Caching mechanisms in which when a request to operate on particular identified network data is detected, the mechanism refers to a set of rules to determine whether to operate on a local copy of the identified network data, and whether to operate on the actual network data over the network. The set of rules are at least partially set by a human such as a user or network administrator, or perhaps by an application. The caching mechanism may optionally even block local read operations until the network data is synchronized with the remote copy of the network data. The mechanism may also block local write operations until synchronization is performed and/or the write operation is performed on the remote copy of the network data.