Would this speed up Neowin's servers?

[redeemed]

This might speed up Neowin's servers (to a certain extent) if the mods restrict the amount of data downloaded by guests at Neowin. That might speed up the servers a bit.

1) Making guests use the lo-fi version of Neowin at all times, or

2) Allowing each guest IP address to access only max. 3MB everyday

Mods might like to take this into consideration. :)

[Jon 5]

But do you notice how many guests there are right now?

1317 guests, 248 members, 4 anonymous members

Now I know you say if they really want the information here and don't want to use the lo-fi version they could register. But the thing is a lot of those people won't and I don't think restricting them to only the lo-fi version of Neowin is going to help their desire to join. ;)

[Slimy]

Restricting guests has been brought up before but although it would be nice and in a way beneficial for the members (theoretically everything would be faster) it simply doesn't make sense for the way Neowin operates. Neowin is meant for public viewing and surfing the site as a guest firstoff is how many members join the site in the first place. As well, it would limit ad revenue, and that can be put towards the servers ;)

[Chew]

Not to mention the fact that if people see something they want to talk about they join.

However you will seriously damage neowin's credibility and user base if you begin limiting forum members to the lo-fi version of the site.

I've run enough large forums in my day to say with certainty, that is not the way to go about helping speed of the site.

Chew

[redeemed]

^^Oh yeah, guess you're right, Slimy, Chew, and Jon. Bad for the publicity and not as much earning money. :yes:

If I may ask, how much does a server cost and how long does it take to raise money to buy one?

[Chew]

If memory serves me correctly, neowin owns their servers and collocates them (4?) someone correct me as I'm probably wrong.

Depending on who you get bandwidth from the cost varies greatly. I'm not even going to speculate on how much it costs to run neowin because I honestly have no idea who they're buying rack space / bandwidth from.

But I'll tell you for a contract I have with Speakeasy and their private network, rack space, 10mbps pooled data commit, I pay $1000 US / month.

Chew

[Matt]

Neowin's hardware is colocated somewhere in Chicago and it's carrier is Cogent. They shouldn't be paying more than 10 dollars a meg for bandwidth and if they are...well I can get them 8.99 per Mbps with Cogent. They wouldnt need more than a quarter cabinet but some datacenters offer HSRP with half cabs and up so they might have opted for that.

At one datacenter I pay $750 /month for 50Mbps, half cabinet, and 20amps of power. Another datacenter I have a full rack with 100Mbps. I use a variety of carriers ranging from Level 3 to Cogent.

[shockz]

Correct me if I'm wrong... but the servers haven't had any issues for a long time now.

Don't fix what isn't broke.

[black.ops]

I think that this would be a very stupid idea.

I can't possibly be the only member that browses the forums as a guest, only logging in when I want to post something. It would just make it harder for current members as well. Neowin is plenty fast already; sure it slows once in a while, but it isn't anything to die over.

[redeemed]

^^True...

[LightIdea]

I view Neowin in Lo-Fi on 56k and my DS :)

[p858snake]

This might speed up Neowin's servers (to a certain extent) if the mods restrict the amount of data downloaded by guests at Neowin. That might speed up the servers a bit.

1) Making guests use the lo-fi version of Neowin at all times, or

2) Allowing each guest IP address to access only max. 3MB everyday

Mods might like to take this into consideration. :)

do you wanna guess how i was surfing neowin over the weekend and at school today?...

as a guest

[j.r.l.]

This might speed up Neowin's servers (to a certain extent) if the mods restrict the amount of data downloaded by guests at Neowin. That might speed up the servers a bit.

1) Making guests use the lo-fi version of Neowin at all times, or

2) Allowing each guest IP address to access only max. 3MB everyday

Mods might like to take this into consideration. :)

I don't think so.

1) perhaps they should view the lo-fi version by default... which is pretty much the current scenario a lot of them coming from search engines.

2) huh, no. some people don't cache images... while it is a "safe" way of restricting access, it's not a sure way. you could restrict thread views, but even then that's not really fair.

neowin is already plenty fast anyway...

ps; can't use shift, broken pinky.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

Guest won't join unless they see something pretty.

(okay, my member photo isn't helping)

[P!P]

I'd also guess that a good chunk of ad revenue comes for guests. Most members don't click ads, and Neowin has many more guests than members. Limiting guests would likely mean a decrease in Neowin's pocket book.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Limiting guest views = less registrations, Neowin doesn't want to force registrations which is why we always have many more guests viewing the forums.

When we sorted out our server 'issues' at the start of this year we turned on in-line images for guests and made Neowin much more friendlier to visit as a guest (as a priority too).

[redeemed]

:yes: ...What are "in-line images"?

[p858snake]

any images posted in the threads that are hosted on the neowin server (using the attachment system)

[redeemed]

Oh ok. Thanks.

[MrKuro]

i like it the way it is . . and the servers have been plenty fast for quite a while now.

[Nashy]

Correct me if I'm wrong... but the servers haven't had any issues for a long time now.

Don't fix what isn't broke.

Perfect.