Web Caching (O'Reilly Internet Series)

Rating:
Summary: Great in theory but lacking practical examples
Review: I bought this one because I knew I was using more server resources than I needed and I wanted to know what sort of things I could do to reduce unnecessary strain on the server.

After reading Web Caching, I soon learned that there was more to the topic than meets the eye. The chapter on politics of caching makes for interesting reading no matter who you are on the web; covering topics such as copyright, privacy and trust, offensive content and maintaining content integrity.

I also learned more about just how important caching is to the web, which convinced me that I really should make my web pages as cache friendly as possible. Not only does the creation of cache friendly pages speed up the delivery of content, but it can also reduce the cost of hosting individual web sites!

As you can imagine, there is a lot of discussion in the book about the communications between server and browser that many of us do not see. Most of this discussion focuses on the use of HTTP headers, but there is little discussion about using various scripting technologies to over-ride the default headers that are used by the server. Even an Appendix chapter to compliment the Perl example given would have been nice, as not everyone has access to their server's settings or knows how to use their language of choice to generate server headers.

All in all Web Caching is an interesting book to read as it certainly makes you think about the issues surrounding the subject. I can't help feeling however that this book was written mainly for the server administrators, as practical examples for those that have no direct control of the server are somewhat lacking...

Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: If you are looking for a configuration for the Squid Proxy Server, this is not the book for you; if you are looking for an insightful examination of the concepts, configurations and conflicts that surround the topic of content caching, read on.

Mr. Wessels book examines a number of different aspects of Web Caching, from the scope and syntax of basic cache control messages available in .../1.0 and ..../1.1 to the legal issues that surround the storage of Web objects in cache servers. This book is a must read, for Web designers and system administrators.

Rating:
Summary: Not Quite What I Had Hoped
Review: If you want a book that defines the lingo of web caching, then this is the book for you. It goes into great detail on discussing the things that a good sysadmin should think about when choosing and installing a caching server. However, if you are looking for a reference to help you actually implement the things discussed in this book, then you are sadly mistaken. I was hopeing, at the very least, to have greater information and examples about implementing "Squid," the most popular open source proxy caching server for web clients. I mean after all this book is written by one of the top developers for Squid, Duane Wessels. I do give this book 3 stars though because as a unix/linux sysadmin, many of the ideas and issues discussed in this book merit great consideration. I was just hopeing for more detailed information and examples on how to get these ideas implemented.

Rating:
Summary: It's just a plain theoretical book about Web Cache
Review: If your planning to buy this book and hoping will help you setup good Web Caching infrastructure like Squid, forget it!!! this will not help you..

Unless your teacher and teaching theories about Web Caching and this will be a good materials..

Rating:
Summary: Great book for a network/web admin or support tech!
Review: In my opinion, this book's intended audience is for either a network/web administrator, or it's for a technical support engineer who supports networks or web sites.
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This book really gives some thorough information about how caching proxies work in relation to the network. It also gives more information that you couldn't get for free from a web site, including performance tips.
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However, if you are a developer that's looking for the "coding" details of caching proxies because you are writing a program that interacts with the caching proxy software, then you want to purchase "Web Proxy Servers" by Ari Luotonen.

Rating:
Summary: a great handbook for web caching
Review: This is the first book that systemaitcally presents the web cache technology, from basic design to high level cache cooperation. Moreover, many implementation details of web cache are discussed in the book. It is a necessary book if you want to understand web cache clearly. Finally, the write style of the book is good too.