Dialup config on Linux

Hi all,

I'm trying to set up my home network with squid as a cache,
inside is an Ethernet, outside is a dialup PPP to an ISP. The
ISP runs a cache but AFAIK it isn't squid, so I have configured
it as a parent with port 7 as the ICP port. I'd like the cache
to check both the parent cache and the source so I have enabled
'source-ping'. My understanding of this config is that it should
ping both parent and source and use whichever one returns the
shortest ping time. Is this correct?

With the above config, I find that the cache is trying to do a
DNS lookup of the parent cache every hour, which would bring my
demand dialled link up. I don't want it to do this, I only want
it to look outside when a request for an uncached object comes
from someone on the internal network. If I take the parent cache
out of the config file, the lookups don't occur. Is squid
attempting to ping the parent? Or just checking to see if it can
look it up? I'd appreciate any config pointers you can give, as
I have had to leave the parent out of the config for now.

regards

-- 
Andy
"My employer does not necessarily share my views - but I'm 
working on it."