Hi all,

In an effort to help improve the website, we have now completed a migration to a new server. It only took 22 hours to complete, but the effort was a success. We are now running from our new server.

The system is running from a virtual environment on the same, but more current, Operating System base. For those of you who know computers, we are running on a CentOS 6 server with a Plesk 11 control panel. Although many things may look the same on your side, the biggest improvement is that our system is now hosted on a very large network environment. The plus side is that we should no longer experience network performance issues. For management like myself, the system is also fully maintained and supported by someone else. No longer will I have to be the one to replace hard disks or keep the servers cool in the summer.

The migration was performed automatically by our Plesk control panel. I've gone through the site as much as I could over the last several hours to make sure everything is still working right. However, please be sure to let me know if you see any glitches.

Welcome to the next chapter...

Mike

Ah the chive

providing the very best in soft porn for masses for a good while now.

Ahh so much better Mike. Thanks for your hard work!

Ironically, the server move seems to have slowed down my access. Might be related to the fact that the old server was just across town and on the same network (Comcast) as I am on. So my traffic never had to traverse the Internet, just bopped across Comcast's local nodes from there to here. I'm bummed!

Well, not really bummed. The change for me wasn't bad, and I'm no longer a user of much import. I'm glad it's better for those of you who still own Zs.

Hey Arne, yes the server access for admin is now the same as everyone else. I used to have zero latency when I was at the house working on the website because I was sitting on the same gigabit network. Comcast, however, was notorious for random network issues.

Oddly enough, as a normal user (not running a high volume server), Comcast has been rock-solid and hugely reliable for me over many years. But I've not heard that type of thing from fixed-IP accounts like yours. Appears to be great for normal users, not so good for business/commercial use.

Yes, I agree Comcast has been very good to us. Only recently they have had issues on the network. At the same time, I've noticed that our server hardware is just struggling to survive in my hot garage. Summertime is especially bad on server equipment when there is no A/C to cool it down.

The decision to move the site out to an external location was based on a combination of prior complaints about the network, speed/latency, and then I just got tired of trying to cool down the machine on hot days. Ideally this new server is a better choice long term.

Awesome job, Mike!

Your biggest problem now is the delay to load the advertising. Waiting for them to load freezes the webpage.

Your biggest problem now is the delay to load the advertising. Waiting for them to load freezes the webpage.

Consider my biggest problem your contribution to our long-term success. Ads, and people to click them, will keep our server dues and power bills paid. They aren't obnoxious, and that's by design....

I appreciate their contribution AND YOURS, Mike. I just wish they would load faster. Of course I realize that is beyond your control.

Thanks DJ, I'm actually looking at ways we can speed up the system right now. Last night I imported our entire database into a new content system that I'm evaluating. It's looking pretty good so far but definitely want to see how we can improve the performance to make the site more friendly -- even with the ads.

Ultimately I'd like to design our site to integrate the ads without even noticing them. This is the key to properly mixing content with sponsors and have a mutually beneficial experience. We have certainly come a long way from a mailing list but things always seem to change.. keeping me on my feet.