So a number of weeks have passed since we moved over to the new boxes, I'm wondering (while cleanly acknowledging it's the off-season and traffic has dipped a bit) what everyone has thought?
I was browsing the long thread about our old-new server (the one currently in a box by my front door waiting for pictures so I can list it on eBay) and the reactions to that box going online were pretty strong -- then again the server we had been on before that was so completely underpowered that we really had been struggling.
So ... thoughts and feedback? I used to see pretty regular forumhome (the main forum listing page) loads of 1-2secs, now I almost always see .3 secs, never much more, and as low as .12s. Does that translate into a perceptible improvement as far as the site goes?
In addition to the new server, I recently started having the forum software gzip the web pages when they're sent to your browser; which is to say that every time you load a page we're only sending you 19k worth of code, rather than 110k. People with slower connections (including, but not limited to, those connecting through phones and other 3G/4G devices provided the browsers they're using support compression) are the ones who would most notice that change. Those on faster connections wouldn't really see a difference, but it's another tweak.
Anyway, just wanted to get a feel for what everyone thinks. We'll really know where we stand during the bigger games next year -- my guess (based on how little we're tasking these machines now) is that there will be no speed difference between having 200 people on, or 2000 -- but there's little harm in taking a pulse now.
Just posting in the football forum to get some eyeballs, I'll move this to the open administration forum in a day or so.
Thanks, all. For the feedback, and to all of those who have kicked in towards paying for our new boxes during the current Spring Drive.
I was browsing the long thread about our old-new server (the one currently in a box by my front door waiting for pictures so I can list it on eBay) and the reactions to that box going online were pretty strong -- then again the server we had been on before that was so completely underpowered that we really had been struggling.
So ... thoughts and feedback? I used to see pretty regular forumhome (the main forum listing page) loads of 1-2secs, now I almost always see .3 secs, never much more, and as low as .12s. Does that translate into a perceptible improvement as far as the site goes?
In addition to the new server, I recently started having the forum software gzip the web pages when they're sent to your browser; which is to say that every time you load a page we're only sending you 19k worth of code, rather than 110k. People with slower connections (including, but not limited to, those connecting through phones and other 3G/4G devices provided the browsers they're using support compression) are the ones who would most notice that change. Those on faster connections wouldn't really see a difference, but it's another tweak.
Anyway, just wanted to get a feel for what everyone thinks. We'll really know where we stand during the bigger games next year -- my guess (based on how little we're tasking these machines now) is that there will be no speed difference between having 200 people on, or 2000 -- but there's little harm in taking a pulse now.
Just posting in the football forum to get some eyeballs, I'll move this to the open administration forum in a day or so.
Thanks, all. For the feedback, and to all of those who have kicked in towards paying for our new boxes during the current Spring Drive.