How and why do I refresh web pages?

When you visit a web page using your web browser, you might not be viewing the most recently updated version of the page.

This is because of a system called ‘caching’ where a copy of the web pages you visit regularly are stored on your computer to make it faster to view them when you visit again.

Caching can also happen at your internet service provider (ISP). Many ISPs cache the most popular sites viewed by their customers to make them faster and to reduce the amount and cost of the bandwidth the ISP needs.

To make sure you are viewing the latest versions of some web pages you will need to refresh them.

You can refresh a webpage in five ways.

• Click on the ’refresh’ button in the web browser’s toolbar.
• Press the F5 button on your keyboard.
• Click the ‘refresh’ button while holding down the shift key (called a force refresh).
• Press the Ctrl and F5 keys on your keyboard at the same time (called a force refresh).
• § Use the web browser’s menu to access the browser options. From here you are able to clear all of the files from your web browser’s history and cache. Then restart the web browser and load the web page you wish to view.