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Expanding our Horizons: Tech 3 Project

Cache FAQs

What is my cache?

How do I clear my cache?

How do I change the size of my cache?

What is my cache?

The cache (pronounced "cash") is a space in your computer's hard drive and in RAM memory where your browser saves copies of recently-visited Web pages.

Your browser uses the cache like a short-term memory. Instead of downloading an image from a recently viewed website, it will load the image from your cache folder, thereby making the browsing process a little quicker.

Netscape Navigator and Communicator for Windows have two kinds of caches:

1. a disk cache

2. a memory cache

The memory cache is rarely problematic. When "cache" is mentioned on these pages, it refers to disk cache.

You can clear your cache (that is, delete all the files in your cache) if they begin to occupy too much hard drive space, or if the files get out of date and no longer correspond to the files on the Web server.

The default size of your disk cache is around 5,000 kilobytes (or 5 MB). You can change the size of your cache. You can decrease the size of your cache if you need to free up space on your hard drive. You can increase it if you have a lot of free space available. A larger cache means that you can go back to more recently-visited pages more quickly.

How do I clear my cache?

You might want to delete all the files in your cache if they begin to occupy too much hard drive space, or if the files get out of date and no longer correspond to the files on the Web server.

To clear your cache with Internet Explorer:

1. Click the View menu, then click Internet Options. With Macintosh, click the Edit menu, then click Preferences.
2. Click the General tab. With Macintosh, click Advanced in the right column.
3. Click Delete Files under Temporary Internet Files. With Macintosh, Empty Now.
4. Click OK.

To clear your cache with Netscape Communicator 4:

1. Click the Edit menu, then click Preferences....
2. Click the + (arrow with Macintosh) next to Advanced.
3. Click Cache.
4. With Windows, click Clear Memory Cache, and Clear Disk Cache. With Macintosh, click Clear Disk Cache Now.
5. Click OK to close the Preferences window.

To clear your cache with Netscape Navigator 3:

1. Click the Options menu, then click Network Preferences.
2. Click the Cache tab.
3. With Windows, click Clear Memory Cache, then click OK. Click Clear Disk Cache, then click OK. With Macintosh, click Clear Disk Cache Now.
4. Click OK to close the Preferences window.

How do I change the size of my cache?

The default size of your cache is around 5,000 kilobytes (or 5 MB). You might want to decrease this if you need to free up space on your hard drive. You might want to increase this if you have a lot of free space on your hard drive. A larger cache means th at you can go back to more recently-visited pages more quickly.

To change the size of your cache with Internet Explorer

1. Click the View menu, then click Internet Options. With Macintosh, click the Edit menu, then click Preferences.
2. Click the General tab. With Macintosh, click Advanced in the right column.
3. Click the Settings button under Temporary Internet Files. Move the slider to choose the amount of disk space you want the cache to use. With Macintosh, enter the new size for the cache in the Size field.
4. Click OK, then click OK, again.

To change the size of your cache with Netscape Communicator 4

1. Click the Edit menu, then click Preferences....
2. Click the + (arrow with Macintosh) next to Advanced.
3. Click Cache.
4. Type the new size of the disk cache in the Disk Cache field.
5. Click OK to close the Preferences window.

To change the size of your cache with Netscape Navigator 3

1. Click the Options menu, then click Network Preferences.
2. Click the Cache tab.
3. With Windows, type the new size of the disk cache in the Disk Cache field. With Macintosh, adjust the size of the disk cache with the up and down arrows beside Cache Size.
4. Click OK to close the Preferences window.

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