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How To Create A Self Hosted CDN For W3 TOTAL CACHE

cdn

Just like me, I know that many bloggers (especially newbie) don’t have that cash to purchase some things online; like those expensive plugins and high neck cutting themes or even a premium CDN. I know coming up as a blogger is hard because I have been to that road but hey! With your determination things will work out just fine…

Do you know that as a blogger, it is important or should I say “advisable” to subscribe to a CDN network?

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Before we go further, let’s know the meaning of CDN: According to Wikipedia, A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a large distributed system of servers deployed in multiple data centers in the Internet. The goal of a CDN is to serve content to end-users with high availability and high performance.

With CDN, you can reduce the loads on your server and makes your blog 3x faster than usual. A CDN company has servers from different locations which makes your blog available and faster to your readers.

We have different companies running these services and to mention few; cloudflare, amazon cloudfront, maxCDN, AT&T and so many more…

But what if you don’t have that money to pay for a CDN? Ok there is another trick and the trick is, you can host your own personal CDN server and it will work beautifully but not as beautiful as the paid ones that have multiple servers (but at least it’ll work 😀 ).

CREATING A SELF HOSTED CDN

Without wasting much of your time, let’s just jump into it and know what we’ll find.

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A QUICK NOTICE: Hey this tutorial is for those who have w3 total cache plugin installed on their blog. So if you don’t have one go download it for a faster blogging experience 🙂

Ok first create a sub domain using your Control Panel (C-Panel)

To create a subdomain, go to your “Domains” section inside your “C-panel” and click “subdomains” (See image below)

c-panel

Now create your subdomain like the image you see below

cdn subdomain

Have you done that? Now click “Create”

After creating the subdomain, you’ll see a message like the image below

cdn network

We have successfully created our CDN server and let’s make it work with our w3 total cache.

Have you downloaded the plugin already? Do you have the plugin already? If your answer is “No”, download the w3 total cache here   and install it as usual

Now go to your wordpress admin panel and locate “performance”, have you seen it? Now hover your mouse and click on “CDN” and fill it like below…

FTP hostname: Here is where you input ftp server. (It’s mostly your domain name)

FTP username: Here is where you input your ftp username

FTP password: Here is where you input your password

FTP path: Here is where you put your subdomain Document root path

Replace site’s hostname with: Here is where you put your subdomain you created (see image below)

cdn control panel
click to enlarge

If you have done all that correctly, click the “test ftp server” if you input it well, it’ll say passed but if wrong state me what you’re doing wrong by using the comment box below.

Click “Save all setting” and go to general setting and activate the CDN server…

You have successfully created your own personal CDN server for your w3 total cache. Is it simple or is it simple? 😀 Do you still have unanswered questions that you’d love to share with us? Then do drop the questions using the comment box below.

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Do you have comments and thought that you’d love to share with us? Then do use the comment box below. Remember that your comments and thoughts are highly welcomed and appreciated.

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39 thoughts on “How To Create A Self Hosted CDN For W3 TOTAL CACHE”

  1. Thanks for the nice tut bro
    Now What’s the difference between WP super cache and w3 total cache? Any performance difference? I’m running WP Super Cache and could well switch over toe WS Total Cache if that’s better

    1. I don’t think there are much differences, all the same both serve same purpose. My only concern about hosting a personal CDN is the load it will put on my server especially the physical memory and other server resources that have to do with memory.

      And remember your server configuration can not be compared to some free cdn services like Cloudflare and others out there, so wouldn’t it be better i hope my cdn elsewhere and take the load off my server?

      I want to know from your experience so far how has hosting your own cdn affected your server?

      1. Hello Nwosu,
        Ok hosting a personal server is not the best idea if you have the cash to purchase a premium CDN. But to be honest with you Nwosu, it will not put any load on your server and let me tell you why. the reason we get loads on our server is because of the plugin we installed on our blog. if you put a static html page on your server, you’ll never get load time or processes usage even if you have tremendous amount of traffic.
        so my point is it will not put load on your server rather it’ll reduce the load because now your theme file and your images and the rest have moved to the CDN server which will reduce your load time and increase your speed. hope i answered you correctly?

    2. Hello Enstine,
      As Nwosu said; there is not much difference between plugins, but to me i prefer the w3 total cache because it has features way far than super cache. But w3 total cache has to be configured properly before it can work effectively. Thanks for your lovely comment bro and do have a blessed weekend ahead

  2. Hi Babanature,

    Don’t you always keep surprising us with these unique things, something never heard of 🙂

    Just like Enstine mentioned above, I too have the same question because I do have WP super cache installed, though wonder the difference between the two. And this surely is nice to know that with the CDN, we can reduce the loads on our server and make our blogs three time faster too – what more would we want! I’m going to forward this mail to my ‘tech dept head!’ and let’s see their reaction.

    Thanks for sharing this with us. Have a nice day ahead 🙂

    1. While its easy to say that W3 Super Cache is easy to configure which to me is basically the reason for its popularity around the web, W3 Total Cache produces better results though more difficult to configure, but if you get it right you will enjoy it more.

    2. Hello Harleena,
      Thanks for the complement 😀
      I have not used WP super cache before but with my sight and being recommended by Google that shows that w3 total cache is awesome. w3 total cache has features way more than wp super cache. and getting a premium CDN for it will surely give your blog a whole new insight and speed you’ll clearly see.
      Thanks for the comment Harleena and do have a great weekend 😉

      1. Thanks for the reply, Babanature. I had the same question as Nwosu regarding load impact on my own server and my hosting people’s objection, but you answered that part in your reply to him. I’ve one query which I read about was if you use CDN then your Google Analytics numbers change? Is it true? Are there any other drawbacks of using a CDN?

        1. So some say but the truth is, CDN can never affect your Google analytics. Before i installed the w3 total cache, i have been using cloudflare CDN and it is working for me swiftly without any complications and my analytic is given me accurate number.
          the reason i know that my analytic is not going nuts is because i also install webstat checker that also gives me my blog static. as long as your analytic code is intact and embedded well it will not have any problem with any cdn network or self hosted and for the drow back! i haven’t notice any drawbacks, my cpu usage is reduce by almost 89% 😉 my entry and number of process has totally reduce because of its work. Hope i answered it well?

          1. the question here is the load on our very own web server? and odes that make sense in creating this as technically both will be served from the same web host..

            1. Hello king,
              I stated this in the post that it is impossible to compare the personal to the premium cdn. The premium service is the most recommended but what if you don’t have the money to purchase the premium? then i guess the personal would be a great idea. Thanks for the comment king and do have a great day…

    3. Hey my man,
      I’m so happy you finally wrote this post.
      You know i’ve been expecting it. Well, i don’t have much to say except thank you.

      I think the best thing i should do now is to get to work immediately.

      Thanks a lot man and happy weekend.

      1. Hello Theodore,
        I really did post it right 😀 on my next or two tutorial i might post how to configure it so it will benefit all even more. Do keep intouch bro.
        Hope you are rocking your day as plan;) do have a great weekend too

    4. wow babanature, this post is truly worth it. is this what makes your blog faster? and please i will like to see the complete configuration on the w3 total cache. Thank and have a nice weekend bro

    5. You never cease to amaze me Babanature!

      For me,I had to read this post twice because when it comes to these things, it does take a while to sink in my brain.
      It makes total sense to me and will look into it.
      I respect your knowledge and appreciate you sharing it .

      Donna

    6. Great info Baba. This is very helpful for those who can’t bear the extra bills of CDN services along with the hosting bills. Awesome effort, I’m sharing this.

      1. Hello Sid,
        yeah for sure! i always advice bloggers who do have money to by a premium CDN to go for the self hosted, since it’s free. Thanks for the complement Sid and do have a great day…

    7. Great Write up friend. These information are very helpful for us to understand the self hosted CDN. Glad to know about the same. Thank you.

    8. The main purpose of creating a CDN and adding it to the W3TC plugin is to make your site load faster in different parts of the world. Isn’t it?

      What would be the point of creating a CDN on the same server where you have your blog hosted (e.g. Hostgator)?
      It won’t make it faster as it’s on the same server, and it won’t reduce your blog’s latency because again, it’s on the same server.

      Could you clarify that? Otherwise it’s just like making a copy on your site on the same place.

      1. Hello Servando,
        If you create a wordpress blog on your server and you create a static html page still on your server and you check which is faster, what will you get? what a self hosted CDN does is, it stores your themes, media files… to the sub-directory you created, and makes your loading more faster than usual. I’ll advice anybody who has the cash to purchase a premium CDN but what if the person don’t have the cash to purchase a premium CDN?
        Thanks for your comment Servando and hope you’ll have a great week 😉

        1. Yes, the static HTML page would definitely load faster, but you can do that with W3TC without creating a CDN or an additional sub domain by enabling it on the Page Cache settings, right?
          I’ve also seen that creating a complete static HTML page can create problems with dynamic plugins not appearing or showing the right information.
          Thanks bro, you too have a nice week. Take care.

          1. You can configure W3TC without using CDN and get great result. But remember that the reason our wordpress is slow is because of plugins, themes and our media and by making these things load separately will definitely boost your blog performance.

          2. Olav Alexander Mjelde

            I will give you a hint, my good man!
            When you transfer a website, you use the HTTP protocol version 1.1 (HTTP/1.1).

            Now try to figure out what 1.1 stands for.
            Suddenly you will realise that even a local, subdomain hosted “cdn” is of great use!

            There are still things you can do as best practices, like async loading of js, moving js to footer, using minified css and js-files, referencing jquery, etc. from the jq cdn instead of local hosted, etc. many things can be done, but a subdomain cdn will also help.

    9. Nice work man though its kinda weird to me cause i don’t use wordpress but blogger. I just wanna say kudos for your write ups. You are doing a great job and i can see you.

    10. Hey Babanature.
      Well this tip seems really cool. I use Cloudflare.
      Just want to ask you that I was thinking of implementing this method on my site. Will it make my site fast. What would be the outcome ?
      regards

    11. Hi Babanature, could i use another subdomain address as a CDN server, ex : my blog is > ronan.wpnode.net , but my CDN is > ronanCDN.something.com ?

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