9.6. Browser Caching

In addition to page caching by a central proxy server, page caching can be done by local programs. For example, the Mozilla browser can cache Web pages visited on the local hard drive. When a previously-visited page is requested again, the browser does not retrieve it from the proxy server cache but loads it from its local cache.

Fig. 9.3 shows the dialog window for configuring Mozilla cache. The Memory Cache parameter is the maximum operating memory allocated to caching pages. Its default value is 4,096 KB. Using memory cache speeds up operations when browsing the same site, because most of its graphical objects are saved in memory and retrieved from there instead of from the hard drive.

Figure 9.3: Configuring Mozilla cache

The Disk Cache parameter sets the size of the disk cache. Usually, its default value is set to 50,000 KB (about 50 MB). This amount is too small for regular Web surfing and will be used up quickly. If your hard drive allows, I recommend increasing this value. The Disk Cache Folder parameter specifies the folder, in which the disk cache is stored.

You can also specify when a page in the cache should be compared with the page on the network. The following four options are available:

Every time I view the page Self-explanatory.
When the page is out of date Ditto.
Once per session Every time the browser is started.
Never The page will always be loaded from the local cache; you can reload it by clicking the Reload button on the browser's toolbar.

When working with the Internet using a proxy server or local browser caching, you should remember that pages that load can be outdated . To load the fresh version of the page, click the Reload button.