Caching

Correct Answer: Configure their web browser to utilize a caching proxy server

The user should 'Configure their web browser to utilize a caching proxy server'. This is likely to improve web browsing speed because a caching proxy server stores a copy of frequently requested web resources. When the user requests a web resource, the caching proxy server provides the copy instead of fetching the original from the internet, which can reduce load time. On the other hand, 'Adjusting their IP address', 'Disabling their web browser's cache', or 'Modifying their DNS settings' aren't generally effective strategies for improving browsing speed. Adjusting the IP address wouldn't necessarily change the speed, disabling the cache would cause the browser to fetch every web resource from the internet every time (making it slower), and while modifying DNS settings might, in some cases, slightly improve browsing speed, but it's often not as effective as using a caching proxy.

Correct Answer: CDN

CDN or Content Delivery Network is the best solution for improving load times during peak hours for a web application. CDNs work by distributing the delivery of web content based on the geographic locations of the user, the website's origin, and the CDN server. This results in high availability and performance and reduces bandwidth costs. Contrarily, server-side caching can indeed minimize server load, but it wouldn't eliminate latency issues caused by geographical distance. Client-side caching can improve performance but it assumes that users have already visited the site and the necessary files are stored in their local system. Finally, reverse proxy caching can also improve load times, but it doesn't have the same reach or efficiency as a CDN, especially for users that are geographically distant from the origin server.

Correct Answer: Cache size

To optimize the caching performance of a caching server, the 'Cache size' should be adjusted. Caching servers work by storing a copy of data that passes through them and serving it when it's requested again, hence a larger cache size can store more data and this can improve its performance. On the other hand, adjusting 'Number of DNS records' would not directly affect caching performance because DNS records mainly help in resolving domain names to IP addresses, not in caching data. Changing the 'Amount of RAM' may help in overall system performance but not specifically in caching performance. 'Transmission rate' pertains to the speed of data transfer which might have an effect on how fast cached data can be served but does not directly influence caching performance.