Interview Conducted by WebReference.com

Many of you asked about our HTTP compression story: "That's great, but where's the software?" mod_gzip is now available for Apache! This open source server module acts as an Internet content accelerator and seamlessly speeds up your site. This updated overview of HTTP compression now includes mod_gzip test results, and where you can download the code.

http://webreference.com/internet/software/servers/http/compression/

We interviewed Peter Cranstone about mod_gzip, which his company released to the public Friday. Peter is the founder and CEO of Remote Communications, a Colorado-based company specializing in accelerating content delivery for wired and wireless applications.

WEBREF: What's the response been to releasing mod_gzip last week?

PETER CRANSTONE: In a word, overwhelming. Almost all of the response has come from outside the United Sates. It seems like everyone has been waiting for this product for years. We have a person using it on Slovenia and most of his customers access the web at between 6400 and 9600 baud, so compressing the HTML pages by 80% makes and incredible difference. (BTW, Wireless connections in the US are about the same speed)

WR: Tell us about mod_gzip, how does it work?

PC: It's a very straightforward module. It's purpose in life is compress HTML documents in compliance with the IETF content encoding spec. (This spec allows browsers which are HTTP 1.1 compliant to decompress gziped content). A user makes a request for a static document from an Apache server. If the user's browser is HTTP 1.1 compliant (we can tell this from header information the browser transmits with the request) then mod_gzip compresses the data and transmits it to the user.

WR: Does it works with dynamic content and ad software?

PC: The module does not work with dynamic content, however it will compress HTML ads which are static. Let me expand a little further. While it's true the Apache modules communicate with each other on a limited basis, the modules which generate dynamic content, mostly mod_perl, mod_cgi are not able to communicate with mod_gzip. The new version of Apache (2.0) which is on the drawing board is hopefully going to resolve this with something called "filtering." We are closely monitoring the Apache Group to ensure that when 2.0 is stable enough we have a solution for dynamic content. In the meantime the only other solution is to download one of our other products like the RCTPD Web Accelerator which supports dynamic content compression.

WR: Why did you decide to go open source?

PC: To demonstrate the real need for this piece of software and by being Open you get wider adoption. Most people never thought HTML would grow as large as it has. By the time we start using XML we will see file sizes grow to hundreds of thousands of bytes. It's already slow over a 28K modem, when we switch to wireless it's essential we transmit data more efficiently.

WR: On behalf of Web developers everywhere, thanks for releasing mod_gzip to the Web, and for supporting it. However, you've obviously got to make money, what do your other products offer over the free version?

PC: You're welcome. We've split our offerings into 4 core areas. They can be summed up as follows:

1. Speed HyperSpace -- Content Acceleration.
2. Connectivity ElseWare -- Web clipping.
3. Functionality EMAS -- Electronic Messaging Alert System.
4. Integration Your Space -- Integrated Portal in the Browser.

BTW, the commercial version of HyperSpace(R) includes a "smart snap in engine design." This allows new compression algorithms for different MIME types.

WR: What can webmasters expect in terms of bandwidth savings, and download speedup after installing mod_gzip on their apache servers?

PC: A lot of research has been done in this area. Here are the numbers we feel comfortable quoting. With a "general" mix of text and graphics the overall bandwidth savings/improvement is about 30% - 33% If your site is text heavy, i.e. JavaScript or lots of XML then the savings can climb to as high as 97% with our more advanced commercial products. With regard to the performance improvement in the server it's quite dramatic. Our technology is very fast and has been benchmarked at 1000 Transactions Per Second on a PII 300. Using available benchmarking software for the Apache server we have seen a 164% performance improvement in the server.

WR: What percentage of browsers currently in use support HTTP 1.1 compression by default? I noticed that MSIE 4.5/5 Mac does not support it (but Netscape 4+ does).

PC: Virtually all browsers released after 1998 support HTTP 1.1. A quick test reveals the browsers ability. Click on this link:

http://12.17.228.52:7000/

It runs a line test. About halfway down the page, the browsers "header" information is shown. If the accept - encoding line shows: gzip then the browser is capable of receiving compressed content. If your browser doesn't support it, there is generally a version available for free which does.

WR: Vigos AG recently released a proprietary mod_gzip module, how does it compare with yours?

PC: We have not been able to download a version of their software yet. As soon as we can we will run a comparison for your readers.

WR: How did Remote Communications come about?

PC: Two guys, one in Fl, one in AR decided to build something from scratch. We first met on another more complex data compression product (which is now HyperSpace(R)) First product was a universal bookmark application. Second idea was "speed up the web" and thus HyperSpace(R) was born.

We met another guy in Russia... Konstantin J. Balashov (aka, Cotty) He's a brilliant programmer with a core focus on compression. He said, "You need worlds best compression algorithm for your smart engine"... we said build it. He did and now he's part of the team.

Three guys, a Brit, an American and a Russian (Kevin and I have only met twice, we've never met Cotty face to face) built HyperSpace(R) using nothing more than a 28K connection for communication.

WR: What's next for mod_gzip? Caching? I see you've already made some fixes, any popular requests?

PC: Our biggest focus at the moment is responding to the many inquires regarding installation on different platforms. Since our release on Friday we already have made several improvements to the code, added support for other platforms (FreeBSD, Solaris) and one of our users Tomaz Borstnar has already started a mailing list for us at the following link:

http://lists.over.net/mailman/listinfo/mod_gzip

It's compressed of course. We will also add a mirrored site in the US.

Compression is needed on the Web. People really want something which makes things go faster. As some once said, you can't stop an idea whose time has come, it's now time for compression on the Internet.

WR: Peter, thanks for your time.