NetBlaster Tips              NetBlaster caches files in numerical order according to the numbering of the Item parameters. To ensure the most effective use of caching, it helps to be aware of which areas of your site are the most popular. You can then cache files from these areas first. Remember not to bother listing files that have already appeared on your home page: these were cached by the browser before NetBlaster started. Prime candidates for early caching are background images, icons, buttons and banners that appear on the majority of pages (but not on your home page - see above). Adding a web page (*.html file) to NetBlaster's list does not automatically download the image, sound (etc) files that may be called on that page. Every individual file you want to cache must be included in an Item parameter so that NetBlaster explicitly knows about it. Avoid trying to cache particularly large files. This is particularly important if NetBlaster is running in a page that will be closed when the visitor clicks a link. If NetBlaster was partway through the download, it will restart it when the next page opens (assuming you include NetBlaster on that page too), but may once again be interrupted before it finishes. During this wasted time, NetBlaster could have cached a number of smaller files. It pays to consider how long visitors will linger at a particular page before moving on: in general, we don't recommend caching files above 50Kb in size. Because NetBlaster can only cache files that reside on its host server, it makes sense to use relative URLs to refer to those files in the Item parameters. This also allows local testing of the applet. Running locally, the caching will be a "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" event of course, but it does give you the chance to check that everything is working: open your browser's Java Console window and look for NetBlaster error messages. If you've entered a wrong name or location in an Item parameter, you'll see an error message containing the filename you entered and the words Skipping file. In Internet Explorer, you may need to first enable the Java Console from the Advanced tab or the Options dialog. Once enabled, you'll be able to choose it from the View menu. In Netscape Navigator browsers, the inclusion of the ShowProgress parameter is redundant. Netscape uses its status bar to display its own progress messages, so the NetBlaster messages are ignored.