BPS slow down WordPress sites?

Here’s the post link –

“Staying Away From WordPress Security Plugins”

https://www.a2hosting.com/blog/stay-away-from-wordpress-security-plugins

I read the post. I am not sure what the true motivation is for the post, but I believe that it is not referring to the BulletProof Security plugin. Not really sure??? The post is vague and there are some inaccurate/incorrect statements made in that post.

Using W3TC, WPSC htaccess caching code or using the BPS Speed Boost Cache .htaccess code speeds up / improves website performance so to generalize and say that all htaccess code slows down websites/website performance is honestly too generalized and negates any value that that post has. There are other vague and inaccurate things in that post.

Anyway instead of explaining or defending BPS and/or other htaccess based plugins here is what you should do:

Use the Firefox Browser and install Firebug, Firephp and YSlow and then test your website load speeds/performance with and without any BPS .htaccess code. What you should find is that there is no noticeable website performance difference when in Default Mode or BulletProof Mode. If you are using the BPS Speed Boost .htaccess code then if you remove that htaccess code during testing then you will see that your website performance is significantly slower. The Speed Boost Cache .htaccess code is basic Browser caching htaccess code that is pretty much the same Browser cache htaccess code used in W3TC and WPSC.

One thing that was stated that is defintely true, but it was not stated literally (I understand what the author of the post was trying to say) – Basically there is a right and a wrong way to use .htaccess code/files.

Let’s say you wanted to block all the IP addresses for a particular country and that .htaccess code turned out to be 40,000 lines of .htaccess code. The website performance and server performance would be severely/negatively impacted and slowness would definitely be noticeable.

BPS htaccess code uses condensed security rules that block by bad action instead of trying to block individual things since that would require excessive amounts of htaccess code. hacker/spammer X does bad action Y and Z is the result = blocked/forbidden. By blocking by bad action it is not necessary to add excessive htaccess code rules. all hackers/spammers are blocked by bad actions and not individually by ip address or some other unique identifier.

Distributed Botnets that attack websites day in and day out are now just a normal thing on the Internet. There are millions of IP’s used. Trying to block by IP addresses these days is very foolish and maybe it was always foolish to attempt this in the past. If you block by bad action then it does not matter what IP address performed that bad action. The bad action itself is blocked and not the origin IP address that performed that bad action.

In the case of “victim websites” (websites hacked by hackers and used to attack other websites) it is of course the much better choice to block by bad action. Once the victim site is no longer hacked then it will no longer be used to attack other sites. The site itself was never literally blocked – only bad actions coming from any sites – so that site will not be blocked once it is no longer hacked and attacking other websites.

On a personal note, I try not to wander around the Internet and look at posted opinions about WordPress security plugins and/or BPS. Why? Because in the majority of cases I find that either the information is slightly wrong or completely wrong. Bad/incorrect information is annoying and distracting to me so it is better for me if I never see it/that. ??

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but personally I feel that it is irresponsible to post bad information and especially when that “poster” comes off like they actually really know what they are talking about. That happens in all industries about any given topic/subject. For folks who are not specialists in any given industry/field/subject and are genuinely looking for factual information about a topic/subject, here is what I recommend that everyone should do – Always cross reference any information you find on the Internet. If you cross reference information with several known knowledgeable and reputable sources then your chances of getting all the accurate factual information that you are looking for is very good and of course you can weed out the bad/incorrect information that you come across.

Sometimes folks make mistakes or are reposting information that has mistakes or is not accurate or is just bad information so by cross referencing information you will end up with only good factual information. You should always take into consideration if there is a motive or hidden agenda with any posted information that you come across. Politics is a good example. ??

Alas! To be frank and honest, I don’t have enough brain to understand this jaw-dropping explanation! I printed out this support thread – will definitely try to understand … line by line.

So far, I don’t see any slow load times of my websites running on BPS. But as I said, that article made me nervous and worry about my WordPress sites performance.

Thank you and thank you so so much. It’s a privilege to have read your replies. (But I still don’t get them all …) ??

Post #5 = SO WISE! ??

“…that article made me nervous and worry about my WordPress sites performance.”

That is exactly what I meant by “irresponsible” posts. They irritate me, they scare and make other people worry. To me that is being irresponsible. ??

If you are an expert/specialist on a topic/subject then you do NOT need to cite knowledgeable/reputable resources. If you are not an expert/specialist then you DO need to cite knowledgeable/reputable sources. If a post is just your opinion then the post should always start with “this is an opinion”. I discount around 70% – 80% of information I come across around the Internet (predominately because typically there is a hidden agenda involved), but that is just me. I only want good factual information and am not really interested in opinions. ??

If your motivation is to create a Post that is high ranking for SEO/visitor traffic purposes, then it is your responsibility to provide good information. You could say that that is just my opinion, but I believe that Google and other search engines feel/think the same way.

I assume this answered all questions? If so, please resolve this thread. Thanks.

Answered all questions? —> YES, SIR. More than enough!
Sorry to forget to mark this thread as “resolved”.