Etag/Last Modified - the numpty question I've always wanted to know.

[p83822]

(11-02-2010 07:38 AM)pmeenan Wrote:  The E-tag recommendation comes from here: http://developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/pos...ormanc_11/

Basically, if you don't need the dynamic capabilities that e-tags give you then you're better off just sticking with a last-modified. It's not a rule that I feel particularly strongly about (along with the cookies check) which is why they aren't in the grades at the top of the page but once you've done everything else they're worth considering.

Thanks for the quick reply, Pat.

"Even if your components have a far future Expires header, a conditional GET request is still made whenever the user hits Reload or Refresh." Hmmm... interesting.

Should mention my other reason for being interested in this. On my site, a *lot* of far future expires resources are quick to produce server side and also are within the standard 2 packet window size - so returning bytes is not going to affect latency much over and above an empty 304.

Now what I *really* want to know, is what having CDN inbetween adds to the mix. Lol.