Archive for April, 2009
9 Tips to Make Your Website Load Much Faster (Part 1)
The goal of this article is to determine whether or not the cause of your website’s latency is due to your web host or due to the way you have constructed your site. This article will use examples from prominent websites and explain how to use the tools that they employ to ensure that their sites are served to their users quickly
1. Server Location: Closer is Faster - Google is estimated to have 450,000 – 1,000,000+ servers located in cities worldwide. This helps ensure Google’s website loads …
9 Tips to Make Your Website Load Much Faster (Part 2)
5. Your Bandwidth Is Slow - Most larger web hosts will have multiple bandwidth providers so that if one gets jammed, they can switch to another bandwidth provider to ensure the fastest connection and load times for your website. An easy way to see if your hosting provider is partnered with large bandwidth providers is by running a trace route test. Once you have completed the test, check to see if it has references to major bandwidth providers such as Sprint, Level(3) Communications, MCI-Verizon, Mzima …
Use Light Speed to Locate Your Server
The benefits of having your web server geographically close to you are well established, but how do you determine where your server is located? Unless you know a lot about physical network routing and the equipment used in network routing, you may not know how to accurately do this.
Tools to Locate Your Server
The good news is you do not need a super accurate test, instead, a relatively accurate solution is readily available. All you need is a little understanding of the speed of light and optical …
How-To: Ping, Ping, Ping, Trace Route! (Part 1)
Ping & Trace Route: What Are They?
You may or may not have heard the term “ping” when talking to one of your tech savvy friends. Maybe someone has told you to “ping” them when you get out of work to meet up for dinner? You may have wondered what they were talking about or where they picked up this new lingo. Well both “ping” and its cousin “trace route” have been around for quite a while.
Ping and Trace Route are both computer network tools that can assist a user in determining the speed, health and route of their IP network:
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How-To: Ping, Ping, Ping, Trace Route! (Part 2)
OK, So How Do I Ping and Trace Route?
The Ping: The first step in diagnosing the problem with a slow website is to perform a Ping test to your website and measure the round trip speed. Performing a Ping test will be a little bit different depending on whether you’re on a Windows, Mac or Linux PC:
For Windows:
Step 1: Click your “Start Menu” and choose “Run”.
Step 2: Within the Run menu type “cmd” and click “OK”. This will open …
How-To: Ping, Ping, Ping, Trace Route! (Part 3)
Packet Loss & Trace Routes – Demystified.
If a hop within your trace route reports back a single asterisk it’s most likely true packet lose. If your trace route reports back asterisks for all the packets and your web site is accessible, it’s probably just the configuration for that router. If it reports back asterisks for all the packets and you can’t get to your web site then get on the phone to your web hosting company ASAP!
I’ve Got My Ping, I’ve Got My Trace Route, Now What?
Once you’ve run your ping test and trace route you’ll be better equipped …
Design Tip: Don’t Be 5,000 Miles From Your Server
Give Your Data a Shortcut
Do you know what happens after you hit the “Send” button in your email program or when you hit the “Upload” button on your FTP program? Most people take for granted what happens next and how the data gets to where it’s going. Much like cars traveling on a highway, the data has to enter and exit a complicated and long system of networks. Logically, the shorter the distance the data has to travel, the faster the data gets to where its going and the less …