Doesnt it seem real slow

[jponder]

Jesus, its slow I have to wait for my words to appear when typing. Its a hassle. Anyone else have this. I mean its like using dial up. It seems as though my computer is laboring with it. I dont get that on sites with lots of pics even.



It just seems like every click takes 4 times longer. I hate progress

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Guys PLEASE read the announcement at the top of this thread!! I have a big flashing notice at the top of the forums asking everyone to read it. A lot of the questions being asked over and over are in there.



EVERYTHING is going to be slower for at least the next week. The search engine is being rebuilt which puts an extreme load on the server. When you make a post or do an edit the thing that takes the longest is putting the words into the search engine. Rebuilding the search engine is like posting every post that has ever been made in the history of the site - all 890,000 of them. I started it yesterday at 9:30am and since that time the server load has been over 1. 5 the entire time - the server load hasn't been over 1. 5 in months. When the server load hits 2. 0 (which it has many times since yesterday) it means the server is getting requests faster than it can dish them out. When that happens all requests are put into a queue that it gets to when it can. You will have to have some patience over the next week to week and a half while the search engine is built up. I did turn it off last night for a couple hours during the peak traffic period to see what loads and response times would be like and they were very close to normal.



There is also a post cache that will take the next week or so to build up which will also speed things up. Things will be slightly slower with the new software over the old once everything is up and running because of the larger amount of content on each page over the old software (about 30%). But from what I've seen on other sites it shouldn't be very noticeable (moreso for dial up users than high speed though).

 

[jponder]

Let me ask you something else. If I leave the TDR site up and running and my puter goes into sleep/screen saver mode. The pipes program runs like 10 times slower, the pipes as in the screen saver pipes. Its like the TDR is a black hole sucking the life out of my puter.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I have no idea how the pipes work but maybe it uses javascript and because there are other javascript things up slows it down. I've been on my machine for hundreds of hours over the last 4 weeks working on the site with all sorts of software running (including Adobe Photoshop which is a resource hog) and notice no difference whether the TDR site is up or down.

 

[John - K5AWO]

I've been on my machine for hundreds of hours over the last 4 weeks working on the site with all sorts of software running (including Adobe Photoshop which is a resource hog) and notice no difference whether the TDR site is up or down.

Stve,





Just so the guys will have a comparison... What is the speed of your CPU that you are using, the speed of your internet connection?



And, a question I have been meaning to ask for a long time. What are the general specs on the server/internet pipe?

cpu speed, memory, hard-drive space, bandwidth, and the $cost to run this thing?





I am using a 1. 7 gHz cpu w/512 meg of RAM and a DSL connection at 640 down/256 up. (67kB transfer rate down)



The current slowness bothered me so much, I just went into IE's options and turned OFF all of the image features. Guys, just doing this will more than double the download speed.....

-John

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

My CPU speed and connection speed has nothing to do with what jponder was talking about. He has a screen saver that moves around the screen and if the TDR site is open in a window that slows way down suggesting to him that the TDR site is using up his computer resources and slowing his machine down. I was pointing out that it isn't the case - it's simply the function the screen saver uses most likely. But for the record I'm on a 2ghz laptop on a 768k dsl connection.



As to the servers here is what we are running (two of them in a master/slave relationship for continuous backup):



Rack mount 4u case with extra fans

Dual AMD Athlon 1900+ MP processors with dual fans

Tyan S2462 dual processor motherboard

2 GB ECC RAM (error correcting)

4 - 18. 2G 15,000 RPM Ultra 160 SCSI HD's (full RAID 5 array with 1 standby HD) with fans on each drive - hot swappable

128MB Caching RAID 5 SCSI Controller

Dual hot swappable power supplies

Dual network cards

FreeBSD



As to the facility we are on a 4 Full Duplex, GigE, Layer 3 Ethernet IP backbone with a 4gb/s pipe that we have throttled at 4mb/sec right now(we hit peaks of 3mb/sec occasionally - usually peaks are around 2. 4mb/sec). We rent 1/3rd of a rack. The servers are on a UPS for short term power backup and the facility has a 10 second switch over time to their diesel (cummins powered of course ) generators. The power grid in the area is redundant as well because the building is located directly across the street from a federal treasury building and there is a nearby hospital on the same grid. As to cost that would be up to the TDR to release if they wished but I can tell you that they could buy quite a few fully loaded trucks a year with what it costs to operate.

 

[John - K5AWO]

Steve,



That server package is no slouch. Well thought out purchase.



Those features are enough to make the most avid gamer druel to use it as a gaming workstation