Web caching liability

Fri Jan 2 16:23:00 UTC 1998

On Fri, 2 Jan 1998, Brian Horvitz wrote:

> Has anyone else exerienced problems with AOL's web proxy servers?  We
> switched the IP address of a web site about 5 months ago, and we are still
> getting about 10,000 hits a day from AOL on the old address.  We dropped a
> note to them a ways back but didn't get much of a response.
> 

On a related note. 

I would be curious to the liability issues surrounding the use of web
proxy servers and Cisco Cache engines. ISP/NSPs traditionally only
forwards packets or are at least responsible to a certain degree for
resolution of IP addresses from DNS and routers. The use of these web
cache technologies allows ISP/NSPs to now *intelligently determine* what
data the requesting client receives. With web proxy server, at least the
client is aware(we hope) that data is being cached but the Cisco Cache
engine makes that process transparent. As we are all well aware, these
intelligent implementations don't always work. It seems that we are on
slippery grounds making content decisions for end user requests. And
doesn't it become even messier with the suggested/proposed web caching at
the MAEs or at the NSP level? 

Regards,

Turnando Fuad
NSNet