Server Speed Slow this past week and a half

[Dave]

We have been experiencing server speed issues over the past week and a half. Investigating the problems, the stats and every avenue we've basically had a HUGE influx of readers flocking to the site since CeBit which has been great. However, the downside is, it's affected site speed. We believe most of this has been due to CeBit and us being the only GPS site around properly covering CeBit from the first day and have hoped that the huge influx of traffic would diminish as CeBit is over.

However, people like the site so much, they've stayed around and we are now catering for many more users than ever before. When we upgraded the server last August, we put in a contingency plan to make sure that whatever we upgraded too would give us atleast a years GOOD use and not give us performance problems, however since that upgrade we have more than quadrupled our reader base. Our stats show us having around 15 times more traffic per day than the closest GPS site around, and this is doubling every 3 months now.

We believed the server performance would hold out but unfortunately it bottle necked last week. What do we need to do ? Basically upgrade the server to a extremely large, bullet proof server. Forums take an enormous amount of processing power, the server has started to buckle under the stress and strains this past week, the server is running fast now, but in peak times you may see it start to slow down. This has all started 1 day prior to CeBit which does lead us to believe the increased traffic has been due to CeBit and people wanting to find the latest product announcements.

The team are going to come up with an upgrade plan, but we have no timescales and as you are all aware, this site is free, we all have other commitments and we'll do what it takes to ugprade the server as quickly as possible, but please be aware it may take some time!

[Steveg]

Dave Old Love (Nothing sinister there, it is a true Yorkshire greeting!)

You and the other administrators do whatever you need to do and take whatever time it needs - I for one am prepared to wait and put up with the slowness, painful though it sometimes is. This is without doubt one of the BEST sites on the internet. (admittedly only if you have interest or need for info on PDA's and Sat Nav etc) due to the folowing reasons

1) It is subscription free - c'mon folks and anyone else reading this, click on the sponsors links over there ------------> (you can't miss them they're flashing at you now!)
this helps to pay for the site and keep it subscription free, I have made a point to use these links whenever I want to check prices etc, rather than through "My Favourites" or whatever - feel free to join me

2) The selfless work by the "team" of moderators who will answer questions to the best of their ability to all comers, even to the occasional dense ones like myself, from time to time.

3) The rest of the members, and Im include myself here, who by using equipment and staying here, and more importantly, by being prepared to answer queries as they arise if they know the answer, makes for a priceless wealth of knowledge and a place to turn to when panic sets it.

Dave - keep it just the way it is, but when you do get around to it a tad more speed will not go amiss

Good Luck

Steve Gillen

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