Plugin Contributor
redsand
(@redsand)
Hi Greg,
Varnish is known to have issues with Cookies and PHP SESSIONS. It will have issues with many plugins or web software that use these.
So it’s not specifically the plugin that isn’t compatible with Varnish…it’s the fact that Varnish can reduce PHP functionality and impact these very standard features of PHP that WP-SpamShield uses.
Use of Varnish will conflict with many open source web apps (including WordPress and many of its plugins). It’s better used, IMO, on a site that is specifically designed to be used with it, and coded to work with its unique characteristics.
When using WordPress, I highly recommend you use caching plugins instead of server side caching.
Thank you…my goal is to make WP-SpamShield the best anti-spam plugin possible. 🙂
– Scott
Thread Starter
Greg
(@gadietrich)
Scott, thanks so much for responding so quickly! I’ve done a bit of research on this and what you’ve said I can confirm. Cloudways used a number of layers of caching, some server side and some through W3. For this site I’ve simply disabled Varnish because blocking spam with WP-SpamShield is more important for us.
Thanks again!
Plugin Contributor
redsand
(@redsand)
Hi Greg,
You are very welcome! I’m adding some info to plugin documentation about this, so users can be aware.
Thank you so much for your support, and if you ever need help again, please don’t hesitate to let me know. 🙂
– Scott