CLEARING YOUR CACHE

WHAT IS A CACHE?
WHY SHOULD I CLEAR MY CACHE?
WHEN SHOULD I CLEAR MY CACHE?
HOW DO I CLEAR MY CACHE?

WHAT IS A CACHE?
Your "CACHE" is nothing more than an area of RAM (Random Access Memory) in your WebTv box that is assigned to hold temporary information that is collected during the use of your unit. It is used by your terminal to keep a record of the urls you have visited along with logins you have used since logging on to the net. It is where webpages you have visited since logging on are assembled and displayed in your browser. It is used to display your RECENTS when you press your RECENT key and used everytime you hit your back button to recall pages you have previously visited. This is why you sometimes have to RELOAD a page when backing up to it if the page had been updated because you will first see the page that was saved in your bowser. Hitting RELOAD will reload the page from the server. As you can guess, your cache must hold a great deal of information.



WHY SHOULD I CLEAR MY CACHE?
Because so much information must be stored in your cache it can become full at times and have to be cleared. This can happen frequently or seldome depending on how you use your Webtv. Loading large files such as audio and image files will fill your cache faster then text files. How often you use your back button can also effect how fast your cache fills up. For example; if you are visiting a site and have linked from the home page and wish to return to it, by clicking a "Home" link on the page you are at will cause your browser to load the home page again using more memory, but if you use your back button instead, then your bowser displays the page you were at before from it's memory. If your cache fills up you will not be able to load any more pages and may not be able to navagate from the page you are on.



WHEN SHOULD I CLEAR MY CACHE?
There is nothing to tell you when your cache is getting full except the performance of your WebTv unit. Even though your "RECENT" pop-up only shows 12 pages, it quite possible that your may have 30 or 40 pages in your cache. If pages start taking too long to load and it seems that your WebTv is running slow and slugish then your cache may be filling up. If you have been working on your website and have been in and out of the editor frequently as often happens this can fill up your cache fairly fast. If you try to load a page and see a message either in a pop-up or at the bottom of the screen that says "This page is too big to load completely" or "This page contains so much information that it can't be used" then your cache is full and needs to be cleared.



HOW DO I CLEAR MY CACHE?
You don't have to take the cover off your WebTv box and vacuum it out. You don't have to turn it upside down and shake it. You can do it right from your keyboard. You may have seen "CLEAR CACHE" utilities on the net such as "Clear Cache" and "Insta Clear" for WebTv Plus, these don't work. They give the impression of clearing your cache by errasing the RECENT file display in your cache but leave everything else intact. I don't know if the Classic clear cache programs work any better on the WebTv Classic as I only have a Plus and can only speak for the Plus unit. I have suspected for some time that these programs were ineffective so I did a test to get the proof. The first thing I found is with the older "Clear Cache for WebTv Plus", it won't work anymore at all since getting the new "Summer Upgrade" a few days ago. Then I tried the "Insta Clear". It worked the same way it always has and errased my RECENT display file. Then I ran a javascript program to read out my browsers "recent" history whch should have been empty except for the javascript page but instead it listed URLs for over 40 pages that were still in my cache. You can prove this for your self. Just use "Insta clear" then try pressing your back button any number of times. If your cache is clear then you won't go back and will stay where you are. Every step your browser takes back when you press your back button is a page that is still in your browser.

Here is how to really clear your cache fast and completely. WebTv recommends that you turn your box off then back on. This is time consuming because you have to wait to get reconnected and logged back on. I have found that this is not neccessary and a much faster method is available. All you really need to do is go to your WebTv Web Home page and click on "SWITCH USER". If your cache is really full you may not be able to navagate to your homepage or anywhere else. The globe may continue spinning forever or you get a message saying "the page is too big to load". In this event, hit your back button several times. I usually do this about 10 times at one second intervals. In this way you should be able to load a previous page. Then use your HOME button to get to your WEB HOME page and click SWITCH USER. When at the "Choose User Name" page it is not necessary to change users, just click the User Name you were using before. Your account will load back up and your cache will be cleared and you don't have to disconnect from the net to do it. The whole process takes less than a minute.
I now have to update this information. Perhaps because of a change in the last upgrade, perhaps not, but I have now found that switching users doesn't neccessarily do the job anymore. Going to the "Choose User" page doesn't do it at all now even though it does erase your recents panel and hides the cached pages from the back button. The only effective way to really clear you cache now is to shut your box off and power up again.



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