Browser-Based Client Caching

Browser-Based Client Caching

Internet browser applications allow an individual user to cache Web pages (that is, images and HTML text) on his or her local hard disk. A user can configure the amount of disk space devoted to caching. The figure below shows the cache configuration window for Netscape Navigator.

This setup is useful in cases where a user accesses a site more than once. The first time the user views a Web site, that content is saved as files in a subdirectory on that computer’s hard disk. The next time the user points to this Web site, the browser gets the content from the cache without accessing the network. The user notices that the elements of the page--especially larger Web graphics such as buttons, icons, and images appear much more quickly than they did the first time the page was opened. This method serves this user well, but does not benefit other users on the same network who might access the same Web sites. In Figure below, the fact that User A has cached a popular page has no effect on the download time of this page for Users B and C.