Security Service Accidentally Makes Websites 60% Faster 81
EastDakota writes "CloudFlare was originally conceived by the team behind the open source community. Project Honey Pot as an easy way to protect any website from hackers and spammers. The concern from the beginning was that it would add latency. It was quite a surprise when the free service launched 8 months ago and ended up speeding up websites by 60%."
Speed up summary (Score:5, Informative)
According to the article, the speed boost comes from two things: 1) CloudFlare sniffs your content and inline replaces sections of it with equivalent content all served via the same connection... so the speedup comes from only having to use a single connection to get the entire page and 2) They are a globally distributed content system with 12 global data centers, similar to Akamai but smaller in scale, allowing content to come from a location closer to the end user.
The gist of it (Score:5, Informative)
They offer a security product for websites, and in the process of designing it so that it didn't add much latency, they inadvertently made it into a CDN that speeds things up. There. Now we all know what the trick is.
Custom HOSTS files can achieve the same (Score:0, Informative)
Here's an EASIER trick, with a FREE "Tool" you already own, that's only a single text file filter for your IP stack: A custom HOSTS file, that yields the same results!
(I think it'd be interesting to see this service, COMBINED w/ what I am about to speak of in custom HOSTS files usage, and benefits to the end-user).
"According to the article, the speed boost comes from two things" - by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08, @12:42AM (#36371418)
The gains HOSTS files offer in both speed, & security, are twofold:
---
FOR ADDED SPEED:
1.) Blocks out adbanners & the lag they introduce into webpage loads/downloads for consumption
2.) Hardcoding in your favorite website (to avoid DNS roundtrip lookup & result return time)
---
FOR ADDED SECURITY:
1.) Blocks out KNOWN malicious sites/servers/hosts-domain names
2.) Protection vs. DNS issues (such as the "Kaminsky flaw", or downed/compromised DNS servers that have been "redirect poisoned")
---
They work, they're free, and you can obtain one easily!
(OR, just combine ALL of the ones listed in my 'p.s.' below, & a db import of the file using a SELECT DISTINCT query can do it for example, as a way, or mvps.org offers a tool called HOSTSMAN that does it also (there are others like it as well, I designed one, & so have others)).
You already can do this yourself since any OS that uses a BSD derived IP stack already has one (even ANDROID phones), easily, & populate the custom HOSTS file yourself from the sources noted above!
(I consolidate them all into a single de-duplicated/normalized version, that which currently blocks out 1,429,303++ KNOWN bad sites/servers/hosts-domains, AND, speeds me up VERY noticeably (via blocking out adbanners, a possible threat for years now in malicious code in them & a bandwidth + speed hog OR, by 'hardcoding in' my favorite sites (to bypass DNS lookup & return roundtrip time) also))
APK
P.S.=> Here are some reputable, & reliable sources for said HOSTS file security data (as well as prebuilt HOSTS files for instant download & usage on your parts):
http://safeweb.norton.com/buzz [norton.com]
http://doc.emergingthreats.net/bin/view/Main/HoneywallSamples [emergingthreats.net]
http://securehomenetwork.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2012-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=12 [blogspot.com]
http://www.malwaredomainlist.com/hostslist/hosts.txt [malwaredomainlist.com]
http://www.malwaredomains.com/ [malwaredomains.com]
http://hosts-file.net/?s=Download [hosts-file.net]
http://www.malware.com.br/lists.shtml [malware.com.br]
http://www.malware.com.br/lists.shtml [malware.com.br]
https://spyeyetracker.abuse.ch/monitor.php [abuse.ch]
https://zeustracker.abuse.ch/monitor.php?filter=online [abuse.ch]
http://www.malwareurl.com/ [malwareurl.com]
http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ [someonewhocares.org]
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [mvps.org]
... apk
Re:Custom HOSTS files can achieve the same (Score:4, Informative)