class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/w3tc-speed.jpg" alt="speed up wordpress" />Self-hosted WordPress is a fantastic system, no doubt about it. It is simply the best choice for anyone from beginner bloggers to large corporations to run a simple yet extensible content publishing system. But with a few plugins installed, a elaborate theme with lots of stylesheets, some Javascript jQuery effects – well, it can become a little bloated resulting in a slow load time.

The problem is compounded if you’re using shared hosting, and you may find your blog has a total load time of around 10 seconds or more. Not only is this obviously a bad experience for users, but Google will penalize your site for being slow too.In fact, a 2006 study showed that most users will give up after 4 seconds, and that was 4 years ago!

id="more-67063"> /> The W3 Total Cache Plugin is here to help, so let me explain what it can do to speed up your WordPress blog.

Note: This article only related to self hosted WordPress press installs, whether that’s on a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-7-easy-and-free-web-hosting-services/">shared host, a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/website-hosting-technology-explained/">dedicated private host, or on your href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/build-linux-web-server-computer-part-1/">own home server.

How Do I Know If My Page Is Slow?

Firstly, simply visiting the page in your own browser is not a good test because most of the objects will be cached locally and hence the loading will seem quicker than it really is. To find out the real page load time of your site, you’ll need to use a special testing tool. You can do this quickly online by typing in the URL of your site at href="http://tools.pingdom.com">tools.pingdom.com

The tool will attempt to load your page without any caching, and will record how long and what elements exactly it has to load. You’ll get a nice graph which can highlight any particular slow elements.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/pingdom.png" alt="speed up wordpress" width="580" height="266" />

When it’s finished, scroll down the bottom of the page and look for the grey summary box. Curiously, my page has slowed down to about 13 seconds total, which is shockingly appalling! Next week, I’ll go through a step by step install process as it can get a little tricky, as well as show you the results.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/load-times.png" alt="speed up wordpress" width="418" height="440" />

What Does W3 Total Cache Do?

1. Caching Pages & Database Queries:

WordPress is a dynamic system. What that means is that everytime a page is viewed, WordPress will run to the database, fetch some data (like your latest blog posts, comments etc), play around with it to produce a page according to your theme layout, then serve it back up to the reader. All that takes a lot of effort and happens for every single page on your blog, even though for most part the content doesn’t change. Instead of going back to the database and recreating the whole page everytime, W3TC will keep a fully made copy of that page in memory, and send that straight to user instead. If a new comment has been added, it’ll make sure that gets displayed too so your posts are always up to date.

2. Minify Your Javascript & CSS:

Some more complex WordPress themes can use up 10 separate CSS files, a lot of which is repeated or unneeded code. Plugins also come with own their own CSS files if they display some kind of output to the user. Again, for every page load the browser must send a separate request for each of these files, and even if they are quite small, the overhead time involved with requesting a file and beginning the transfer really adds up.

The wonderful process of minification takes all those files, and squeezes them into one compact, efficient CSS file that covers all the style elements you need. Don’t worry, when you come to edit the files they’ll look exactly the same to you – but the W3TC plugin will make one new file and serve that to readers instead. The same goes for Javascript files

3. Optimize Your Browser Cache Settings:

Browsers generally don’t automatically know what files can be cached locally on a users computer, and most websites don’t include the relevant information that tells the browser something is ok to cache and for how long. That’s where W3TC comes in, as it will make sure the correct settings are being sent to the users browser so that their local cache is used effectively, reducing the number of files that need to be sent to them each time.

Conclusion

MakeUseOf uses W3TC as just one of the ways we try to optimize the page and make it as fast as possible for you, the readers. Without it, we honestly wouldn’t be able to serve the amount of pages we do as the server would cripple over and burn all the time. But W3TC can help every WordPress system large or small to run more efficiently, and your readers and Google will thank you for it. If you’re following my advice last week on how to make your blog popular, the next logical step is to be able to cope with that popularity by optimizing your site. Keep your eye on the site as I walk you through a complete install of the W3TC plugin next week.

If you’re feeling a little confused about the whole idea of caching to speed up WordPress right now, then be sure to ask us in the comments or post a question to our ever growing and vibrant questions and answers community. Let us know if you use a different plugin also, and how you’d rate it. If you missed my last post where I showed you href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-strategies-wordpress-blog-popular/">8 useful strategies for making your blog popular, be sure to check that out too.

Image Credit: rel="nofollow" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-63280792/stock-photo-illustration-of-a-speedometer.html?src=094923b512a4b966bab5ef06060ab35a-1-29">ShutterStock />
/>Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on href="http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/">MakeUseOf Answers! />
/>

 

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-w3-total-cache-plugin-speed-wordpress-blog/"> src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-w3-total-cache-plugin-speed-wordpress-blog/"> href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-w3-total-cache-plugin-speed-wordpress-blog/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/diggme.png"> href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-w3-total-cache-plugin-speed-wordpress-blog/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/fb.jpg"> href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-w3-total-cache-plugin-speed-wordpress-blog/&title=3 Ways The W3 Total Cache Plugin Can Speed Up Your WordPress Blog&srcTitle=MakeUseOf.com"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/gbuzz-feed.png"> href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-w3-total-cache-plugin-speed-wordpress-blog/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/stumble.png">

 

View full post on MakeUseOf.com

class="alignright" style="margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; border: 0px none initial;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/firefox-cache.jpg" alt="firefox cache" width="225" height="213" />The browser cache temporarily stores images, scripts, and other parts of websites while you are browsing. This is normally a good thing because this enhances performance and load time.

The browser cache usually works behind the scene: you are unlikely to notice it even exists unless you feel like digging deeper.

But do you know that you can actually have quite a bit of fun viewing your browser cache? Do you know why and how you can clean it? Today’s tutorial is just about that: what you can do with your Firefox cache.

id="more-55763">

Viewing Your Firefox Cache

The cache statistics and directory location can be viewed in class="vt-p" title="About protocol links" href="http://kb.mozillazine.org/About_protocol_links"> about:cache. Then:

• about:cache?device=memory – Lists memory cache entries.
• about:cache?device=disk – Lists disk cache entries.

It is really not easy to make sense of that interface but luckily we have an addon to make it easier.

class="vt-p" href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2489/">CacheView is a GUI Front-end of “about:cache”. It allows searching and sorting memory and disk cache files. CacheView gives you a preview pane for any images, and makes it really easy to save MP3s and flash files from the sites you’ve visited.

After you have it installed, just go to Tools ->CacheView (or just use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+C) and you will be presented with a nice table containing your cache files and a preview pane.

The table is sortable by column (key, size, MIME Type, storing device, Last Fetched date) and what’s more it has a search function which adds a lot of sense to your cache database:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/firefox-cache-05.jpg" alt="firefox cache" width="540" height="416" />

You can also right-click on an entry and delete it. It won’t delete things if the page is still opened in one of your tabs.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/firefox-cache-06.jpg" alt="firefox cache viewer" width="244" height="113" />

class="vt-p" href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11113/">CacheSearch is another useful cache addon for FireFox which can search through the full-text of cache records:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/firefox-cache-07.jpg" alt="firefox cache viewer" width="540" height="379" />

Clearing The Firefox Cache

There are a few reasons why you may want to clear the Firefox cache, including privacy concerns and technical problems. I usually do it when I have any issues with a website: problems on sign-up, incorrect interface loading, etc.

Clearing the Cache Manually

Official Guide:

• Navigate: Tools -> Options -> Advanced panel -> Network tab
• In the Offline Storage section, click Clear Now.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/firefox-cache-01.jpg" alt="firefox cache viewer" width="521" height="314" />

FireFox Addons:

If you find yourself clearing the cache too often, you can find this class="vt-p" href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1801/">little addon helpful (which we have previously mentioned in a post on class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/optimizing-firefox/">optimizing Firefox): it adds a button to your browser toolbar – with it you can clear the cache with one click of a mouse.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/firefox-cache-03.jpg" alt="firefox cache folder" width="374" height="173" />

Note: After installation, you will need to manually install the button to where you want it to be. For that, right-click on the sidebar and select “Customize“.

Here’s an alternative addon that can be used for that: class="vt-p" href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1881/">Cache Status which will both monitor your cache statistics for both memory and disk devices and allow to clear it any time:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/firefox-cache-04.jpg" alt="firefox cache folder" width="244" height="120" />

Clear The Cache Automatically:

• Navigate: Tools -> Options -> Privacy panel
• In the drop-down select “Use custom settings for history. “
• Select the check box for Clear history when Firefox closes and in the Settings next to this check box select Cache:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/firefox-cache-02.jpg" alt="FireFox cache" width="520" height="554" />

More Tips On The Firefox Cache:

• Override cache for any individual page with either of two shortcuts:
  • Ctrl+F5
  • Ctrl+Shift+R
• class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/control-how-firefox-caches-websites-with-better-cache/">Control How Firefox Caches Websites With Better Cache: this addon allows you to set rules for caching.
• class="vt-p" href="http://www.rlmseo.com/blog/recover-deleted-posts-using-firefox-cache/">How To Recover Deleted Posts Using Firefox Cache

class="vt-p" href="http://www.rlmseo.com/blog/recover-deleted-posts-using-firefox-cache/">Do you have anything else to add? Please share your Firefox cache tips in the comments below! />
/>Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out href="http://www.facebook.com/makeuseof">MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already! />
/>

href="http://www.facebook.com/makeuseof"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/fbfeedfooter.png" />

 

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/firefox-cache/"> src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/firefox-cache/"> href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/firefox-cache/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/diggme.png"> href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/firefox-cache/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/fb.jpg"> href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/firefox-cache/&title=Exploring Firefox Cache: A Bunch Of Really Cool Tips&srcTitle=MakeUseOf.com"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/gbuzz-feed.png"> href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/firefox-cache/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/stumble.png">

 

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

class="st-related-posts">

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/three-firefox-securityprivacy-add-ons-that-can-co-exist/" title="Three Firefox Security & Privacy Add-ons that can Co-exist">Three Firefox Security & Privacy Add-ons that can Co-exist (29 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/a-closer-look-at-the-extend-firefox-winners/" title="The Winners of ‘Extend Firefox’ – Best Firefox Addons">The Winners of ‘Extend Firefox’ – Best Firefox Addons (15 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/configure-firefox-to-clear-your-private-data-when-shutting-down/" title="Set Firefox To Clear Temp Files, History etc. On Shut Down">Set Firefox To Clear Temp Files, History etc. On Shut Down (12 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/get-the-awesome-read-it-later-extension-for-firefox-3/" title="Get The Awesome Read it Later Extension For Firefox 3">Get The Awesome Read it Later Extension For Firefox 3 (21 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/five-steps-to-a-better-search-experience-in-firefox-3/" title="Five Steps to a Better Search Experience in Firefox 3">Five Steps to a Better Search Experience in Firefox 3 (10 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/enhance-your-firefox-failure-options/" title="Enhance your Firefox Page Failure Options">Enhance your Firefox Page Failure Options (3 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/control-how-firefox-caches-websites-with-better-cache/" title="Control how Firefox Caches Websites with Better Cache">Control how Firefox Caches Websites with Better Cache (6 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-ways-productive-firefox-tabs/" title="7 Ways To Become More Productive With Firefox Tabs">7 Ways To Become More Productive With Firefox Tabs (83 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-enhance-productivity-firefoxs-location-address-bar/" title="5+ Ways To Enhance Productivity With FireFox’s Address Bar">5+ Ways To Enhance Productivity With FireFox’s Address Bar (12 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-5-aboutconfig-hacks-firefox-browsing-smoother/" title="5 Cool Firefox About:Config Hacks To Make Browsing Smoother">5 Cool Firefox About:Config Hacks To Make Browsing Smoother (45 comments)

View full post on MakeUseOf.com

class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/0-aws-intro.png" alt="speed up wordpress blog" width="210" height="236" />You’ve undoubtedly seen a ‘Top 10 WordPress Plugins’ post before. It’s pretty much required reading if you have a new WordPress blog, and everyone seems to be writing them these days. We’re guilty of this as well, having written class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tech-fun/search/?cx=009717636731598800244:qhe4rh7wuxs&cof=FORID:11&q=wordpress+plugins&sa=">our share of plugin articles over the years.

One plugin I’ve seen on a lot of these lists is class="vt-p" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/">WP Super Cache, a caching engine designed to produce static HTML pages and load your blog faster. WP Super Cache is a good plugin, don’t get me wrong, but is it really the fastest?

If you’re really looking to speed up your WordPress blog, I recommend you check out the class="vt-p" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/">W3 Total Cache plugin.

id="more-54894"> /> In this article, I’ll educate you about this plugin and show you what you can do to give your blog a blazing fast speed.

What’s All The Hype About?

Before I show you how to set up this plugin, I figured I should give you a little more incentive to check it out. According to the class="vt-p" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/">plugin page, W3 Total Cache is:

the fastest and most complete WordPress performance optimization plugin. W3 Total Cache improves the user experience of your site by improving your server performance, caching every aspect of your site, reducing the download times and providing transparent content delivery network (CDN) integration.

It boasts a significant improvement (at least 10x) in overall site performance, as well as “instant” second page views.

Don’t know what a CDN is? Read on and I’ll show you how to set all this up.

Getting Started With W3 Total Cache

Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, head over to the settings page.

On the General Settings page, you should see a few messages at the top of the screen. One may ask you to ‘empty page cache’. Go ahead and do that and make sure you disable/uninstall any other caching plugins (like WP Super Cache) for the time being.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/1-aws-general.png" alt="speed up your WordPress blog" width="460" height="170" />

W3 Total Cache’s default settings are fine to start with. Go ahead and check the box under General to turn caching on.

You should already see an increase in speed just from using W3 Total Cache, but to throw your site into warp drive, I’ll show you how to set up a CDN.

Why Use A CDN?

If you are hosting your own WordPress blog, chances are you are renting server space from somewhere. Regardless of what hosting provider you are using, your server is probably in another state/country. Add that to the fact that it’s a shared server (probably a busy one) and sometimes it can take a while to load all of your files (images, etc.).

A content delivery network allows you to eliminate this delay. A CDN will use a server close to you to deliver your content when called upon. It’s this efficiency that allows your website to load faster.

Setting Up Amazon CloudFront

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/2-aws-generalcdn.png" alt="" width="567" height="221" />

Still on the General Settings page, scroll down until you see the Content Delivery Network settings. Check the Enable box, and under CDN Type select Amazon CloudFront. Save your changes and you should now see a bunch of new messages at the top of the screen.

Go to the CDN Settings page from the drop-down menu at the top and scroll down to the Configuration section. To fill in this information, you’re going to have to input some data from Amazon.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/3-aws-awsmain.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="326" />

Head over to the Amazon class="vt-p" href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">web services page and click Sign Up for Amazon S3. Then, head over to the class="vt-p" href="http://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/">CloudFront page and sign up for that as well.

[Note]: Technically Amazon S3 and CloudFront are not free, but they’re awfully close. It costs roughly 15 cents per GB of monthly bandwidth transfer, which most of us won’t come close to using. Not a bad way to make use of the change you find in your couch.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/4-aws-scredentials.png" alt="" width="580" height="350" />

Once you’ve signed up, head to the Account tab and select Security Credentials.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/5-aws-scredentials2.png" alt="" width="580" height="275" />

You’ll want to copy your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key and paste them into their respective WordPress fields.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/6-aws-mngconsole.png" alt="" width="318" height="123" />

Now, you can scroll up to the top of the Amazon web services screen and click on the Sign in to the AWS Management Console link. This will take you to your management page.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/7-aws-createbucket.png" alt="" width="240" height="146" />

Click on the Amazon S3 tab and select Create Bucket. Name your bucket (preferably something short) and go back and enter in that name in the Bucket field of WordPress.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/8-aws-createdist.png" alt="" width="580" height="483" />

In the management console, select the Amazon CloudFront tab. Click Create Distribution, select your bucket under Origin, and click Create. When the State column goes from ‘InProgress’ to ‘Deployed’ (takes a few minutes) we’re ready to move on.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/9-aws-domain.png" alt="" width="423" height="235" />

See where it says Domain Name? Copy what’s in front of .cloudfront.net and paste it into the hostname field in WordPress. Click Test CloudFront upload and save your changes to make sure everything checks out.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/10-aws-export.png" alt="speed up your WordPress blog" />

Finally, head to the top of your WordPress screen and click on export your media library. Click Start and it will upload your existing media files to your CloudFront account. When finished, go through the other buttons and do the same thing.

[Note]: You only have to do this once, when you first install the plugin. Everything you upload to your media folder from here on out will automatically get copied over to your CloudFront account.

Conclusion

The first time you visit your website after setting up W3 Total Cache it should load at normal speed or even slower than usual. Don’t be alarmed, as this is normal. Click refresh and see how much it speeds up your WordPress blog!

What do you think of this plugin?  Let us know in the comments below. />
/>Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out href="http://www.facebook.com/makeuseof">MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already! />
/>

href="http://www.facebook.com/makeuseof"> src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/fbfeedfooter.png" />

 

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/give-wordpress-blog-lightning-fast-speeds-w3-total-cache/"> src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/give-wordpress-blog-lightning-fast-speeds-w3-total-cache/"> href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/give-wordpress-blog-lightning-fast-speeds-w3-total-cache/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/diggme.png"> href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/give-wordpress-blog-lightning-fast-speeds-w3-total-cache/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/fb.jpg"> href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/give-wordpress-blog-lightning-fast-speeds-w3-total-cache/&title=Give Your WordPress Blog Lightning Fast Speeds With W3 Total Cache&srcTitle=MakeUseOf.com"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/gbuzz-feed.png"> href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/give-wordpress-blog-lightning-fast-speeds-w3-total-cache/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/stumble.png">

 

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

class="st-related-posts">

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wordtwit-super-slick-twitter-tools-wordpress/" title="WordTwit – Slick WordPress Plugin For Twitter Integration">WordTwit – Slick WordPress Plugin For Twitter Integration (17 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wordpress-exploit-scanner-helps-administrators-scan-their-database-for-malicious-files/" title="Wordpress Exploit Scanner Helps Administrators Scan Their Database For Malicious Files">WordPress Exploit Scanner Helps Administrators Scan Their Database For Malicious Files (14 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/speed-up-your-wordpress-blog-with-php-speedy/" title="Speed Up Your WordPress Blog With PHP Speedy">Speed Up Your WordPress Blog With PHP Speedy (22 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-create-a-membership-only-website-using-wordpress/" title="How To Create A Membership-Only Website using WordPress">How To Create A Membership-Only Website using WordPress (9 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wordpress-blog-online/" title="How To Back Up Your WordPress Blog Online">How To Back Up Your WordPress Blog Online (21 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/bring-interactive-linking-blog-apture/" title="Bring Interactive Linking To Your WordPress Blog With Apture">Bring Interactive Linking To Your WordPress Blog With Apture (17 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/incarnate-visitors-find-avatars-web-wordpress/" title="Allow Your Blog Readers Add Their Avatar In Comments Without Signing Up For Aything [Wordpress]">Allow Your Blog Readers Add Their Avatar In Comments Without Signing Up For Aything [Wordpress] (8 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wordpress-tv-the-best-wordpress-tutorials-ever/" title="Wordpress.tv – The Best WordPress Tutorials Ever!">WordPress.tv – The Best WordPress Tutorials Ever! (14 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-first-wordpress-plugins-you-must-install/" title="The First WordPress Plugins You Must Install">The First WordPress Plugins You Must Install (34 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/12-free-wordpress-themes-with-ad-space/" title="The Best 12 Free WordPress Themes With Built-In Ad Space">The Best 12 Free WordPress Themes With Built-In Ad Space (14 comments)

View full post on MakeUseOf.com

If you have an online home biz and your own domain it is highly likely that you make regular changes or add pages to your website. This can be a time consuming procedure at the best of times and if you have just got your own domain or are new to html it can be highly frustrating when you do not see the changes you have made and simply cannot figure out what has gone wrong.

It does not matter how many times you click the Refresh button, the same old web page still appears and you begin to wonder if you saved the changes before uploading your site. In fact you probably go to the trouble of downloading the site again and repeating the process to no avail.

What is cache?

Every time you visit a web page on the internet, your web browser will store a copy of that web page, including images and sounds in the Temporary Internet Files folder. This is often referred to as the cache. You may well notice how quickly a web page loads in your browser the second time you visit it, if you have not cleared your cache. Conversely, once you have cleared your cache, a site will take longer to load the first time round as it has no previous information to access from memory.

How to fix the problem:

The reason that you see your old web page is because your computer memory is still holding the old cache of your website. To overcome this problem in Internet Explorer open your online home biz website in your browser and hold down the Control key on your keyboard and at the same time click the Refresh button in your browser. This will force your browser to retrieve a copy of your website from the network server without comparing it to your cache. In other words it by-passes the cache in the memory of your computer and immediately your newly changed website should be visible.

How to clear your cache:

It is advisable to clear your cache regularly, not only to prevent your browser from loading out of date information about a site or image but, because cache takes up a lot of disk space and will eventually cause your computer to slow down.

To clear your cache in Internet Explorer 7, simply open a browser, click on Tools, then Internet Options, under Browsing History click Delete and there you will see the options to delete temporary internet files, cookies and history.

You can adjust your settings to automatically clear the cache whenever you close your browser. If you are using IE7, simply go to the Tools menu, and click Internet Options. Click the Advanced tab. In the Settings box, scroll down to the section labeled Security (look for the padlock icon), and click to check the box next to the Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder When Browser Is Closed option. Click OK to finish. This option will clear your cache of other files when you close your browser, but it does not delete cookies.

Clearing your cache may not cure this problem!

Another really frustrating and time consuming problem is that of opening a web site that you visit on a regular basis only to find that you cannot login? You keep getting sent back to the login page with no error messages coming up, like wrong username or password. If you are sure you have entered your correct details, make contact with the webmaster and usually he will be able to advise you of the problem. But, this can be caused when the DNS (Domain name system) provider of a web site is re-configured and using the method to clear cache may not work.

Apparently, some ISP (Internet Service Providers) are slower than others in updating the DNS records and sometimes a DNS change can take quite a while to be recognized by all ISPs. What you can do in this case is contact your ISP provider (Internet Provider) and ask them to put a bypass in to go around their cache engine. You may need to be persistent with this request, as the ISP can be reluctant to do the cache bypass.

Other benefits of clearing your cache:

Depending on how much time you spend on the internet on a daily basis, the temporary internet files or cache can take a few minutes to delete if done daily, but if you leave it and only delete them say once a month, you could be in for a long wait while your computer performs this task.

You may well find that your browser speed and performance increase too after clearing your cache.

When you are running an online home biz it is a great time saver if you clear your cache often, as this will help to keep your computer running smoothly and prevent it from getting bogged down with all the information on the web sites you have visited on the internet. It will also help get rid of unwanted gremlins that can creep into your computer via temporary internet files.