[squid-users] Squid stops responding after 12 browser tabs opened

[nuit123 at earthlink.net]

Squid 4.17 compiled on Debian 11

Squid works, but, after 12 to 17 browser tabs are opened to any web site,
subsequent tabs fail to load web site content. At the same time, telnet:80
through Squid also fails. Yet, network traffic that bypasses Squid
successfully communicates with the target web site.

Ultimately, after about two minutes, unresponsive browser tabs usually
finish loading web site content.

Adjusting cache_mem makes no difference.

This is remarked:
#cache_dir ufs /var/spool/squid 100 16 256
Tried to enable it, but squid -z fails with permission issues, so keeping
cache_dir enabled breaks squid entirely.

Any thoughts, please?

With apologies if this violates etiquette (hey, I did
--enable-http-violations!), this Squid server is taking on greater
importance, and while it's infinitely fascinating, I recognize my limits, so
I'm open to experienced help managing and maintaining it, and probably
building a newer version. :-)

Thanks!