IPB with Site Speed Accelerator

Jordan Miller · June 5, 2020

Hey team,

Like everyone, I want my forum to load as fast as possible. My page speed score is a D, according to Pingdom. The ads are to blame, but unfortunately I can't really see a way to get around that entirely. I won't get into how frustrating it is that UX is compromised to earn revenue and how backwards that is.

My website's CDN is integrated using the ad company I use, Ezoic. It did improve site speed, but I'm not satisfied with a D rating.

They also have something called a Site Speed Accelerator, which is their advanced caching tool. It's pretty powerful.

https://www.ezoic.com/site-speed/

However, when we enabled it, my forum ran into all kinds of problems. For instance, people could no longer submit replies in a topic. Javascript functions stopped working, like opening a navigation menu.

They don't have many clients who use IPB, so they aren't 100% sure how to proceed. That's why I'm here. It's important to me to 1.) Improve my site speed and 2.) share that knowledge here so others can improve their site, too.

Here's what they last said to me. They encouraged me to come here to get more information. 🙏 Wondering what some of you do to drastically improve performance. I want an A rating if at all possible!

Quote

I have been working with our team on some of the issues you had with the Site Speed Accelerator. Unfortunately it does seem to be incompatible with multiple elements of the site, which makes it difficult to move forward with. We may need to simply remove those elements from processing through the SSA, which means your scores will be still impacted negatively by them. Once we begin removing multiple elements, it's impossible to guarantee the 80+ scores.

I'm hoping to avoid this, so would like to do some more testing on our end. Is there a certain time or day that would be best to turn it on for about an hour to check some things?

However, speaking with the team they mentioned that it's likely due to the uniqueness of your site. Basically any "add ons" like plugins or widgets can create conflicts because they aren't made to be loaded in accordance with Google Pagespeed best practices.

I think the more info the better - worth a shot!

Wondering... what is the best route for me? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Daniel F · June 5, 2020

Did you see any errors in the JS console?

Rhett · June 5, 2020

The first step would be to fix all the errors on your site, you can review this using browser dev tools.

Jordan Miller · June 5, 2020

1 hour ago, Rhett said:

The first step would be to fix all the errors on your site, you can review this using browser dev tools.

Thank you! Is there someone you could possibly recommend to help me with this? I wish I were more savvy in this area.

The Old Man · June 6, 2020

Hi,

Just took a quick look using GTMetrix and Redbot and they show some invalid characters (commas) in your HTTP headers and duplicated headers properties which won't be helping. These are probably inadvertently blocking genuine urls loaded by your page. The ones coming from Cloudflare will be syntactically valid, but check your server configuration as that will generate them first, and perhaps check in the AdminCP in case you are using their headers feature can duplicate headers. Look defiant at Content Security Policy and X-Frame Options.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:19:48 GMT
Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Connection: keep-alive
Set-Cookie: __cfduid=d6ca9e2f11bb679d134153007b3e5a3321591463987;
        expires=Mon, 06-Jul-20 17:19:47 GMT; path=/;
        domain=.breatheheavy.com; HttpOnly; SameSite=Lax
Cache-Control: max-age=600, public
Content-Security-Policy: upgrade-insecure-requests;, upgrade-insecure-
        requests;
Display: pub_site_to_orig_sol
Expires: Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:29:48 GMT
Host-Header: e172abecbd394f56a1a2479517f27fbfe05ff815
Last-Modified: Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:17:33 GMT
Pagespeed: off
Pragma: public
Response: 200
Set-Cookie: ips4_IPSSessionFront=0d58a60ca0463a7fda66fe44ded47a01; path=/;
        secure; HttpOnly
Set-Cookie: ips4_guestTime=1591463988; path=/exhale/; secure; HttpOnly
Set-Cookie: ezoadgid_177600=-1; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com;
        Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:49:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: ezoref_177600=; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat, 06
        Jun 2020 19:19:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: ezoab_177600=mod15-c; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com;
        Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020 19:19:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: active_template::177600=pub_site.1591463988; Path=/;
        Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Mon, 08 Jun 2020
        17:19:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: lp_177600=https://www.breatheheavy.com/exhale/; Path=/;
        Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020
        19:19:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: ezovuuidtime_177600=1591463988; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com;
        Expires=Mon, 08 Jun 2020 17:19:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: ezovuuid_177600=94ca7346-0f41-4483-659e-0e3155b01da5; Path=/;
        Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020
        17:49:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: ezopvc_177600=1; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat,
        06 Jun 2020 17:49:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: ezCMPCCS=true; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sun, 06
        Jun 2021 17:19:48 GMT
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Vary: cookie,Accept-Encoding,User-Agent,X-APP-JSON
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Ezoic-Cdn: Miss
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN, sameorigin
X-Ips-Cached-Response: Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:17:33 GMT
X-Ips-Loggedin: 0
X-Middleton-Display: pub_site_to_orig_sol
X-Middleton-Response: 200
X-Sol: pub_site
X-Sucuri-Cache: MISS
X-Sucuri-Id: 11004
X-Xss-Protection: 1; mode=block, 0
CF-Cache-Status: DYNAMIC
cf-request-id: 032c3e62f800009641d33cf200000001
Expect-CT: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-
        uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
Server: cloudflare
CF-RAY: 59f3cce4cd9f9641-SJC

The more custom headers and Vary properties you have, the less chance of requests being cached. Caching by user agent is definitely one to avoid performance wise, there are far too many variations with so many user agents out there.

Edited June 6, 2020 by The Old Man

stoo2000 · June 6, 2020

Going on the post by @The Old Man, are you REALLY using THREE different proxy services? I see headers for

Ezoic
Cloudflare
Sucuri

I wouldn't be surprised if that is one of the reasons you're seeing issues.

Jordan Miller · June 9, 2020

On 6/6/2020 at 1:19 PM, stoo2000 said:

Going on the post by @The Old Man, are you REALLY using THREE different proxy services? I see headers for

Ezoic

Cloudflare

Sucuri

I wouldn't be surprised if that is one of the reasons you're seeing issues.

Interesting. Ezoic is the ad company that also offers a CDN. I also have Sucuri, but even I'm unclear why it's needed if I'm using Ezoic. Let me reach out to them. Thank you!

On 6/6/2020 at 10:34 AM, The Old Man said:

Hi,

Just took a quick look using GTMetrix and Redbot and they show some invalid characters (commas) in your HTTP headers and duplicated headers properties which won't be helping. These are probably inadvertently blocking genuine urls loaded by your page. The ones coming from Cloudflare will be syntactically valid, but check your server configuration as that will generate them first, and perhaps check in the AdminCP in case you are using their headers feature can duplicate headers. Look defiant at Content Security Policy and X-Frame Options.


HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:19:48 GMT
Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Connection: keep-alive
Set-Cookie: __cfduid=d6ca9e2f11bb679d134153007b3e5a3321591463987;
        expires=Mon, 06-Jul-20 17:19:47 GMT; path=/;
        domain=.breatheheavy.com; HttpOnly; SameSite=Lax
Cache-Control: max-age=600, public
Content-Security-Policy: upgrade-insecure-requests;, upgrade-insecure-
        requests;
Display: pub_site_to_orig_sol
Expires: Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:29:48 GMT
Host-Header: e172abecbd394f56a1a2479517f27fbfe05ff815
Last-Modified: Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:17:33 GMT
Pagespeed: off
Pragma: public
Response: 200
Set-Cookie: ips4_IPSSessionFront=0d58a60ca0463a7fda66fe44ded47a01; path=/;
        secure; HttpOnly
Set-Cookie: ips4_guestTime=1591463988; path=/exhale/; secure; HttpOnly
Set-Cookie: ezoadgid_177600=-1; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com;
        Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:49:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: ezoref_177600=; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat, 06
        Jun 2020 19:19:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: ezoab_177600=mod15-c; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com;
        Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020 19:19:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: active_template::177600=pub_site.1591463988; Path=/;
        Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Mon, 08 Jun 2020
        17:19:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: lp_177600=https://www.breatheheavy.com/exhale/; Path=/;
        Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020
        19:19:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: ezovuuidtime_177600=1591463988; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com;
        Expires=Mon, 08 Jun 2020 17:19:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: ezovuuid_177600=94ca7346-0f41-4483-659e-0e3155b01da5; Path=/;
        Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020
        17:49:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: ezopvc_177600=1; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat,
        06 Jun 2020 17:49:48 UTC
Set-Cookie: ezCMPCCS=true; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sun, 06
        Jun 2021 17:19:48 GMT
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Vary: cookie,Accept-Encoding,User-Agent,X-APP-JSON
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Ezoic-Cdn: Miss
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN, sameorigin
X-Ips-Cached-Response: Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:17:33 GMT
X-Ips-Loggedin: 0
X-Middleton-Display: pub_site_to_orig_sol
X-Middleton-Response: 200
X-Sol: pub_site
X-Sucuri-Cache: MISS
X-Sucuri-Id: 11004
X-Xss-Protection: 1; mode=block, 0
CF-Cache-Status: DYNAMIC
cf-request-id: 032c3e62f800009641d33cf200000001
Expect-CT: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-
        uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
Server: cloudflare
CF-RAY: 59f3cce4cd9f9641-SJC

The more custom headers and Vary properties you have, the less chance of requests being cached. Caching by user agent is definitely one to avoid performance wise, there are far too many variations with so many user agents out there.

Thanks so much for the reply and helping me with this. Do you recommend I reach out to my server manager? I'm a little confused as to where to even begin heh. 🙏

The Old Man · June 9, 2020

Hi,

Yes, the ad network will likely be using a CDN and that's fine, Securi is a different fish altogether, it's a security and audit service.

If you have a server manager, sure it wouldn't do any harm, but I'd try and do a bit of testing first. Perhaps you could start by deactivating all of the ads and the ad platform first, clear your AdminCP Cache (run the support tool), clear Cloudflare's cache and see what happens to the performance and errors, in particular the malformed header tags. Use the free GTMetrix and run at least 3 quick checks, before and after or try and use Redbot. If the malformed headers disappear you know that's it's something to do with their ad platform, their configuration or their content.

Those malformed headers are from the actual html webpage, not a file such as an image file, so something either on the server itself is setting or changing breaking them or perhaps you have a plugin or app or something in IPS's AdminCP you could rule out by deactivating it temporarily.

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IPB with Site Speed Accelerator

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