I have a new article up at ServerWatch which looks at the benefits and configuration of HTTP compression within Apache and IIS. Here’s an excerpt from the intro:
There’s a finite amount of bandwidth on most Internet connections, and anything administrators can do to speed up the process is worthwhile. One way to do this is via HTTP compression, a capability built into both browsers and servers that can dramatically improve site performance by reducing the amount of time required to transfer data between the server and the client. The principles are nothing new — the data is simply compressed. What is unique is that compression is done on the fly, straight from the server to the client, and often without users knowing.HTTP compression is easy to enable and requires no client-side configuration to obtain benefits, making it a very easy way to get extra performance. This article discusses how it works, its advantages, and how to configure Apache and IIS to compress data on the fly.
Read on for the full article.