Caching Pages That Require Authentication

You can have your server cache files that require user authentication. If you choose to have your Proxy Server cache these files, it tags the files in the cache so that if a user asks for them, it knows that the files require authentication from the remote server.

Because the proxy server does not know how remote servers authenticate and it does not know users’ IDs or passwords, it will simply force an up-to-date check with the remote server each time a request is made for a document that requires authentication. The user therefore must enter an ID and password to gain access to the file. If the user has already accessed that server earlier in the Navigator session, Navigator automatically sends the authentication information without prompting the user for it.

If you do not enable the caching of pages that require authentication, the proxy assumes the default, which is to not cache them.