the Cache Now! campaign

The Cache Now! campaign is designed to increase the awareness and use of proxy cache on the Web.

This page is now available as an Internet Draft (draft-hamilton-cachebusting-00.txt)

Web cache offers a win/win situation for both content providers and users, yet is little used in North America.

The concept is simple - when a Web page is requested, it is saved to disk. If it is required again, the disk copy is used. This technique is used in all modern browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

In a proxy cache, users request pages from a local server instead of direct from the source. The local server gets the page, saves it on disk and forwards it to the user. Subsequent requests from other users of the cache get the saved copy, which is much faster and does not consume Internet bandwidth.

• Encourage the use of LAN cache servers in office environments and elsewhere.
• Joined a hierarchical cache scheme
• Ensure that the time is set correctly on the server machine.
• Use a server that supports GET requests with If-Modified-Since headers.
• Promote the use of browsers with an efficient local cache. At home, use the largest cache you can afford (20Mb, perhaps).
• Promote the use of VRML viewers which have cache and proxy support.
• Promote the use of browsers with support for proxy cache.
• Encourage the sharing of links to common graphics and applets.
• Use content-negotiation sparingly, until HTTP 1.1 is more widely deployed.
• Use client-side imagemaps (USEMAP)
• Avoid the use of Redirect (directory as URL)
• Avoid parsing USER_AGENT to switch on browser capabilities.
• Avoid renaming files to age them.
• Avoid unnecessary CGI scripts, but when required make CGI scripts cacheable where practical:
  • Use GET instead of POST for simple queries
  • Use PATH instead of QUERY
  • Use a directory other than cgi-bin
  • Generate valid Last-Modified and Expires headers
  • Handle If-Modified-Since requests
• Consider the use of Javascript or Java instead of CGI for form validation
• Make careful use of server-side includes
• Only use cookies where necessary
• Use the Expires header on documents and images where feasible.
• Avoid using secure servers to serve non-sensitive objects.
• Limit cache-busting for metering purposes.

• Note on copyright & cache

• Proxy Cache Offered - self-submitting list of sites offfering proxy cache services

• Tennessee Cache Box (TnCB Project) - cache for schools
• Caching Architecture Guide (DESIRE) - good guide to setting up a mesh.
• Hierarchical Cache in the US at NLANR
• Hierarchical Cache in Europe - the CHOICE project. (Map)
• Caching page at Yahoo!
• Web Caching Report - in-depth study (UK)
• JANET Web Cache Service
• SingNet - Cache in Singapore
• Japan Cache Project
• University of Melbourne - Cache in Australia
• w3cache - WWW Cache in Poland
• Le projet Renater-Cache - French National Cache
• CINECA Cache (Italy)
• SWITCH Caching Service (Switzerland)
• Calamari - Cache in Italy (Italian)
• ausproxy mailing list - proxy cache in Australia
• CCIRN notes (Coordinating Committee for Intercontinental Research Networking - Caching Working Group
• Traffic and Performance Analysis at Virginia Tech CS
• Netscape Proxy Server Deployment Guide
• IRC4ALL - includes list of accessible proxy servers
• Cache Performance Testing Tool from CacheFlow Inc.
• Web Caching Resources by Brian D. Davison - news, Windows cache products & more

Suggestions, corrections and sponsorship of this page are welcome. Please email andrew@vancouver-webpages.com.