My Favorite Plug-Ins: WP-Cache
WP-Cache
I’ve been updating this blog of late to include some new plug-ins. There are approximately twelve that I now use as I have been searching for ways to make this blog much more user friendly as well as easier to handle from an administrative viewpoint. This blog is built on WordPress (WP), therefore every plug-in is WP specific.
Last week, I made mention of an overall slowness of pages loading, even periodic downtime with this blog. Although my web host boasts a 99.9% up time, that number hasn’t been hit for some time. Other webmasters who use this same host have recorded “up times” as low as 74%, a figure that is deplorable. I am not in the position to switch hosts right now and I understand that problems with shared hosting is pretty much universal these days — that topic I’ll save for another post.
Ricardo Galli, Plug-in Author
What I have learned is that there is a MySql issue that the web host has been attempting to address with a part of their recommended fix coming by means of a WP plug-in that they have urged everyone to use, WP-Cache. This particular plug-in “…works by caching Wordpress pages and storing them in a static file for serving future requests directly from the file rather than loading and compiling the whole PHP code and then building the page from the database. WP-Cache allows to serve hundred of times more pages per second, and to reduce the response time from several tenths of seconds to less than a millisecond.” I quoted the information, because Ricardo Galli — the plug-in’s designer — developed it and can explain it better than I can.
Friday I activated the plug-in and I immediately noticed a dramatic improvement in blog response time. I also installed the plug-in on my other WP blogs and I am pleased with the results: each blog has been loading very quickly.
You can find additional information about this plug-in and snag a download by clicking here. From time to time I will share information about other plug-ins that I have found to be helpful.
I’m having the same problem with web host! Did I hear you actually got a response? Ha Ha! I ask a question, and they always come back with “I checked your site, and everything is running fine” I never get an explanation. Having the same problem with downtime! It’s my own fault, I know better. You get what you pay for. I do know where I am moving it to!!!! Hang in there!
Hey, Wildwood! I’ve stayed at Wildwood and Wildwood Crest in the past. Your post brings back memories!
Yes, I heard back from the web host and I signed up to their alerts. They have been coming in frequently and have communicated very well with everyone regarding the problems. So, I am satisfied that they are trying.
At some point I may move to a dedicated server. I don’t know if this is what you have in mind, but it could be a good (but expensive) option.