Visit my site and it tries to download a GZ file

[Ipstenu]

Following up to answer my own question: http://cd34.com/blog/scalability/wor...in-benchmarks/

Basically what I (still) don't like about W3 Total is that there's so MANY options, and I'm not always sure what I need.

Looking at the difference between running W3 Total with Page Caching – Disk Enhanced, Minify/Database using APC and WP Super with the defaults, there's not THAT much difference. Factor in that I'm using the Minify plugin and it becomes even more of a "Whatever you're more comfortable with" situation for me.

Funny enough, Rarst, I found W3 to be far more confusing to setup correctly than WP, which takes me all of 5 minutes to install, chmod, refresh, chmod, edit .htaccess, done.

Really where W3 cache shines is concatenating, minifying and compressing styles and scripts.

Which I can do with WP Minify...

I will grant that I can edit my server settings and have optimized it for WordPress. I do use APC, and it's interesting that it claims to tie into that, but I'd like to know what it's doing there!

Sticking with Wp Super for now :) When W3 makes his wizard, I will revisit :)

Edited to add....
I just ran Firebug, which I haven't since I tend to think it's overrated. I got an A for ipstenu.org and a B for my other site (which is far more heavily trafficked) so ... I don't feel too worried just yet. I'll find out how well it all works on May 20th, when I expect enough traffic to choke a randy goat.

[Rarst]

I found W3 to be far more confusing to setup correctly than WP, which takes me all of 5 minutes to install, chmod, refresh, chmod, edit .htaccess, done.

W3 has a looot of options but they are neat and orderly with large help on top. Super is like "here be options, deal with this".

Anyway setup is one time thing. :)

W3 usage of APC is as option to store pages cache. I am on shared so I don't get toys that shiny. :)

[Ipstenu]

It's more optimization of the setup that gets me. Super's 'deal with me' makes sense to my brain, I guess. It's so few options. On, off, or half on? How long do you wanna cache? Gzip? The rest you can leave alone mostly. Plus? I can delete individual cache pages!

And I consider setup as an ongoing thing, with regards to configuration tweaks. Neither app is a RonCo (set it and forget it) deal.

I will say this, Super SUCKS on Shared hosting. I could never get it to work right until I moved to VPS. That may be the problem with it.

[chipbennett]

It's more optimization of the setup that gets me. Super's 'deal with me' makes sense to my brain, I guess. It's so few options. On, off, or half on? How long do you wanna cache? Gzip? The rest you can leave alone mostly. Plus? I can delete individual cache pages!

And I consider setup as an ongoing thing, with regards to configuration tweaks. Neither app is a RonCo (set it and forget it) deal.

I will say this, Super SUCKS on Shared hosting. I could never get it to work right until I moved to VPS. That may be the problem with it.

I just went with all of the recommended defaults for W3 Total Cache - except that I set Disk Caching from Basic (PHP script) to Enhanced (.htaccess).

I *looked* at the rest of the options, but I don't remember changing any.

One other nice thing about W3 Total Cache is that it seems to have far fewer plugin incompatibilities than WPSuperCache does.

[C3MDigital]

Does the plug in add expires headers to your files? I always rename with ?v=1 at the end of a file when I make a change so the browser will get the newer file.

[Rarst]

@C3MDigital

Caching plugins deal mostly with PHP. CSS and JS are not (usually) served through PHP and so plugin technically can't set headers for those.

I usually setup expires in .htaccess

PS good technique is to version file with last modification timestamp, removes need for manual versioning.

[Ipstenu]

Ditto with expires in .htaccess

I used this site as a staring point: http://www.askapache.com/htaccess/ap...d-expires.html

[C3MDigital]

@C3MDigital

Caching plugins deal mostly with PHP. CSS and JS are not (usually) served through PHP and so plugin technically can't set headers for those.

I usually setup expires in .htaccess

PS good technique is to version file with last modification timestamp, removes need for manual versioning.

Thanks for the tip.