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WMPU DEV CDN – Hummingbird and Smush issues

Hello

I host my site with Cloudways and use the WPMU DEV pro plugins for my site (Defender, Branda, Hummingbird etc).

I recently began an experiment to compare the following CDN use cases:
– Cloudways with Cloudflare Enterprise
– CWs with Cloudflare Free
– CWs with Hummingbird and Smush (WPMU CDNs)

I’m here to ask strictly about Hummingbird and Smush Pro and what I should expect because it doesn’t seem the CDN is completely working yet.

After going through all the settings in the past two days I feel yesterday I set all the items to cache that were possible inside both HB and Smush.

That was about 12-15 hours ago. but I don’t think images are being cached at all.

I understand my site should be caching:
– scripts
– images

When I view the page source I see the following entries:

<link rel=’dns-prefetch’ href=’//hb.wpmucdn.com’ />

<link rel=’stylesheet’ id=’dashicons-css’ href=’https://hb.wpmucdn.com/tdot.co/96202524-2422-46d3-9b10-ca2c00a70115.css&#8217; media=’all’ />

<link rel=’stylesheet’ id=’admin-bar-css’ href=’https://hb.wpmucdn.com/tdot.co/572821e4-e988-4f3b-8f96-099eee3b0841.css&#8217; media=’all’ />

So that’s one side working. But I don’t see images served from “smushcdn.com.” I assumed that was automatic and would only take a few hours?

I am certain last night I enabled by clicking “Get Started” on the Smush Pro plugin page in the admin.

Also regarding the option to generate Webp images it asks me to verify whether my Cloudways is using Apache or NGINX and then add code to WordPress. According to their own website they offer a hybrid so I am confused which option of server and code I should use. It seems in actuality these are NGINX servers with Apache added on?

Thanks for advice on how I should expect a) images to start being served from Smush CDN and b) which server to choose.

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 15:32:04
  • Kasia Swiderska
    • Support nomad

    Hello Mike Simpson ,

    Would you mind connecting your site to the Hub so we could check it closer on what is happening?
    When it is connected, please grant support access as described here https://wpmudev.com/docs/wpmu-dev-plugins/wpmu-dev-dashboard-plugin-instructions/#granting-support-access

    Also regarding the option to generate Webp images it asks me to verify whether my Cloudways is using Apache or NGINX and then add code to WordPress. According to their own website they offer a hybrid so I am confused which option of server and code I should use.

    In the case of hybrid hosting usually, WebP directive is used in the nginx config file. However, if you are planning to use SMush CDN there is no need to add anything to the server configuration as CDN will handle WebP images.

    kind regards,
    Kasia

  • Mike Simpson
    • Design Lord, Child of Thor

    Hello and thanks for the reply.

    After some consideration I have decided that Smush and Hummingbird CDN will not be the right choice. I will go with Cloudflare.

    Two reasons:
    – I saw WPMU CDN has a 5 GB limit and then you’d need to pay per GB
    – WPMU often seems too complicated

    Regarding reason number two I thought everything was set up in the plugins – and yet now I see this under “Performance” in The Hub:

    “Image Optimization PRO
    Your membership plan has access to the Performance Pro, but you are still using the free Performance plugins. Install the pro version and unlock the following features:”

    Why is this not mentioned when you go through the setup of the plugins inside WordPress? If that’s the missing ingredient then it’s a missed opportunity to let me find it by stumbling around The Hub area.

    Now I have to experiment between using Hummingbird and Smush without CDN and other caching plugins that my host recommends.

    Thank you.

  • Nebu John
    • FLS

    Hi Mike Simpson ,

    saw WPMU CDN has a 5 GB limit and then you’d need to pay per GB

    I understand your concern but it’s important to note that the free version of Cloudflare does not include Lossless Image Optimization as part of its features.

    Why is this not mentioned when you go through the setup of the plugins inside WordPress? If that’s the missing ingredient then it’s a missed opportunity to let me find it by stumbling around The Hub area.

    Can you please provide support access to the website as mentioned in our previous response? This will allow us to investigate the issue more thoroughly and provide further assistance.

    We look forward to hearing back from you.

    Kind Regards,
    Nebu John