Question

we want to make a file cache for local internet provider (like squid).
Is it possible in C# to catch request for a file from user and send him local file instead of downloading it from remote server?

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Um, it depends upon what you mean by ‘catch a request’. You’re not talking about squid, are you? If so, problem solved :-).

Otherwise, if you are talking about catching requests that go through a specific web page, you could do it, but it would be pretty hairy. The idea would be to write an http handler that parses a webpage before it is served looking for links. If it finds one and has a local cache, you would re-write the link to point to your copy.

The other (um, better) alternative would be to parse for links when the pages are being created, which would save you a lot of processing power as the pages are being served. each link could be rewritten to pass through a proxy process that caches files and routes based upon its existence.

I told you it was hairy 🙂