Proxy Server

[kaspaas]

I flipped my lid again today because the Telkom proxy server is only updating hours later after I update webpages for a major client.

Just think about it: I can update a page, but can only test it many hours later.

Everytime I called the helpdesk previously, I was treated like the biggest idiot and basically told I have the problem because I don't know what I'm doing.

I called again today with the aim of getting a reference number so I could escalate the issue to ICASA if needed be.

Again the idiot story - and after some very harsh words, and lots of muzak, I was transferred to a supervisor. He started with open IE, go to tools, and I flipped again - I have my settings set to update on every visit - I'm not an idiot.

Fortunately he stopped me and told met to change my proxy settings to a Telkom secret:

dsl-cache.saix.net

So, If you have problems: You no the secret!



South Africa needs World Class Broadband at World Competitive Prices.

 

[kaspaas]

Just a legal note:

I have been advised that if a proxy server is not serving the latest updates of any webpage or similar, it could be considered as editing and the organisation running the proxy server as the editor accepting full liability for the edited data.

So, if you are running a proxy server for clients, please take care!

South Africa needs World Class Broadband at World Competitive Prices.

 

[Karnaugh]

And websites can just as easily set the do not cache flags to stop clients having trouble.

<hr noshade size="1">
"Since light travels faster than sound, people appear bright until you hear them speak."

NetLink Research

 

[kaspaas]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Karnaugh</i>
<br />And websites can just as easily set the do not cache flags to stop clients having trouble.

<hr noshade size="1">
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Flags which the default Telkom ADSL trasparent proxy ignores.




South Africa needs World Class Broadband at World Competitive Prices.

 

[Karnaugh]

No it doesn't, never had problems with the dynamic content I serve which has the headers correctly set.

<hr noshade size="1">
"Since light travels faster than sound, people appear bright until you hear them speak."

NetLink Research

 

[mithrandi]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Flags which the default Telkom ADSL trasparent proxy ignores.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Please don't make unsubstantiated claims like this. If you have something to back it up, then by all means post about it, but making wild claims like this with nothing to actually back it up just leads to absurd rumors traveling around.

<hr noshade size="1">mithrandi, i Ainil en-Balandor, a faer Ambar

 

[seanlail]

I have a similar problem. I update my website and CAN see the changes on my mweb provided connection at home. The dillema is when I go to work (ADSL) I have to wait about a week to see the changes. These are changes to javascripts and flash files. This is extremely annoying, does anyone have a sure fire solution to this ??? I have set all the tags I can to not cache / expire ... A couple of ppl I know that have telko ISDN / ADSL also experience these problems...

Any thoughts?

 

[Perdition]

Unfortunately unless Telkom changes their transparent proxy policies you are stuck. You can try contacting them and telling them the problem though they will likely just deny there is a problem (or even a transparent proxy!).

However, there is a way you can "beat" the transparent proxy for web pages. You can place a false query string after the web address e.g. if you're accessing http://www.google.com type in http://www.google.com?qwttweng. The query string can be any bunch of letters as long as it's unique. The transparent proxy views this as a new page and fetches it from the server. It's a pain but it works.

 

[seanlail]

Thanks for the reply. Would this work with the same string? eg: If a user goes to a page with the string, then uses the same string the next day, will this cache?... Reason I ask, could I just put a link to that page, with the false string added ? So everyone would use the same string, would that work ?? Thanks in advance

 

[regardtv]

Proxy rules are SUPPOSED to not cache dynamic traffic (basically anything with "?" in the query string) ... Some proxies however do cache such pages.

I personally have not seen problems with the ADSL proxy on my dynamic pages

 

[Perdition]

Yep proxies are not supposed to cache dynamic content but as regardtv said some do. This solution is only for those stubborn pages that, for whatever reason, the transparent proxy refuses to fetch.

seanlail: You will need to change the query string every time, like I said it's a pain []

 

[lewstherin]

seanlail, using a unique string after a web page url is a common method employed by server page technologies (JSP, ASP etc) to ensure no caching of pages can occur. Whether the caching occurs on a browser or on the proxy should be your concern.

If pages aren't being updated even after a week, either the ADSL is REALLY bad or your browser is actually the culprit. Next time you experience the cachin problem hit CTRL and F5 in Internet Explorer to force a complete browser refresh...
If that doesn't work then I guess the ADSL proxies really ARE that bad []

<font color="blue">Telkom needs a leash, ICASA needs some guts, and the </font id="blue"><font color="red">SA consumer</font id="red"><font color="blue"> needs to make it happen</font id="blue">