Our new home - post your opinions here

[Jon]

I am back working on the cache again. Checked with the Linux engineer and I don't think I need him for his optimisation service, since I get charged full price for the tune up, even though many parts of the tune-up checklist is already done. So, back to DIY!

 

[Jon]

I am also looking into a DNS service that a) has the fastest dns speed in the industry, and b) 18 pops around the world, which means when the dns server is closer to you, there is slightly less lag. I hope this adds slightly to site speed. It is a small improvement but lots of small improvements add up!

Here are the locations of all the pops (point of presence).

 

[Jon]

Ok, I've checked the stats back from 2019 to now. I've managed to halve the page load time after the recent changes here. Hopefully that provides a bit of a nicer experience for you guys. There is nothing more frustrating than hanging around for the page to load. Still working on the caching, as the solutions are coming in drip by drip at a slow pace. Will get there eventually!

 

[Jon]

Just got the cache working. Googles speed checker says this:

I can't get much better than that!!

 

[MajP]

The more I use it the more I like it. The bookmark feature is great. Now when someone asks a question, and I know it has already been answered somewhere I can quickly post the link. This would have been a pain in the old format. On my end it is super fast.

 

[Jon]

@MajP As a regular poster and great contributor, I value your opinion. I'm pleased you like the bookmark feature. When I first saw it, I thought there are many innovative ways you can use it. e.g. tagging things "todo", "to research" and so on. Does the extra speed make things more enjoyable, or did the old site seem similar in speed? What kind of internet connection speed do you have?

 

[MajP]

Not that I would every use this site at work, because I should be working, but with the old site and our firewall the site was unusable. Now it is fast, and thus my work productivity is decreasing. So if I get fired it is your fault. In truth all of your speed tweaks were unnoticeable on my end. It was fast on my end once it was deployed. The additional speed tweaks were not really noticeable because it was fast already.

 

[Jon]

And thus my work productivity is decreasing

You're not the only one!

There is the law of diminishing returns kicking in. The recent cache will affect guests more, although it reduces the load on the server too, which affects logged in members during busy times. If guests like our zippy site, they are more likely to come back or join. If Google likes the speed, it might reward us with higher rankings.

 

[Minty]

I'd agree with MajP once the upgrade was done the whole site was lightning fast at work, (100Mb fibre) and Home (60MB Fibre).
If I think I'm seeing any difference in speed I think it's a placebo effect.

 

[Jon]

So nice to have a fast connection. I was on 10mb until about 6 months ago. Now it is about 34mb.

When we are dieting, we look in the mirror each day and it looks like nothing is happening. Six months later, this happens: (it is meant to represent very thin, not dead!)

The accumulation of small changes over time lead to a profound difference in the end. Although if you are already starting from fast, then that is like starting your diet while underweight!

Edit: I did a poll and the feedback said the site was fast, not super quick. I don't know what the perception would be now. Might be the same, might have shifted, who knows!

 

[Jon]

If we consider the difference in tech between the old host and the new one, it explains a lot. The old host had 1 CPU. The new one has 4 CPUs and faster ones at that. The old host had 2.5GB RAM and the new one has 6GB RAM. I do not believe the old host was fairly allocating server resources, because quite often the site was reaaaaaal slllooooooow, even though the number of visitors at that time was low. Other times, it was zippier despite the visitor count being high.

The new host probably has faster SSD drives and more recent motherboards - less bottlenecks to hold you back. Their pipe to the internet is likely to be a lot fatter too.

I am so pleased I made the move. It provides a nice stable platform for many years ahead. No more headaches!

 

[Jon]

I'm working today on something called a Redis cache. It helps speed up some server processes, caches some elements in RAM and hopefully has a little impact on speed for logged in members too. Here's hoping it all goes to plan.

 

[Jon]

I've made a little discovery with my DNS setup that should shave off about 100ms from page load time. Yay!

Will implement that after I've got some other techie stuff sorted.

 

[jdraw]

I thought I noticed a notable quickness in page loads!!!
Every 100 ms counts.
Good stuff Jon.

 

[Jon]

I haven't implemented it yet!!

 

[Jon]

I have to pay a monthly subscription for the changes, but I figure it will be worth it. It will provide more reliability for DNS look-ups, so there are less chances of an error. And the DNS lookup speed will be significantly better.

My current average DNS lookup speed is:

With the changes, I can get that to an average of 2.65ms.

Grease lightning!

 

[Jon]

I've implement the Redis cache. All the config is done and I am assuming it is working, although I haven't check that yet because my laptop battery is about to die.

Redis helps guests speed but also has a little impact on logged in users too, I believe.

 

[Jon]

I've done an analysis of AWF page load times all over the globe! It used to be 6s in the USA, but it is now down to 2s. In the UK, it is currently 3.7s. Part of this is DNS distance from the single DNS POP it is currently using and partly due to the distance from the server. With the new premium DNS set up, I hope to shave 0.1s off that. I know it doesn't sound much but everything mounts up! Then, using a better CDN supplier, I can go from 39 worldwide POPs to 200. That means more people will have a POP close by. This will help some of the static elements of the site to get delivered quickly. Another feature of using a premium CDN supplier is that it compresses images before sending them to you. This does not currently happen, and so that should help page load times. I am assuming it would compress the avatars too, as well as images pasted into threads. Also, I think it compresses attachments too. The page load times in places like Australia are not great. They are poor in India too. If the images are compressed, that will help people in places where the overall speed is poor. I hope it all works!

I got some ideas from this video:

 

[Galaxiom]

The way it caches unfinished posts automatically and allows you to continue later is awesome.

 

[Jon]

Yeah, I think everyone likes that feature.