October 24, 2024
Content caching - What is it?
What is a caching server?
A caching server is a dedicated network device that locally saves web pages, software updates or other internet content. In our case, this is an Apple Mini computer deployed at each school. This server is listening to all devices on the school's network and putting frequently requested information in temporary storage. Caching servers both speed up access to data and reduce the demand on bandwidth for updates and commonly visited sites by recalling the information from its temporary storage. This saves time and resources as the caching server can pull information from its own storage instead of having to resend the request to the source and wait for a response.
How is the Caching server updated?
The caching servers are managed remotely by the AFNTS network team. Updates are run daily on each caching server around 04:00 am to ensure each device has the newest updates for the day. This is to ensure that school devices will not use all the bandwidth available to the school downloading the same update if triggered all at the same time. The caching server downloads the update first, stores it locally, and then distributes the data to any connected client or device looking for the update.
As a side note, we always recommend running updates for school devices after peak hours to avoid any unwanted network congestion or delays. Peak hours are from 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM Monday to Friday.
Breakdown of the units deployed at schools, data cached and served in October 2024:
Why is so much data cached?
A large amount of the content cached during the month of April was from Apple IOS and Mac updates. Apple has released many updates at this time to address a number of critical issues. IOS 18 and MacOS 15 also came out recently. All of the caching servers deployed have all the newest updates loaded locally, so please make sure you update any Apple device if not done so already!
Top 3 caching servers utilized:
MacOS 15 - New network setting Private WiFi
Apple is continuing to improve security and privacy with the new updates that have rolled out for IOS devices and now the private WIFi setting is on MacOS devices running version 15. If you are joining a DPSK WiFi network from an Apple device, you must ensure that this setting is off before entering the one-time passcode.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to get this setting disabled:
First, go to the Apple icon on the left-hand bar and select “System Settings”:
Once the system settings are open. On the left-hand bar, go to WiFi and select the network you would like to join. If you have not joined the network before, please select other network and click on the circle with 3 dots in the middle and select Network settings:
Once Network settings are open, Make sure that the “Private Wi-Fi address” is set to off. This will use the real MAC address for the machine and will allow our DPSK WiFi system to work as intended. You may see a privacy alert but this can be ignored as this is a secured network.
Any questions or concerns about this setting please reach out and we will be happy to assist!
Have a request or need some support?
Submit a ticket request to our team and we'll get back to you ASAP.
