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Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:48 am
by RSteinwand

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:57 am
by Albert Wiersch
Thanks Rick, I thoroughly enjoyed that.
Daniel Sternberg notes that the amount of data now required to load the home page of an average website is 1.9 MB, with over 100 individual resources required to display a page — a “resource” being anything from an image or a font to a JavaScript or CSS file.
It's just crazy how bloated web pages are today. HTTP/2 sounds like it will help a lot and be a lot more efficient, but will websites become even more bloated to make up for the new speed boost from HTTP/2? :D

We use Apache and I was a little surprised to read that support for HTTP/2 is still experimental and requires a mod. It sounds like they're dragging their heels. Hopefully it won't be long until Apache is ready for "prime time" but I don't plan to switch this server until it's out of the experimental phase.

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:31 am
by RSteinwand
I'd be on it on one server if it was available today for IIS and next week on a second. (We're not on the latest version of Server that supports it.)

Our CIO, a very intelligent guy, isn't sold on it and thinks it's not worth the upgrade price. By "upgrade" I mean having to buy newer versions of server for 3 web servers. I reluctantly agree. We just upgraded over 30 servers less than a year ago to the latest and none of them support HTTP/2. The web servers couldn't wait and our backup software doesn't yet support Windows 10 or Server 2016.

OTOH, I did see one Sales laptop was updated to Windows 10 yesterday, but the only PC's that get backed up are IT....

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2016 7:25 pm
by RSteinwand
Another good read: Why Everyone Should Be Moving To HTTP/2

Who Supports HTTP/2?
According to Can I use, HTTP/2 is supported by 76.62 percent of the browsers used by users in the US and 67.89 percent globally. There are a couple of caveats to these numbers, as Internet Explorer 11 only supports HTTP/2 in Windows 10, and Chrome, Firefox and Opera only support HTTP/2 over HTTPS.

You can check how this will affect your website visitors in Google Analytics by going to Audience > Technology > Browser & OS and comparing to the supported browsers.

You’ll also find that most major server software — such as Apache, NGINX, and IIS — already supports HTTP/2. Some of the major CDNs have also added HTTP/2 support, including Akamai.

HTTPS With HTTP/2
While HTTP/2 supports both secure and non-secure connections, both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome will only support HTTP/2 over HTTPS. Unfortunately, this means that many sites that want to take advantage of HTTP/2 will need to be served over HTTPS.

Fortunately, there are new initiatives such as Let’s Encrypt, which goes into public beta on December 3, 2015. Let’s Encrypt is a new certificate authority that is providing free security certificates for websites. It’s a great initiative towards a more secure web.

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2016 10:50 am
by Albert Wiersch
Thanks Rick. This really makes me want to update my server to HTTP/2 but I don't plan on doing so until the HTTP/2 module is no longer considered experimental:

https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_http2.html

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2016 11:11 am
by RSteinwand
I found out today that we might be able to do HTTP/2 much sooner if an updated network appliance supports it. When something Cisco reaches EOL, we get to buy a couple new ones and apparently that may happen soon. Otherwise I'd probably have to wait 5 years or hope for a patch for 2012R2.

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2016 12:44 pm
by RSteinwand
I understand your reservations. If someone can't reach you, how are they to contact you?

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 4:14 pm
by RSteinwand
I worry how many optimizations I'll have to undo to get an optimized HTTP/2 page.... :?

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 4:25 pm
by Albert Wiersch
RSteinwand wrote:I worry how many optimizations I'll have to undo to get an optimized HTTP/2 page.... :?
Yep! But it's great not to have to do and worry about those optimizations anymore. :D

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 9:54 am
by RSteinwand
Due to our load balancing, updating Server wouldn't get us HTTP/2.

Fortunately some of our network equipment was due for updating and the new equipment supports HTTP/2 and has been ordered. Now the only problem could be if our licensing doesn't support it. Some times licensing costs can be prohibitive. :?

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 9:54 am
by RSteinwand
HTTP/2 doesn't work without https so I hope to do that soon as well.

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 10:24 am
by Albert Wiersch
RSteinwand wrote:HTTP/2 doesn't work without https so I hope to do that soon as well.
Hi Rick,

I don't think HTTP/2 requires a secure connection. If I recall I think that requirement was dropped... of course nowadays it's a good idea to support secure connections regardless.

https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2015/03/06/tls-in-http2/

But the above piece, which is good reading BTW, does say:
If you’re implementing and deploying a server for HTTP/2, you pretty much have to do it for HTTPS to get users.
and
As of this writing, there has been no browser released to the public that speaks clear text HTTP/2. Most existing servers only speak HTTP/2 over TLS.

It does give a good list of reasons why TLS isn't required in the specification.

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 3:51 pm
by RSteinwand
Hi Albert,

My intent was that current browsers only support http/2 over TLS, but I guess my wording was ambiguous.

We were due to implement SSL anyway. We use it to log in, but not on the public side, so really not much work involved.

You were correct, that was a good read. Thanks.

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 5:17 pm
by RSteinwand
Albert Wiersch wrote:Thanks Rick. This really makes me want to update my server to HTTP/2 but I don't plan on doing so until the HTTP/2 module is no longer considered experimental:

https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_http2.html
From Wikipedia: As of Apache 2.4.17 all patches are included in the main Apache source tree, although the module itself was renamed mod_http2.[53]

Sounds like they're just making it easier for you to enable HTTP/2.

Re: Getting Ready for HTTP/2

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 5:19 pm
by RSteinwand
The networking equipment that needs to be updated to support HTTP/2 was too expensive so still waiting.....