squid.conf and hosts_file

[Lucas Barbuto <lucas@qk.com.au>]

Hi List,

I'm currently testing out the Squid caching proxy and I've noticed that
it doesn't look in /etc/hosts as part of it's name queries.  I need this
for my local intranet sites.  I've done extensive googling and found
that there was a patch written for "/etc/hosts handling" that is
aparently "Finished, tested and closed. (merged into Squid-2.4)".  I'm
running Woody which has Squid version 2.4.STABLE6.  I've tried adding 
hosts_file to /etc/squid.conf but the server complained and wouldn't
start.  Has anyone else had any experience with this?  Do I need to get
that patch or a more recent version of Squid or is there something else
going on here?

Regards,

Lucas