Internet Tips for Cache Configuration With Firefox
A "cache" stores files on your computer, so your Web browser doesn't have to redownload them every time you visit the website --- saving you time and bandwidth. The Mozilla Firefox browser allows you to change a number of settings associated with the cache, either through its "Options" menu or through the "about:config" configuration page.
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Internet Cache Size
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One of the easiest Firefox cache configuration tweaks involves changing the amount of hard drive space used to store your temporary Internet files. To increase the space of Firefox's cache, open the "Advanced" tab in the options window. On Windows machines, this is the "Options" setting located under the "Tools" menu at the top of the screen; for Mac OSX, it is the "Preferences" setting located under the "Firefox" menu at the top of the screen. You can change the amount of space allocated for the cache; The default size is 50 megabytes, but you can increase it if you have a large hard drive.
Cache Refresh
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Depending on how you use the Internet, you may not wish to make use of a file cache at all. To change how Firefox caches online material, go to Firefox's configurations menu by typing "about:config" in the browser address bar. Scroll down to "browser.cache.check_doc_frequency" --- you'll see it has the value of "3." This is the default behavior, and indicates that Firefox checks for a new version of a webpage when it senses that the page is outdated. To force a different behavior, enter a different number instead: "2" prevents Firefox from ever checking for a new version of the page, "1" sets Firefox to always redownload the page rather than loading it from cache and "0" sets Firefox to check for a new version of the page every time you load Firefox.
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Location of Cached Files
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Another "about:config" setting allows you to change the location of the Firefox cache. This could be useful if, for example, your primary hard drive has little storage available, and you want the cache to point to a secondary hard drive. To change this hidden setting, right-click on the "about:config" page and choose "New" and then "String." When it prompts you for a name, call it "browser.cache.disk.parent_directory," and when it asks for a value, type in the name of the directory you want Firefox to use (for instance, entering "D:\Firefox_cache" would set Firefox to place the cache in a folder called "Firefox_cache" on your computer's "D" disk drive).
Security Settings
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Firefox's cache configuration options allow you to make your own decisions about trading off between security and convenience. For example, a larger disk cache may offer faster browsing, but if your computer was stolen it might allow people to recover personal information. Disabling the disk cache (in the "about:config" page, change "browser.cache.disk.enable" to "false") increases security at the cost of performance. By default, Firefox does not cache information loaded by a website using a secure connection. If you want to change this -- for instance, if you don't want to reload your bank's banner image every time you visit the site -- you can allow Firefox to cache secure webpages by changing "browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl" from "false" to "true."
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References
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