• Static over Dynamic
  • It is much easier for a site to just give out a file then to have to run a calculation each and every time.
    1. Wordpress users, Use wordpress cache! And set the expiration to 10,000
       • This plugin will speed up your wordpress dramastically.
       • Only negative is that you will have to delete your cache if you want something updated instantly.
    2. Make sure your host/server has some form of php cache method(Zend or APC) if your submission ends in .php
    3. Or just make the page into a static page(.html or .htm)

• Apache Tweaks(This may not concern you, check with your host)
  
  • A few simple changes to apache is a good way to fight all those timeout errors!
    • MaxKeepAliveRequest 64
      • You can set this higher if your page has a lot of small images which is a very bad idea.
    • KeepAliveTimeout 5
      • This will close a connection after 15 seconds, it is important since we are allowing an unlimited amount of connections.
    • MinSpareServers 15
      • If multiple simultaneous requests are received there will already be child processes running to handle them. Setting this to high is a waste of resources, setting it to low will slow down your site.
    • MaxSpareServers 65
      • Same as above but maximum number of child processes
    • StartServers 15
      • This is the number of servers Apache will start initially. As more servers handle requests a minimum of 15 spare servers will run up to the maximum of 64.
    • MaxClients 500
      • This is the maximum number of simultaneous clients that can connect to the server at any given time.
    • MaxRequestsPerChild 100000
      • This is mostly to prevent memory leaks and other mishaps but is important nonetheless
    • HostnameLookups off
      • This prevents DNS lookups of all the visitors to the site.
  • You should also remove any unneeded apache modules.
• Minimizing Bandwith
  • The less bandwith each person eats, the more people you can feed.
    • Don’t go overboard on graphics, any graphic you use should be compressed fairly well.
    • Use CSS as much as you can..
    • Compress the CSS.
• Hosting(let us know about your experience so we can add it to the list!)
  
  • Sometimes it just comes down to the hardware.
    • Survive Digg($35)
      • Gaurantees that you will survive digg
      • 14 Day money back gaurantee
    • Godaddy($4-$15)
      • Mixed reviews, it’s up to the toss of the coin if it will or not. Good compression and static pages will increase the chance
      • May terminate/suspend your contract for putting the intense load on their servers
    • 1and1($3-$15)
      • More then likely will not survive the digg effect.
      • SQL is located on a different server, very bad for how they have it set up
    • Dreamhost ($8)
      • Many people say their wordpress blog has survived digg with the wp-cache module mentioned earlier but like godaddy, has mixed reviews.
      • Probably your best bet to have your site survive the digg effect under $10
    • iPowerWeb ($7)
      • Will not handle the digg effect
  • Yes i know some places offer better packages such as “Virtual Dedicated Server(~$40/m)” or “Dedicated(~$100/m)”. I heard bad things about these and you will have to do many tweaks yourself. Your better just going with SurviveDigg which is cheaper.

If you have any suggestions, please let us know.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 1st, 2007 at 10:24 PM and is filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.