Book excerpt: On the World Wide Web, speed and efficiency are vital. Users have little patience for slow web pages, while network administrators want to make the most of their available bandwidth. A properly designed web cache reduces network traffic and improves access times to popular web sites--a boon to network administrators and web users alike.Web Caching hands you all the technical information you need to design, deploy, and operate an effective web caching service. It starts with the basics of how web caching works, from the HTTP headers that govern cachability to cache validation and replacement algorithms.Topics covered in this book include: Designing an effective cache solution Configuring web browsers to use a cache Setting up a collection of caches that can talk to each other Configuring an interception cache or proxy Monitoring and fine-tuning the performance of a cache Configuring web servers to cooperate with web caches Benchmarking cache products The book also covers the important political aspects of web caching, including privacy, intellectual property, and security issues.Internet service providers, large corporations, or educational institutions--in short, any network that provides connectivity to a wide variety of users--can reap enormous benefit from running a well-tuned web caching service. Web Caching shows you how to do it right.