Using <meta> tags to turn off caching in all browsers?

Question

I read that when you don't have access to the web server's headers you can turn off the cache using:

<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-store" />

But I also read that this doesn't work in some versions of IE. Are there any set of <meta> tags that will turn off cache in all browsers?

Answer 1

pragma is your best bet:

<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache">

Answer 2

It doesn't work in IE5, but that's not a big issue.

However, cacheing headers are unreliable in meta elements; for one, any web proxies between the site and the user will completely ignore them. You should always use a real HTTP header for headers such as Cache-Control and Pragma.

Answer 3

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Cache-Control" CONTENT="max-age=0">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Cache-Control" CONTENT="no-cache">
<META http-equiv="expires" content="0">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Expires" CONTENT="Tue, 01 Jan 1980 1:00:00 GMT">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache">