Making DNForum Faster

[Nomzo]

Hi guys,

All DNForum pages can be made smaller (~15%) and load faster by compressing .css and .js files.

It's a simple tweak to the .htaccess file by adding the following code:

# compress text, html, javascript, css, xml:
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript

# Or, compress certain file types by extension:
<files *.php>
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</files>

Code source: http://betterexplained.com/articles/how-to-optimize-your-site-with-gzip-compression/

There's plenty of other tweaks but this one is so quick and easy. Hopefully it can be added to improve everyone's experience on the website.

 

[Chuck]

Thank you for the feedback! We have a ton of changes coming soon and speeding things up is definitely on the agenda

 

[amplify]

They load fast enough for me :lol:

And this is during peak hours (4-7PM). Usually when I work, I get an A- or A with around 50-70 up/down. And this is standard home internet.

 

[Nomzo]

Recently had to change from 40MB download speeds to ~4MB, so noticing the difference.

It's less about our internet speeds and more the size and setup of the website. 4MB is fast in some parts of the world, so it's making more accessible for everyone. The other part is distance from the server e.g. users in the U.S. most likely enjoy a faster website. The good part about compressing files, optimising images etc is that there's no need to invest in servers across the world. Zero cost and it takes minimal time.

Google Analytics provides a useful report:

Content > Site Speed > Overview > Country / Territory

 

[amplify]

Good point about bringing up page speed though. Just recently (maybe 1-2 months ago), Google was yelling at me about page speed. It turned out, my old server was able to handle the load, but that there was no compressed text/images and minifying that Google wanted. One image I kept editing manually (the header) until you could barely tell the difference, down to the size Google saw fit—it’s like they wanted a 256 color .gif. All these changes though did help out in SEO rankings once done.

Great free tool provided by Yahoo! for images: http://www.smushit.com/ysmush.it/