Security/Cache issue with my Hosting provider ?

[SBSP]

My hosting provider's apache server seems to cache stuff and no matter what I do I cant prevent it.

I made some changes to a page then realized the browser is not displaying the changes I made. After messing around a bit I tried visiting a link using chrome which I didnt have on my PC I had to first download it. Its as if It froze the content it last served. Same happens on edge and IE, I thought I had a caching proxy configured at some point in time but I didn't and the browser is not set to go via a proxy.

The last test I did was via my cellphone using my Vodacom internet as opposed to wifi via telkom adsl

Here's an example. I created the below file and made PHP return 'test', visited the page then changed it to output test1
http://www.techtinker.co.za/test.php

Please test it for me and let me know if you see test or test1 if you see test then Afrihost has a serious security issue.

Also some content only shows stuff from the mySQL database based on your login I.E Email address AFTER being authenticated. If someone visit the page directly without authenticating (From a different internet connection) the page is supposed to redirect to the index and login page. But instead its showing the "cached" version of the page as it was last displayed on my PC

 

[Johnatan56]

test1

 

[SBSP]

I just realized it takes about 10 mins for a change to affect.

 

[SBSP]

test1

Please try again i now changed it to 'testddddddd'

 

[Johnatan56]

Please try again i now changed it to 'testddddddd'

testddddddd, seems I gave it those 10 minutes.

 

[Thor]

Change your files with versions.

.css?v1db336cxs3bv4iz8swn

Etc

Sass is pretty sweet in this aspect

 

[Johnatan56]

Change your files with versions.

.css?v1db336cxs3bv4iz8swn

Etc

Sass is pretty sweet in this aspect

Is there an addon that automatically updates your css using a timestamp, e.g. .css?v19095103152017
Would be easier to keep track of it.

 

[Thor]

Is there an addon that automatically updates your css using a timestamp, e.g. .css?v19095103152017
Would be easier to keep track of it.

Cheap and dirty:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css?<?php echo time(); ?>" />

<?php $cssVersion = "3.4.2"; ?>

<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css?v=<?php echo $cssVersion; ?>">

^Purely for cache busting

 

[Johnatan56]

Cheap and dirty:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css?<?php echo time(); ?>" />

<?php $cssVersion = "3.4.2"; ?>

<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css?v=<?php echo $cssVersion; ?>">

^Purely for cache busting

Nice, hope that anyone finding this thread due to cache issues gives Thor a rep.

 

[SBSP]

Thanks it worked.

 

[Thor]

Thanks it worked.

Pleasure.

There is a way better solution when you build this for production, you can have a look at gulp or grunt

 

[SBSP]

Still wondering why it would share the same cache from 2 different browsers on 2 different internet connections.

 

[Thor]

Still wondering why it would share the same cache from 2 different browsers on 2 different internet connections.

Probably being send by the headers from apache or it can be the .htaccess file. So many things.

 

[aybbleek]

Thor you are a legend, cheers!

 

[koeksGHT]

Do the php headers not work?

<?php
//set headers to NOT cache a page
header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate"); //HTTP 1.1
header("Pragma: no-cache"); //HTTP 1.0
header("Expires: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT"); // Date in the past

//or, if you DO want a file to cache, use:
header("Cache-Control: max-age=2592000"); //30days (60sec * 60min * 24hours * 30days)

?>

We use the timestamp for images aswell, .png?2351343412 to prevent caching

 

[Rickster]

Flush DNS cache as well?

 

[gkm]

Flush DNS cache as well?

Why? DNS does not affect page content. DNS is just address resolution.

 

[Johnatan56]

Why? DNS does not affect page content. DNS is just address resolution.

You should tell this to the Afrihost reps, used to keep having this discussion.