0.0/8 0.0.0.0/32
acl localnet src 192.168.0.0/16 # RFC1918 possible internal network
acl dl_ip src 192.168.0.160

acl SSL_ports port 2525
acl SSL_ports port 443
acl SSL_ports port 2087
acl SSL_ports port 2083
acl SSL_ports port 993 # Google IMAP
acl Safe_ports port 80 # http
acl Safe_ports port 21 # ftp
acl Safe_ports port 443 # https
acl Safe_ports port 70 # gopher
acl Safe_ports port 210 # wais
acl Safe_ports port 1025-65535 # unregistered ports
acl Safe_ports port 280 # http-mgmt
acl Safe_ports port 488 # gss-http
acl Safe_ports port 591 # filemaker
acl Safe_ports port 777 # multiling http
acl Safe_ports port 8080
acl Safe_ports port 88
acl Safe_ports port 2525 #Sending Mail
acl Safe_ports port 25 #Sending Mail
acl Safe_ports port 2087 #CPanel
acl Safe_ports port 5800-6901
acl Safe_ports port 143 #Mail Server
acl CONNECT method CONNECT

http_access allow manager localhost
http_access deny manager
http_access deny !Safe_ports
http_access deny CONNECT !SSL_ports


#acl fails rep_mime_type ^.*mms.*
#acl fails rep_mime_type ^.*ms-hdr.*
#acl fails rep_mime_type ^.*x-fcs.*
#acl fails rep_mime_type ^.*x-ms-asf.*
#acl fails2 urlpath_regex dvrplayer mediastream mms://
acl fails2 urlpath_regex -i \.asf$ \.afx$ \.flv$ \.wma$ \.wmv$ \.exe$
#acl deny_rep_mime_flashvideo rep_mime_type -i video/flv
#acl deny_rep_mime_shockwave rep_mime_type -i ^application/x-shockwave-flash$
#acl x-type req_mime_type -i ^application/octet-stream$
#acl x-type req_mime_type -i application/octet-stream
#acl x-type req_mime_type -i ^application/x-mplayer2$
#acl x-type req_mime_type -i application/x-mplayer2
#acl x-type req_mime_type -i ^application/x-oleobject$
#acl x-type req_mime_type -i application/x-oleobject
#acl x-type req_mime_type -i application/x-pncmd
#acl x-type req_mime_type -i ^video/x-ms-asf$
#acl x-type2 rep_mime_type -i ^application/octet-stream$
#acl x-type2 rep_mime_type -i application/octet-stream
#acl x-type2 rep_mime_type -i ^application/x-mplayer2$
#acl x-type2 rep_mime_type -i application/x-mplayer2
#acl x-type2 rep_mime_type -i ^application/x-oleobject$
#acl x-type2 rep_mime_type -i application/x-oleobject
#acl x-type2 rep_mime_type -i application/x-pncmd
#acl x-type2 rep_mime_type -i ^video/x-ms-asf$
#http_reply_access deny deny_rep_mime_flashvideo
#http_reply_access deny deny_rep_mime_shockwave

#http_access deny fails
#http_reply_access deny fails
http_access deny fails2
http_reply_access deny fails2
#http_access deny x-type
#http_reply_access deny x-type
#http_access deny x-type2
#http_reply_access deny x-type2

acl farmville url_regex -i farmville.com
http_access deny farmville

acl ban_websites dstdomain .youtube.com hi5.com tumblr.com .farmville.com

acl special_client src 192.168.0.199 192.168.0.161 192.168.0.165 192.168.0.164
#acl fbook_client src 192.168.0.188
#acl fbook dstdomain .facebook.com
acl youtube dstdomain .youtube.com
#http_access deny fbook fbook_client
http_access allow youtube special_client
http_access deny youtube
http_access allow all

http_access allow dl_ip ban_websites
http_access deny ban_websites
acl blocksites url_regex tumblr

http_access deny blocksites
#acl deny_rep_mime_flashvideo rep_mime_type video/x-flv
#http_reply_access deny deny_rep_mime_flashvideo

http_access allow localnet
http_access allow localhost

http_access deny all


#icp_access deny all


http_port 3148
#http_port 3148 transparent

hierarchy_stoplist cgi-bin ?

access_log /var/log/squid3/access.log squid

#cache_dir ufs /usr/local/squid/var/cache/ 500 16 256

refresh_pattern ^ftp: 1440 20% 10080
refresh_pattern ^gopher: 1440 0% 1440
refresh_pattern (cgi-bin|\?) 0 0% 0
refresh_pattern . 0 20% 4320


#icp_port 3130


error_directory /usr/share/squid3/errors/templates


coredump_dir /var/spool/squid3