Web Caching

Intercepting Traffic

I covered the pros and cons of interception caching in Chapter 5. Most, if not all, of the caching products on the market support interception proxying. Of course, you also need a network device to divert TCP connections to the cache. For that you can use a router (with or without WCCP), a layer four switch, or even an inexpensive PC running Unix.

Interception caching offers many benefits. You don’t need to configure browsers at all, and you maximize the amount of traffic that goes through the cache. As described previously, many of the network devices that support interception caching handle cache failures without a disruption of service.

The downside is that interception caching may cause problems for some origin servers. Users who experience problems are usually unable to fix them. You need to configure the network device to bypass the cache for problem cases.