Data compression is the process of encoding or reformatting information such that it takes less data than the original representation. HTTP Compression is a common technique that is used to increase the performance of a website by decreasing its bandwidth requirements.
For instance, when you visit a website, the server will often compress the web pages using a method such as Gzip before sending them to your browser. Your browser then decompresses the pages for viewing. This process reduces the amount of data that needs to be transmitted, making the website load faster.
How to Check gzip Compression
For a file transfer to work with GZIP, two things must happen.
First, the web browser tells the web server that it can accept GZIP-compressed files.
This is accomplished by including the Accept-Encoding HTTP header in the browser’s request: Most browsers today include this header in requests by default.
Second, the web server processes this header .
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How to Enable gzip Compression
Since GZIP compression happens on the web server, the configuration process will depend on your hosting provider and server architecture.
If you find that GZIP compression is not implemented on your web server, we recommend checking your hosting provider’s documentation for instructions on enabling GZIP compression before trying the methods below. .
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What Is Compression?
In broad terms, compression is the process of reducing file sizes and is accomplished using a compression algorithm.
A compression method can either be lossy, meaning some information is lost in the compression process, or lossless, which means all information from the original file is preserved in the compressed file.
Here’s why this is relevant t.
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What is data compression & how does it work?
In its most basic form, data compression takes the code for a website or app, and minimizes the file size.
This gives you lighter files to move around the web and reduces the time it takes to load and render a website.
You’ll find there are lots of ways to compress the data depending on the file type you’re working with.
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What Is gzip Compression?
GZIP is a compression technology frequently used for transferring data quickly over the internet. “GZIP” refers to a compression method, software used to compress files with this method, and the file format that results from GZIP compression (usually indicated by the file extension .gz).
GZIP is the current standard for file compression on the web..
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What is HTTP compression?
HTTP compression is a capability that can be built into web servers and web clients to improve transfer speed and bandwidth utilization.
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Why Do We Use gzip Compression?
GZIP is effective, but it’s not the only compression method out there.
In fact, it’s not even the best method in terms of size reduction.
GZIP can reduce the amount of data by up to 70%.
Not bad, except tests comparing compressed file sizes across different compression algorithms have shown that alternative algorithms like Brotli outperform GZIPfor.
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Why is compression important for a website?
Compression is an important way to increase the performance of a website.
For some documents, size reduction of up to 70% lowers the bandwidth capacity needs.
Over the years, algorithms also got more efficient, and new ones are supported by clients and servers.
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Why is HTTP data compressed before it is sent?
HTTP data is compressed before it is sent from the server:
- compliant browsers will announce what methods are supported to the server before downloading the correct format; browsers that do not support compliant compression method will download uncompressed data
