Good scenario for using Web Cache?

[CajunLanMan]

Hello all. I've been a happy Untangle User for a little over a year now. I've read a lot about how Web Cache is not usually a good solution where people might think it is.

That said, I have recently moved into a new area, and I am now the proud owner of a 1TB data cap. With 6 techno-geeks living under one roof, I can bump up against that cap from time to time. The big bandwidth hogs are game installs/updates, most of which come from Steam. Also, when they occur, OS updates for iOS, macOS, and the twice yearly updates for Windows 10. Some of these game installs can be over 50 gig. If I choose to install that same game on 4 machines, well, you can see where this can chew through that cap rather quickly. For now, I usually install the game on one machine, then either back it up, or copy the install files. I use that backup copy to install it on the other machines. That works for initial installs, but not for big game updates.

In each of these situations, I may have 4 Windows machines sucking down these same updates/installs. Macs are less of an issue, but still the case applies.

Obviously, Web Cache won't help with things like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon video, etc. I'm wondering if turning on Web Cache would be a simpler solution for the game and OS installs/updates.

Thanks ahead of time for any info/suggestions.

[dmorris]

Its not going to help with games or updates. steam using does not download games with simple http gets, it uses many connections to download chunks in parallel. Most updates are over https now anyway...

besides, hacking the object size limit that high would like kill your Untangle anyway.

[CajunLanMan]

Would the fact that I'm using SSL Inspector help with the https issue?

[dmorris]

No.
You're not inspecting updates and background communications anyway, as those typically use pinned certs, so they will just fail if you try to inspect them.

I mean go for it and try it, but the world has changed a great deal over the past decade that make caching less useful.

[sky-knight]

Caching isn't worth the time or effort, all it does is break things while it saves you dail up connection's worth bandwidth.

[balrog]

Hi,
You can use this nginx plus DNS spoofing to cache the download and this have been used in lan parties to save bandwidth. Others uses squid to accomplish it. Here is one of the links:

http://blog.multiplay.co.uk/2014/04/lancache-dynamically-caching-game-installs-at-lans-using-nginx/

bonus, it can cache microsoft updates, though not sure if it will help since Windows 10 updates by default do a P2P like updates where it queries your LAN for other windows updates and uses that if it's new. Cons for the above are that some CDN FQDN are added once in a while by example blizzard that nginx does not know about and you have to add the FQDN to your DNS manually.

webcache is squid. And agree with others it may not be worth it. There are small issues when accessing some website if using webcache/squid. Trust me, have done these few years ago in a small ISP, and some users complained that they can't access some websites and have to manually whitelist those so they won't be cached and can access it. It came to point where the caching advantage goes down as HTTPS usage is going up since you can't cache HTTPS and only HTTP. Unless you do SSL inspector, but disabling it right now since my Android Google Apps are not working when enabled.

And squid loves memory and disks so take that into account. Therefore, System Administration is medium to high for this. Just be aware if you want to go the caching route.

Regards,
Balrog

Hello all. I've been a happy Untangle User for a little over a year now. I've read a lot about how Web Cache is not usually a good solution where people might think it is.

That said, I have recently moved into a new area, and I am now the proud owner of a 1TB data cap. With 6 techno-geeks living under one roof, I can bump up against that cap from time to time. The big bandwidth hogs are game installs/updates, most of which come from Steam. Also, when they occur, OS updates for iOS, macOS, and the twice yearly updates for Windows 10. Some of these game installs can be over 50 gig. If I choose to install that same game on 4 machines, well, you can see where this can chew through that cap rather quickly. For now, I usually install the game on one machine, then either back it up, or copy the install files. I use that backup copy to install it on the other machines. That works for initial installs, but not for big game updates.

In each of these situations, I may have 4 Windows machines sucking down these same updates/installs. Macs are less of an issue, but still the case applies.

Obviously, Web Cache won't help with things like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon video, etc. I'm wondering if turning on Web Cache would be a simpler solution for the game and OS installs/updates.

Thanks ahead of time for any info/suggestions.