Packet and Feature Processing Order - Diagram

[duanes]

I'm sure this has been answered before, but I haven't really found a thorough answer or the answers refer to broken links.

There are several posts asking for this, and one that says there is a diagram, but the link does not seem to work.

I'm looking for a diagram on what order all of the various filters and features are processed.  Something like a packet flow diagram.

Examples would show something like: LAN => WAN flow is floating rules, interface rules, squid, squid filter

In particular, I'm trying to get a better feel of why getting Squid to load balance on a multi-wan is not working…. or why my SquidGuard schedules tend to be VERY flakey and I find that the schedule is often hung and not rotating.  I just don't have a good feel for the order in which packet processing occurs and it is causing many stupid errors on my side due to incorrect assumptions.

Or - which occurs first, floating rules or interface rules ?  Are the rules additive in nature or does processing stop on the first match (I currently believe stopping on first match only occurs if the "stop processing" box is checked).  But, on the same packet, can I set the gateway with one rule and then set a flag with another rule and consequently change the gateway again based on a third rule ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.