I would like to create a proxy to CACHE frequently visited websites locally to improve web browsing performance for frequently visited websites. I read into Apache and thought that it might be easy to implement the module to make Apache into a web cache proxy, but a STATEMENT at their site has me concerned over my network security.

Statement from the apache site states:
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"Warning
Do not enable proxying until you have secured your server. Open proxy servers are dangerous both to your network and to the Internet at large."

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So I am trying to figure out how the proxy would be dangerous to my local network given that traffic should only be outbound through proxy at port 80 and not accepting requests from outside my network such as the internet to the inside of my network.

Any suggestions, stuff to double check, or other proxys other than Apache that might be better for security? Well I ended up with a better solution than using Apache as a web cache and figured I'd share the information in case others want to set up their own FREE Web Cache Proxy Server to improve load times of frequently visited and high traffic website loads.

I found SQUID and installed it to my Apache Server running side-by-side as a service. Then all I had to do is make a firewall exception to allow my internal network to access the proxy, but block requests from outside. Then visit each system that is on my network ( 5 computers ) and edit the browser properties to point to my private squid proxy server at IP 192.168.33.101 port 3128.

Web SITES that are frequently visited load at LEAST 2x faster than before. Some of which are 3 or 4 times faster to load, and no software has to be installed on workstations, just the single server with squid to host the proxy service.

More can be found on squid here:  http://www.squid-cache.org/ and the wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squid_(software)

Here is what I THINK:
When they say open proxy, it means it is accessible to everybody in the net. Then traffic and other viruses are waiting for your vulnerability.

Nope.