Emerging high-speed networks will allow machines to access remote data nearly as quickly as they can access local data. This trend motivates the use of cooperative caching: coordinating the file caches of many machines distributed on a LAN to form a more effective overall file cache. In this paper we examine four cooperative caching algorithms using a trace-driven simulation study. These simulations indicate that for the systems studied coopera- tive caching can halve the number of disk accesses, improving file system read response time by as much as 73%. Based on these simulations we conclude that cooper- ative caching can significantly improve file system read response time and that relatively simple cooperative cach- ing algorithms are sufficient to realize most of the poten- tial performance gain.