When you view Web pages with browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Netscape Navigator(Mozilla), the browser will cache the page. Caching stores a copy of that page in a (somewhat hidden) folder on your computer. When you view the same page again at a later time, the browser will display the saved page from your computer instead of downloading it from the Internet. Caching makes for faster Web browsing, by speeding up the time it takes to access Web pages. Depending on the preferences you have set, browsers also can quickly compare the saved page with the current one on the Internet, and load the latest version.

However, there are some drawbacks to caching. If you visit a previously viewed page again at a later time, the browser might load the cached page without checking for an updated version. You might be looking at outdated information, particularly if you are viewing content that is constantly changing such as your web site being developed (pages updated), events on a news site such as CNN, or if you are working with a Web-based application that has database-generated information that changes.

The REFRESH/RELOAD command will (usually) force loading the latest copy of the web page from the server.  This ensures that you are seeing the latest version of the page. In Internet Explorer and Netscape on a PC,  the Function Key  “F5” (near the top center of the keyboard) will do the trick, otherwise find REFRESH or RELOAD in the little tool bar across the top of your window or in the VIEW> drop down command list.

A note to web designers:
If a client is not seeing the latest file version even after doing a REFRESH, use the following steps to debug and resolve:

• Use the Browser's Clear Cache command (see bottom of this page)
• Try a different browser
• Use the Apache ~ syntax (which is a synonym URL for the same page), such as http://sherwoodhosting.com/~username/page.html
  This usually works when the ISP has cached the page. It's been our experience that in particular, Verizon connectivity ISP (DSL) caches pages and just won't display the latest version.
• Check the TTL (time to live) for the caching parameters of the web page
• Rename the file, as in page1.html - in this case, there can be no cached copy, so it must get the new version.
• Note that images and media files (flash, etc.) are more problematic at being sticky than html or code-based files. In this case, just rename the file and be done with it.

An unrelated comment about caches and DNS:
ISPs' DNS servers can also have sticky entries when you update the DNS server settings in the registry records to change hosts. This one has no solution except to wade thru the ISP's technical support, get them to believe you and have them force an update to their DNS database and/or reboot their DNS server. On rare occasions, this can be the Registrar's problem, but usually it's the DNS server.

Note: Cached pages are temporary (extra) copies of web pages, and it does not hurt anything to delete them (clean up the cache).

Broswer versions may differ slightly, but below gives you the strategy of what to do.

Follow these steps to delete cached pages in Internet Explorer:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Select Tools>Internet Options.
3. Click the General tab if you are not already on it.
4. Click Delete Files in the "Temporary Internet files" section.

If you want to change your settings for caching pages:

1. Click Settings in the "Temporary Internet files" section.
2. Select how often you want the browser to check for new versions of stored pages. We recommend "Every visit to the page" for use with Catalyst tools.
3. To limit the number of cached pages, change the Amount of disk space used.
4. To disable caching altogether, enter 0 in the Amount of disk space used section.

Follow these steps to delete cached pages in Netscape Navigator(Mozilla):

1. Open Netscape Navigator.
2. Select Edit>Preferences.
3. In the "Category" area on the left, click the arrow next to Advanced.
4. Click Cache.
5. In the "Cache" dialog area, click Clear Disk Cache.

If you want to change your settings for caching pages:

1. Select how often you want the browser to check for new versions of the page. We recommend "Every time I view the page" for use with Catalyst Tools.
2. To limit the number of cached pages, change the amount of Disk Cache.
3. To disable caching altogether, enter 0 in the Disk Cache area.