DU bandwidth on debate nights... Check it out!

[Skinner]

It's official: Last night was our busiest night ever, at least in terms of bandwidth. Check out the graphic below to see the two debate spikes, including the massive VP debate spike last night.

The night was not perfect. At one point there was a pretty serious bottleneck that blocked out a whole bunch of requests.

The good news (for those of you who have been following our ongoing server problems) is that the problem was not caused by our server or our software. You heard me right: We think we finally have the hardware and software to handle lots and lots of traffic. (Kudos to Elad.)

And the other good news is that we are working with our ISP to identify and fix the problem from last night. They have a pretty good idea of what what it may be. Hopefully we can get it fixed before Friday.

One caveat: We have no clue how much traffic we're going to get on 11/2, so I can't make any promises about performance. These debates are good test runs to find problems ahead of time and tune up for election night.

Anyway, here's the graph...

[patrice]

1. Hopefully your traffic will be a little down on 11/2 'cause

everyone's out Getting Out the Vote.

[brooklynite]

2. You won't have to worry about me...

One caveat: We have no clue how much traffic we're going to get on 11/2, so I can't make any promises about performance. These debates are good test runs to find problems ahead of time and tune up for election night.

Unless the Florida victory party is set up for WiFi, I'll be away from my laptop, and working the polls all day.

[Jo March]

3. DU is THE place to be for the debates

I read the comments to my hubby while he's watching tv. It makes it much more interesting.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. I found it slow immediately post debate

but if I started from the home page when it tied up, I got right in...compared to election night 2002...these are very MINOR inconveniences....


You guys ROCK!

:yourock:

[michigandem2]

11. noticed that too..it was busy last night but worth every

minute on here.!

[trotsky]

5. Gotta love MRTG...

Cool graphs, Skinner! What does normal traffic look like? A nice wave?

[Skinner]

6. Normal traffic is a pretty smooth wave.

You can extrapolate yourself if you just look at the graphs and imagine them without the spikes.

[arwalden]

7. If things get really hairy...

can you configure DU's software (or server) to be ascii only (or to not answer browser requests for images)? Would this help to minimize the amount of data and optimize overall performance?

But then again... would simply not responding to requests would leave a bunch of red-x's on our web pages and browsers that 'hang'?

-- Allen

[Skinner]

8. Most or our images are hosted on a different server.

So it's not related to the performance of the main three servers.

[Cha]

9. This is Good News!

Thanks for all the work you guys do for us on DU!

Skinner, EarlG, And ELAD!

:toast:

[Longhorn]

10. I couldn't get on for about two hours this morning

(from about 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. Central Time. Was that related to the ISP problem? (I had no trouble getting on other sites.)

I didn't realize how hooked I am to this site -- I start EVERY morning with DU! Thanks!

[0007]

14. It was fast and smooth this morning for me.

Last night during the debate and after it got a little slow.

[karlrschneider]

12. I guess you must know how terribly important DU is to so many of us...

you obviously do all you do for all the right reasons, we know you ain't gettin' rich. Thank you so very much!
:D

[WillyT]

13. I Thought The Spike Was Due To....

a CatWoman\Matcom love fest....




:hi:

:scared::scared::scared:

[CatWoman]

16. ROFL!!!!!!!!

smartass!!!!!!!

:hi:

:loveya:

[Tsiyu]

15. Very cool! DU is the place to be

I couldn't DO politics without DU. I was only just now thinking this, and nagging myself to thank you. So, thank you. You are my hereos.

:kick: :headbang: :kick:

(And as soon as I acquire a new job and/or sell my novel, there WILL be a star next to bhg LOL :))

[cheshire]

17. I will control myself on 11/2, this is great thank you.

[Misunderestimator]

18. All I can say is congratulations for running the best performing site

on the internet. Since my company recently blocked DU, I haven't been able to be online much during the day. So I went to some other forums trying to find ANYTHING resembling DU. NADA! There truly is nothing out there as good as this site. Even if I could only get onto DU for a few minutes a day, I would continue to contribute. You guys absolutely ROCK. Speed, clarity, ease of use... honestly... DU is the absolute best.

:yourock: