[troybtj]

Make sure you don't have multiple compression methods enabled. look at apache deflate.conf and gzip.conf for which file types they are compressing.

They shouldn't be set to compress the same filetypes. If one of them (gzip or deflate in apache) IS set to compress, make sure compression is disabled in vBulletin ACP Site options, and do not run the PHP Compression script (redir.php) in this mod, as redundant compression may uncompress the content, or mangle it in other ways.

Here is my deflate config:

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/atom_xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-httpd-php
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-httpd-fastphp
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-httpd-eruby
</IfModule>

The lines above are for apache2, deflate is the default compression for apache 2.

The best tip in this mod is the forced caching of relatively persistent objects (images, javascript). If those items are in the cache, it won't matter much if it is 12k or 30k, as it will only be downloaded from your site rarely, instead of on every page load. You can check by looking at "Statistics" tab in Yslow to display which items are cached, saving requests and bandwidth.

For Caching/Expires, I used the headers apache 2 module, with this line for config to cover most everything.

<FilesMatch "\.(ico|pdf|flv|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|js|css|swf)$">
Header set Expires "Sun, 15 Apr 2010 18:00:00 GMT"
</FilesMatch>

No other cache control lines in apache2.conf, httpd.conf, or any .htaccess files, and output compression in vB ACP is disabled.


With vBulletin version 3.7.3, I suggest enabling loading the Yahoo YUI scripts from the yahooapis.com CDN. Those scripts are rather large, even when compressed. If you pay for bandwidth by the month, and those are loaded with every page, it can add up very quickly on a high traffic site.


With the above changes and settings, Here are the results from the Firefox Yslow add-on on a 3.7.3 PL1 site with quite a few add-ons: (Everything after 6 is an "A")
B 1. Make fewer HTTP requests
This page has 6 external JavaScript files.
F 2. Use a CDN
You can add your own CDN hostname preferences.
A 3. Add an Expires header
A 4. Gzip components
A 5. Put CSS at the top
C 6. Put JS at the bottom


If you have the ability to change the apache configuration and modules, such as a dedicated server, etc, these config changes would be one good solution out of many methods.

If your only ability to change anything about the server is an .htaccess file, and gzip or deflate aren't installed in your apache server, then this script/.htaccess mod is about your best solution, as well as enabling compression in vB ACP.