What is CACHE & How does it work?

Cache is what makes your browser work faster. Every time you visit a web page, your PC downloads items from that page into a temporary file in the Windows directory of your hard drive.  This is why it takes a moment to open a page the first time your there. The next time you visit the page, or if you hit the back button to return to a previous page on the site, the page opens right away because the info is already on your PC. This is very handy, but at the same time, it can create problems. Your temporary file will only hold so much information before your browser starts to slow down and give you problems like error messages.

To clean-up unnecessary cache files:

Internet Explorer 4 & 5

1. From the Tools menu, choose Internet Options.
2. In the Temporary Internet Files section, there are two buttons, Delete Files and Settings.
Click the delete files button. If you get a popup Delete Files window, it will give you a optional check box to Delete all offline content, I usually don't, but it is up to you.

Click Settings to custom IE to your needs. You may:
1. Change the size of your temporary files - Windows has preset a small space of your hard drive for temporary Internet files.  If you want to change it, remember that the larger you make the file, the less free space you have on your hard drive.  I suggest leaving the size where it is and clearing out the temporary file once a week.  It only takes a few seconds.
2. View the files - Gives you an idea of what files are stored in your temporary Internet file directory.
3. Move the folder to another location - New users should NOT move this folder!

If you have other questions or problems, visit the web site for Internet Explorer.

Netscape Communicator

1. From Communicator's Edit menu, choose Preferences.
2. Double-click Advanced from within the Preferences window.
3. Select Cache from the expanded list.
4. Clear cache if you wish and set caching values.
5. Also check/uncheck the frequency of document comparison.
6.Click OK to enable the settings.

Netscape Communicator 3.x

To have Navigator automatically accept cookies, go to the Options menu, choose Network Preferences, and go to the Protocols tab. On the Protocols tab, you should be able to set Navigator to always accept cookies.

If you have other questions or problems, visit the web site for Netscape.