I have a Level 3 VPS Linux server from Hostgator that I pay $50/month for. I know nothing about servers, but I'm aware this isn't the cheapest around, but far from the most expensive.
On the domain in question, I have a WordPress blog with a pretty tiny database (80MB) at this point. I installed the W3 Total Cache plugin, which recommended I install Opcode -- either APC, XCache, eAccelerator, or WinCache. Her ewas their response to that:
"I understand that you are trying to install APC on your vps. Unfortunately, we do not allow APC on level 3 vps'es since it requires large amounts of the shared memory. Additionally the plugin requires that you use fastcgi which also does not work well at all on a level 3 vps. The plugin will give you no measurable advantage when using suphp/cgi."
Finally you are running php 5.3.3 on your server which doesn't normally need OPCode Caching."
So Hostgator wants me to pay $104.95/month. I then inquired about memcached, and their response was this:
"Our installation for memcached also requires a level 5 VPS or higher. You're more than welcome to install it by hand but we do not recommend that you do so because of the resource issue it's likely going to cause. With that said, many customers use lower than level 5 VPS nodes with us and use caching built into their CMS."
I'm leery of hosts, as I know they're not always truthful. Is it possible to tell me if I'll receive performance and speed optimizations by installing memcached on my own? If so, is the (recommended) way to do this via WinSCP? Or should I look to move to another host? Thanks for any guidance anybody can offer!