Nginx

Wow, where to begin on this messy subject? Nginx vs. Litespeed vs. Apache… If you haven’t heard of Litespeed, it is a web server application created by a company called Litespeed Technologies in 2006. Their goal from the beginning (and still today) is to directly compete with the open-source Apache web server — they do […]

We recently announced that FastCGI Cache was successfully activated across our entire managed hosting network, on every single plan that we offer — accordingly, our system now auto-deletes any WordPress cache plugins it finds. FastCGI Cache, an open source cache that comes packaged inside the Nginx server, has been steadily gaining popularity over the last […]

The last few months have been hectic here at LittleBizzy, to say the least. Not only have we made several important announcements on our blog recently as we continue to shape the direction of our services, but we’ve also been undergoing a complete “network upgrade” as well. We are happy to report what we’ve finally […]

A few years back, it had already become apparent that Nginx was the brave new king of web servers, due to its impressive simplicity and ability to scale with ease. One of its most attractive features, however, was its ability to act as a “reverse proxy” either in front of an Apache server, or even […]

If you have never heard of Opcache before, you may be more familiar with its former name: Zend Optimizer. In the old days, PHP “bytecode caching” did exist but it was always a 3rd party service that had to be re-compiled as part of your PHP install (or entire Apache install, as it were). With […]

Firstly, a disclaimer: I am the biggest fan of improving server response time you will ever find. That being said, in no way am I a fan of cherry-picking trendy metrics or phrases when it comes to website performance, as ultimately everything is related. From DNS, to RAM memory, to SSL certificates, to a website’s […]

phpMyAdmin is one of the most loved AND hated applications among server administrators for rather simple reasons. Firstly, it is widely loved because it makes SQL database administration so easy by way of a proper UI (user interface), but secondly it is widely hated because it is so often the target of hackers and other […]

In my opinion, the XML-RPC function in WordPress is a nightmare. Back in the day, core WordPress contributors thought it would be a cool idea to allow remote connections to WordPress websites, for the purpose of such things like a desktop blogging client (or more recently, for the WordPress mobile apps that allow blog management […]

Oh, file permissions! Perhaps one of the most annoying things for both web hosts and webmasters across the globe are those pesky file permissions that get in the way of software updates, media uploads, and other maintenance tasks. For better or worse, it tends to be a knee-jerk scapegoat for many developers: “hmm, could it […]

SSL. It’s the word of the year, it would seem, ever since Google’s late 2014 announcement that installing an SSL certificate on your website would effect rankings in their search engine algorithm. And all for the better, as I’ve written about before: traditional SEO is dead and things are finally starting to get exciting again […]