Theo Welch wrote:
<snip>
To help deal with this, there are ways to configure a web server so
that it will instruct the browser to not make these "unnecessary"
requests, but most web servers aren't configured to such a degree. For
example, you can configure Apache to tell the browser not to bother
checking whether files of type ".gif" and ".jpg" have changed for 3
hours since they were last cached by the browser. On a busy,
commercial website, this can prevent literally millions of extraneous
request negotiations per day and can ultimately lead to faster server
response times because the server isn't wasting cycles (and bytes of
bandwidth) just telling browsers that its files haven't changed since
they last cached them. And it can also reduce page rendering time
because the browser will *instantly* load an object from its cache
instead of checking with the server first for a newer/changed version.
Browser behavior can vary on this front, and the browser can always be
configured by the user to check with the server every time no matter
what the server told it to do. But 99% of the time, this technique can
work well to save processing cycles and bandwidth for both the server
and the browser. Of course the downside is, if you DO change a GIF or
JPEG on the server, then there can be a delay before users who are
browsing your site will actually download the updated file. So this
approach does add a bit of logistical complication that must be
considered carefully.
I'm not sure if any of that answers your questions, but hopefully it
will be helpful to somebody in some way.
Cheers,
-THEO-
wow, nice one Theo.
It turns out it was my server configuration, I've spoken with my boss...
well... my older bro and he implemented your suggestion there for css
images (ie the ones that don't change much). We serve up literally
thousands of images a day for the e-commerce sites we host so any way we
can reduce server overheads is a good thing =]
My script seems to be running quite nicely now. Oddly enough it only
seemed to occur when I was viewing the site on an auxiliary monitor...
but thats gotta be a coincidence.
Cheers Theo, you're a star
Rob
ps. sorry for the off-topic post everyone, guess it didn't have
anything to do with jQuery after all.
