Feedback on GZIP compression

[Sharg]

Well, I always used GZIP default setting to 1 since I installed VB2.0.
I decided to turn it OFF to see how it goes. I'm using an ADSL line and I heard many time that GZIP compression would only help people on very slow connection.

Well let me tell you that even people with fast connection will benefit from GZIP compression, in particular if your page is complex with many tables.

It makes a definetely noticable difference, its amazing.
With GZIP and ADSL, it seems to just load the page instantly (i'm also using bware cache). I moved from forum to forum, and back to the forum index.

Without GZIP, I must definetely wait longer, and I can even see the scroll progress of loading page on the lower right corner of the browser, while I can almost not see it whith GZIP because its so fast.

Thats a GREAT feature, and I guess people with slow connexion will even have extra benefit from it.

+ GZIP setting 1 adds almost not CPU extra load.

[Chris Schreiber]

Yes I've gotten very positive feedback from all the forums I've installed Gzip on... it certainly does make a significant difference.

[gEPHION]

Ehmmm guyz....

Stupid question, but all this talk about gzip, and something about installing some "program" besides vbb to get it to work...

eh... I´m a bit confused here.. Doesn´t the gzip option work, when You enable it in the cp or??

[jojo85]

I think it's a very nice thing for big boards :)

[Mike Sullivan]

gEPHION -- unless you have zLib support in PHP, turning on gzip in the control panel won't do anything.

[bira]

stupid question #2: how can I tell if I have zLIB, and if I don't have it, how can I add it?

stupid question #3: do my users need anything special, or does it work for all browsers? (Sorry, I don't fully understand the concept of gzip files).

[Mike Sullivan]

2. You'll have a section in your PHP info about it.
3. They need a recent browser basically. If they don't support it, they are sent the full size page.

[bira]

ok, I don't have it. Where do I get it? :)

[Mike Sullivan]

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.zlib.php
http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/zlib/

[Wayne Luke]

it is available in the PHP snapshot files. It is added as a compile option. If you are not the one who compiles PHP for your server, talk to the system Admin who is. The instructions on how to compile libraries like zLib into PHP are available in the PHP manual.

[bira]

Thanks Ed, Wluke.

The server was originally compiled and managed by a sysadmin, however it is now run solely by us, so when I need stuff like recompling PHP, I need to do it myself... scarey :)

[DVD Plaza]

I'm rewriting my entire site to be in PHP. Obviously our VBulletin already has GZIP in force, how would I go about making my own PHP pages use GZIP so that the whole site benefits from it?

[Mas*Mind]

http://php.weblogs.com/stories/http_compression

or even simpler (php >= 4.04)

http://www.zend.com/zend/art/buffering.php#Heading6

[Mark Hewitt]

Originally posted by Ed Sullivan
2. You'll have a section in your PHP info about it.


:confused: Where do I find this?

[odell]

open notepad or some other text editor and put this in it:

<? phpinfo(); ?>

Save it as something like phpinfo.php
upload it to ur site and point ur browser to it :)

[bira]

All I can say is:

Oh

My

God :eek:


I've compiled php 4.0.4pl1 with zlib, then turned on gzip in vB options, and bloody hell, the pages on my BB load faster than ever!

What a difference!

[jojo85]

Hehe ;)
That is the powaaaa of vbulletin

[Nicholas Brown]

Originally posted by bira
All I can say is:

Oh

My

God :eek:


I've compiled php 4.0.4pl1 with zlib, then turned on gzip in vB options, and bloody hell, the pages on my BB load faster than ever!

What a difference!

Wait till you see your B/W usage drop - its a great thing to see ;)

[eva2000]

Originally posted by bira
All I can say is:

Oh

My

God :eek:


I've compiled php 4.0.4pl1 with zlib, then turned on gzip in vB options, and bloody hell, the pages on my BB load faster than ever!

What a difference! yup, my page size went from 68 - 88kb each to under 10kb each! :D

[Sharg]

Eva, what is the Gzip rate you use ?

[eva2000]

Originally posted by Sharg
Eva, what is the Gzip rate you use ? the default = 1

no gains if it's any higher :)

[Chris Schreiber]

Set the GZip level to 1... anything higher is a waste of CPU cycles.

[jojo85]

Originally posted by Chris Schreiber
Set the GZip level to 1... anything higher is a waste of CPU cycles.

Thx for the little tips :)

[MattR]

Has anyone noticed any memory issues with setting the output handler to ob_gzip (or whatever it is)?

Literally as soon as I turn it on and restart apache we go from having 400MB of free ram to 300...250... 100... 0! then the server starts swapping to disk.

What the heck is going on? PHP 4.0.4, Zend Cache + Optimizer, Apache 1.3.19.

[bira]

I tried to do that but I got lots of errors (raw php code outputted) so I removed it 1 minute later, so I don't know.

Right now the only place I got gzip running is on the BB and so far I've not seen any change in resources usage.

Sorry I can't be of better help

[Mark Hewitt]

I have PHP Version 4.0.4pl1 and the "zLIB" string does not appear anywhere in my phpinfo, does this mean that I do not have it installed?

However I do have - HTTP_SERVER_VARS["HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING"] gzip, deflate

Is there any definitive way to tell, (preferably from the user end) that the output is being gzipped?

[bira]

Mark if you don't have a zlib section in phpinfo then you don't have php compiled with zlib. That's all :)

[Mark Hewitt]

Sorry to sound like a numnut but that means that the gzip compression will not work, correct?

[bira]

that's ok Mark, scroll in this thread and you'll see I asked the same questions more or less :D

No, it won't work. php has to be compiled with zlib for it.

[Dontom]

Hi,
all I have to do is to uncomment
ob_start("ob_gzhandler");
$header = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_flush();

??
I did this but leknor.com says my pages are not compressed :confused:
PhpInfo says "with-zlib"
http://www.mtb-news.de/vbb/phpinfo.php

Any Idea??
Tom

[Mark Hewitt]

As I understand it there must be a seperate zLib section in your phpinfo, not just a string pointing to where it should be installed.

[Dontom]

Mark!
ok, just looked @ http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/phpinfo.php - I see the diffrence...
Thank You!