Question: While configuring my Web browser, I came across an option asking
to set the size of the browser "cache." What is cache and how large should it
be set?
Answer: A cache (pronounced "cash") is an area of memory or hard disk space
reserved for newly acquired information that has a high probability of being needed again
in the near future. Here's an example of how a browser cache works. The first time you access
a Web site, it might take quite a while for it to load completely. But after it loads, if
you surf to another site and then return to the original site, it appears on your screen in
a mere fraction of the time it took to load the first time. You
have just experience the browser cache in action.
As you surf, the browser automatically stores text, graphics and other data
from pages you visit into the cache. The idea is that if you decide to revisit a page that
is already in the cache and nothing has changed since you last visited that page, the browser will
pull the data from your hard drive rather than download it over again. Since data from your hard
drive can be accessed much more quickly than from your modem's connection, it appears on your
screen faster.
The number of pages that can be stored depends on the size of the cache,
which you set from the browser's preferences menu. It used to be that smaller cache
allocations were wise with smaller hard drives, but today's multi-gigabyte drives allow
for larger caches.
Modern Web browsers know your hard drive's capacity and usually allocate
around 3 percent of the total space to the browser's cache by default.
Depending on your surfing style, you can adjust the cache size to more
accurately reflect your needs. If you tend to visit the same sites over and over again,
make the cache larger. If you visit the same sites infrequently, make it smaller.
If your computer is on a network, you might want to try CacheLink from
Mangosoft. CacheLink creates a virtual cache that is shared by all the computers on a network.
The idea is that you benefit from other people's surfing.
Basically, CacheLink keeps track of where everyone on the network goes and
all of the sites that are stored in everyone's cache. So, for example, when someone
on the network goes to a Web site to get a weather report, they have to wait for it to
download. But if you decide later to visit the same weather Web site, CacheLink knows it's
already in someone's cache and it's transferred via the network to your computer. And since
most networks transfer data much faster than even the fastest modem connections, you'll see
the weather site almost instantly.
The more people on your network, the better CacheLink works. That's because
CacheLink's shared cache size increases with each user, plus there's a better chance that
someone will have visited and cached a site you want to visit.
CacheLink has some needed security features as well. The shared cache is
anonymous, so there is no way to tell where anyone on the network was surfing or from whose
computer the cached information came. Also, secure Web sites, such as those requiring personal
data like credit card numbers, are not placed into the shared cache.
CacheLink works with all types of Internet connections such as 56k, ADSL and
cable modems, and you will see proportionate speed increases with the faster services.
CacheLink works only with Windows, but a newer version that's soon to be released will
work with Macintosh, Linux and Windows computers sharing the network.
A copy of CacheLink is required on each computer on the network. CacheLink
sells for $40 per computer and comes in sets of 5, 10, 20 and higher. Check with Mangosoft
for more details at www.mangosoft.com.
Write Craig at The Post, P.O. Box 24696, West Palm Beach, 33416-4700; or
call him Sundays, 10 p.m.-midnight on WJNO-AM 1290 and 1330, and WBZT-AM 1040. Visit his
Computer America show Sunday 3-6 p.m. at Palm Beach Atlantic College. For more information,
visit his web site at www.computeramerica.com
Originally published in The Palm Beach Post on Saturday, August 5, 2000.
Copyright © 2000, The Palm Beach Post. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.
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