How come linux doesnt have this?
 

In windows, there are a lot of proxy/cache servers for http that will prefetch pages either by scheduling the prefetch or/and fetching the links on a page. Why does linux not have this? Could anyone please recommand a solution?

what do you mean? do you mean REAL proxy servers, or 200 silly little widgets to slow your system down?

http://www.squid-cache.org AFAIK THE most common caching proxy server in the world, and t's a unix program.

Sorry I didnt give a bit more details. I mean a prefetching proxy server. I've searched squid extensively and it purposely declear that it will not do anything prefetching. I have no idea why. Anyway, a lot of windows cache/proxy server has this feature. It's really simple, they just fetch the links or pics on a page to speed it up when you click them, or you specifiy which pages you visit frequently so it's prefetched at a scheduled time. Simple enough, I cant find a linux solution. Thanks

You mean the ineternet accelerator type programs abundant on windows "Increase your dial up speed by 100%" :) ?

You could try searching sourceforge.net or freshmeat.net I guess.

Looks as if debian has a squid-prefetch package I found here off of a google.com/linux search. Might or might not be what your looking for but there were tons of other hits off the search:

http://linux.inf.elte.hu/ftp/pub/deb...h_0.6-1.tar.gz

well I understand that it wont be 100% of course :)
But even a 20-30% is good enough given that the web is used so much.
I did try those places and google of course, but no luck, anyone?

well there are addon modules that can do similar things: http://sluglug.ucsc.edu/debian/pool/...h_0.6-1.tar.gz

yea I saw that too, but it's debian specific, if you try to search 'squid-prefetch' with any distro name, or linux or that matter, u'll get nothing:(

I just linked to a tar.gz file.. that isn't necessarily debian specific to me, maybe they just maintain it for squid or add on.. etc.

I just mirror a site I am interested in.

wget -m http://whatever.com

In README: "This is the Debian GNU/Linux prepackaged version of Squid-Prefetch."..
But thanks trickykid anyway..

wget would kind of work, but would seriously lack the size control, schedule etc. I know you can cron, but it's really a proxy server's job. Hopefully I can find a server that does this

Last time I checked.. Debian was Linux too.. hmm.. oh well, sorry I couldn't be of help.

to be honest, i've just installed squid to test that package for myself on redhat 7.3... works like a charm. all it is is a perl script and a config file. nothign debian only abuot that....

nice! acid_kewpie do you mind telling me how to install this package? I tried the readme, but doesnt help. I dont use debian, so those I dont quite understand those init scripts. Thanks

untar the file, copy squid-prefetch to /usr/sbin, squid-prefetch.conf to /etc/ delete the rest.