Author Topic: How Is Opu So Responsive?  (Read 4740 times)

Offline op2rules

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How Is Opu So Responsive?
« on: September 10, 2010, 07:29:42 PM »
Hey I figured I'd ask, as a web developer myself, I'd really like to know how outpost-universe.net loads up so fast. There doesn't appear to be any special optimization stuff running, so how the heck do ya get the pages do load up 3x faster than mine??
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Offline Sirbomber

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How Is Opu So Responsive?
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2010, 11:46:03 PM »
We have our own server.  I'm guessing you don't.
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Offline BlackBox

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How Is Opu So Responsive?
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2010, 11:59:19 AM »
Yes, the server which this site is hosted on is a dedicated box on a very reliable, fast network (most people's websites are hosted in a "shared hosting" plan where you share a server with up to hundreds of other websites, or often times they have poor connections to their ISPs or just chose really poor ISPs to peer with in the first place).

In addition we use mod_deflate, this way all data is gzipped before it's sent to the client (if the client indicates that it supports it in the request header). This speeds up download time immensely (and saves bandwidth; however it does increase CPU usage somewhat).

Offline op2rules

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How Is Opu So Responsive?
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2010, 02:23:58 PM »
So how does one support the costs of owning a dedicated box?

Or more directly what I'm asking is, how much would it cost to have a very basic minimalistic box on a fast connection?
« Last Edit: September 11, 2010, 02:26:42 PM by op2rules »
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Offline CK9

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How Is Opu So Responsive?
« Reply #4 on: September 11, 2010, 03:21:17 PM »
well, you could buy/build your own and pay for a fast connection.  There are a ton of articles online about setting up a personal server, and a lot of the software for running them is available for free.
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Offline BlackBox

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How Is Opu So Responsive?
« Reply #5 on: September 11, 2010, 03:42:59 PM »
We actually currently use this company, http://www.interserver.net/custom-managed-...ed-servers.html and are pretty pleased with it.

As shown they start at 39.00 USD and go up from there, so it's really not very expensive at all. On the flip side since it's a dedicated server you do have to understand how to administer a server, unless you choose to buy features like cpanel you are on your own and they will not hand hold you if you make a mistake. (it costs money if they have to provide support).

As far as "how do I have the means to pay for it," well both Galactic and I work full time.
« Last Edit: September 11, 2010, 03:43:50 PM by BlackBox »

Offline Hooman

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How Is Opu So Responsive?
« Reply #6 on: September 11, 2010, 03:55:17 PM »
There are usually three classes of hosting, which affect how many people you can sell services to on a single box, and hence the price of the service.

Shared hosting - Single OS, with a single web server, using a single IP address, serving possibly hundreds or thousands of clients on the same box. Lower quality of service since naturally CPU and memory usage is shared, as is the execution environment, which may also affect security or services that can be offered. Also, due to the nature of SSL and HTTPS, you can't have your own private HTTPS domain on such a box. It would need to be shared with everyone else, and hence likely administered outside of your control. Prices are typically around maybe 1$-5$ per month?

Virtual private server - multiple OS on a single box, each client has complete control of their own OS, and has their own IP. Running a web server, or any other service is at the discretion of the client paying for the service. If you're running a web service here, you have complete control over the web server and it's execution environment. CPU, memory, and disk space are shared with other clients on the same physical hardware, usually using a fixed allocation. Sometimes there is a fixed minimum, instead of just a fixed maximum, or no fixed resource usage. Schemes without a fixed maximum are usually referred to as burstable. If say CPU is burstable, then you can potentially use up to the full CPU power of the native hardware if nobody else is using it. Usually CPU is burstable, while memory and disk space are fixed, but not always. If having control of the environment is more important than performance, the box can be over allocated, so the maximum (or reasonable usage if no max is set) of everyone on the box exceeds the physical limitations of the hardware. This can work because some accounts will likely be using less than their full share. In this way, the actual usage (on average) can about approximate the physical hardware's limitations. You can probably get a VPS account for about 6$ on an oversold box, and 15$-20$ for a small slice on a non-oversold box. Prices can go up quite substantially as more hardware is allocated to you.

Dedicated server - you have complete control over an entire machine. You have basically the same control over the environment as a VPS, but the hardware isn't shared, so you have higher hardware capabilities. The cheaper end of dedicated servers that I've seen start around 40$ per month.

Offline BlackBox

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« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2010, 12:02:54 PM »
I guess I'd also add that a dedicated server and colo (short for co-location) are not the same thing. In our case we rent the server from the company (it is their property, we pay to use it). This is (with most companies at least) more expensive than co-location, which is where you rent space in a rack (most companies have offerings anywhere from 1U of space to an entire rack) and you ship, or otherwise bring your server(s) to their datacenter and rack them.

Of course, if the hardware fails, or additional hardware is wanted in a colocated system it is completely up to the customer to replace/install new hardware (the company may do it for a steep fee).

Offline op2rules

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How Is Opu So Responsive?
« Reply #8 on: September 12, 2010, 12:06:10 PM »
Thanks for the info Hooman, that clears things up nicely for me. I'm going to try hosting my website on my VPS so I can get more of a feel of things and experiment. That pretty much cleared everything up for me, so again thanks to everyone!
Checkout my website, op2rules.net. It has free games, software, and snappy guides. Oh and did I mention the uber friendly community forums?
Life to me is a simple game that I utterly win at.
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