something is "blocking" my images from loading faster tried apache configs, nginx, cache header stuff, nothing changes

THE ISSUE : the images in my site takes a bit to start loading... like if something is blocking, but unable to pinpoint what could be the cause.

PHP 8 / latest WHM

LIVE EXAMPLE : https://www.stubfeed.com/crypto

WHAT I TRYED [.0A.] : changing web hosting company => no change, there is something in my web code...

WHAT I TRYED [.0B.] : I was with centos 7 and changed to centos 8 => still the same

WHAT I TRYED [.0C.] : Disabling php-fpm => it helped a lot, but still the wait for images is there.

WHAT I TRYED [.0D.] : ouput buffers on or off => still the same

WHAT I TRYED [.1.] : merge all my .css and .js in fewer files ( 2.css 2.js instead of multiple) // also added font-display:swap;

WHAT I TRYED [.2.] : nginx reverse proxy for apache (on or off => no change since cloudflare acts as a CDN...)

WHAT I TRYED [3] : apache configs

Header set X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block"
Header set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"
Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
Header always set Referrer-Policy "no-referrer"
Header always set Permissions-Policy "geolocation=(self),midi=(self),sync-xhr=(self),magnetometer=(self),gyroscope=(self),fullscreen=(self)"

WHAT I TRYED [4] : .htaccess cache control headers

<IfModule mod_headers.c>
    ExpiresActive On
    <FilesMatch “\.(webp|webm|flv|ico|pdf|avi|mov|mp4|m4v|m4a|ppt|doc|mp3|wmv|wav|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|apng|swf|css|js|otf|ttf|woff)$">
    Header set Cache-Control "max-age=31536000, public"
    </FilesMatch>
</IfModule>

WHAT I TRYED [5] : convert ALL my images in webp -quality 60 (with iMageMagick) => it reduced the size a lot ;) ==>> but still didn't fixed the issue.

WHAT I TRIED [6] : in google chrome console => "empty cache hard reload" => seems faster to normal load ???

WHAT I TRIED [7] : in google chrome console => network tab => I see loaded from cache but somehow with my eyes, I see the menu very fast but all other images, it waits for 1 or 2 seconds before showing up

WHAT I TRIED [8] : add a page rule in cloudflare https://www.stubfeed.com/media/* Browser Cache TTL: a year, Cache Level: Cache Everything, Edge Cache TTL: 14 days, Cache Deception Armor: On, Origin Cache Control: On

WHAT I TRIED [9] : Load 4, 6, 9, 23 images => al the same, still : what I see with my eyes (wait 1 sec, then images appears....) [the speed testers says ...]

WHAT I TRIED [10] : service worker with caching all fecth... => I turned it off because checking from cache before was terribly slower... :( you can see it there : https://www.stubfeed.com/ws.js?v=202108000021 (in cachable array I added wepb, but I removed it...)

THE RESULT WITH ALL THOSE TRIES : the menu, the .css, the .js ==>> very fast and instantaneous... but still images after 1 (some times 2) seconds...

you can see a report here : https://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.stubfeed.com/4MGVqAFv/

curl -I https://www.stubfeed.com/media/feed/2021/08/02/14463960829226.webp

HTTP/2 200 
date: Mon, 02 Aug 2021 02:13:44 GMT
content-type: image/webp
content-length: 78296
x-content-type-options: nosniff
referrer-policy: no-referrer
permissions-policy: geolocation=(self),midi=(self),sync-xhr=(self),magnetometer=(self),gyroscope=(self),fullscreen=(self)
last-modified: Mon, 02 Aug 2021 01:40:11 GMT
vary: Accept-Encoding
x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block
strict-transport-security: max-age=15552000; includeSubDomains; preload
cache-control: public, max-age=31536000
cf-cache-status: HIT
age: 1483
accept-ranges: bytes
expect-ct: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
report-to: {"endpoints":[{"url":"https:\/\/a.nel.cloudflare.com\/report\/v3?s=QawI6BH%2FlcrvvsUxJ6VgTJzwNqvb%2BVqBRo1gbxng6JRggJe9MgZbkWhLtMjmwvwC8yB3SLaoJXT%2BvNZDuLCzya1g8HlxGFbpFMzXB%2F4p%2B9GcIGIZANk%2FjfvIx0Lu2t07QIsr"}],"group":"cf-nel","max_age":604800}
nel: {"report_to":"cf-nel","max_age":604800}
server: cloudflare
cf-ray: 6783c9ea7f3c4bd1-YUL
alt-svc: h3-27=":443"; ma=86400, h3-28=":443"; ma=86400, h3-29=":443"; ma=86400, h3=":443"; ma=86400

Solution 1:

After deeper digging I found it.

It was the "steps" I had... load page then ajax...

I rethinked and did an include.

I also reshaped my ajax to be async await

    async function stubajax (divid,phphat,postix = [],pend = 'html') {
    
        var pcache = (Math.floor(Math.random() * 100000000) + 1);
        
        postix["preventcache"] = pcache;
        postix["divid"] = encodeURIComponent(divid);
        postix["mojax_height"] = encodeURIComponent($(window).height());
        postix["mojax_width"] = encodeURIComponent($(window).width());

postix["cookies"] = decodeURIComponent(document.cookie); // if you need to send cookies
        
        for (var i = 0; i < localStorage.length; i++){ postix[localStorage.key(i)] = localStorage.getItem(localStorage.key(i)); }
        for (var i = 0; i < sessionStorage.length; i++){ postix[sessionStorage.key(i)] = sessionStorage.getItem(sessionStorage.key(i)); }
            
        await fetch(phphat+"?pcache="+pcache+"&fetchx="+pcache, {
          method: "POST", body: JSON.stringify(Object.assign({}, postix)), headers: {"Content-type": "application/json; charset=UTF-8"}
        }).then( response => { return response.text(); }).then( html => { 
            switch ( pend ){
                case 'append' : $("#"+divid+"_message").append(extraforml+html); break;
                case 'prepend' : $("#"+divid+"_message").prepend(extraforml+html); break;
                default : $("#"+divid+"_message").html(extraforml+html); break;
            }
        }).catch( err => console.log(err) );
          
    }

can later be called like this

stubajax('id','...php',{'somevar1':'hello'});

// (when 100% on each topics is reached on light house, they added a fireworks animation)