Re: To gzcompress or not to gzcompress...

FFMG wrote:
Jerry Stuckle;88260 Wrote:
FFMG wrote:
Hi,

I am currently compressing the output of all my pages, (still on the
beta site so I am not 100% sure of the impact).
But I have no idea if I am wasting my server CPU time or not, or
more
importantly if I am making any difference to my visitor experience.
Some pages cam be rather large and they are compressed, (from 160K
to
15k),

But does anybody know if compressing is worth the effort?

And if it is worth it, why do sites like Joomla offer it, but don't
make it default?
Especially given that they test if the browser supports it, (this is
what $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING'] is for after all.

FFMG


It depends on a lot of things.

Compressing takes CPU, and in general the larger the output the more
cycles required. And it depends on the browser sending a header
indicating it can accept compressed files.

Images don't normally compress well, so if you're looking to save
bandwidth on a lot of images, forget it.

But if your site is mainly text, compression will cut your bandwidth
and
speed loading of your pages - especially if the client is using a slow
link (i.e. dialup). And text compression normally is pretty fast (and
efficient).

You need to look at you CPU load. If you're on a shared host, they
may
or may not like the compression, for instance. Of course, if it's
your
own server, then cpu load isn't as much of a concern, but bandwidth may
be.



Well I have cpu and bandwidth.
But I am running low on memory. I wonder if that wont be a problem.

On a side note, my site is running on 70% memory.
Am I still ok or do I need to install more?

FFMG



Memory is one of the cheapest resources available.

Compressing files will increase memory requirements, not decrease them. It takes memory to read the file in, then you must compress it and send it out - which requires more memory.

--
==================
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Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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