wp-cache with gzip compression without hacking:

One of the things I find annoying with wp-cache is that it’s not gzipped so the user experience of wordpress is helped by quicker first byte content delivery with almost zero overhead but hindered by slower page completion times.

Adding this line to “.htaccess” compresses all php output

php_value output_handler "ob_gzhandler"


I’m fairly sure that this is an acceptable compromise during any possible digg effect if you have to pay for your bandwidth as the overhead of the gzip handler is compensated by the connection getting off the wire 6.8 times faster on this homepage for example.

Its certainly a benefit during normal usage!

UPDATE:
Adding this below the above tip allows you to control the compression level.
php_value zlib.output_compression_level 1

The difference between level 1 (fastest) and level 9 (slowest/best) is not worth the overhead on this site giving only a 2% difference in size.