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How Caching Works

A cache is a saved copy of your pages and files. Instead of asking your server for the same thing over and over, nsin keeps a copy close to your visitors and hands it to them right away. This makes your website much faster and takes load off your server.

You get caching automatically when your site is active on nsin.

  • Faster pages. Visitors get content from the closest nsin location, not from your far-away server.
  • Less work for your server. Your server answers fewer requests, so it stays healthy even when lots of people visit.
  • Better experience worldwide. Visitors far from your server still get quick load times.

nsin is smart about this:

  • Static files (images, CSS, fonts, downloads) are cached well, because they rarely change.
  • Pages that change for each user (like a logged-in account page) are normally not cached, so people always see their own data.

You can fine-tune this with Cache Rules.

Every response carries an Nsn-Cache-Status header saying how nsin handled it. You’ll see the same words in your analytics:

StatusMeaning
HITnsin already had a copy and served it instantly. Your server wasn’t involved.
MISSNo copy yet — nsin fetched it from your server and saved it for next time.
BYPASSThe cache was skipped on purpose (a cookie, an Authorization header, or a cache rule).
DYNAMICThe response isn’t cacheable, so it came straight from your server.

The first visit to a page is often a MISS; later visits become HITs. See Proxy Headers for the full list of headers.

If you update your site but still see the old version, the cache is holding the previous copy. You can clear everything, or just one page — and you can browse exactly what’s stored.

See Purging & Browsing the Cache.

My visitors see an old page. Purge the cache for that page.

Why was my page a MISS again? Cached copies don’t last forever, and big sites have many pages. It’s normal to see an occasional MISS.

Can I stop caching for one page? Yes — use a Cache Rule to bypass the cache for that page.