Bandwidth issues - Suggestions

from WinCustomize Forums
It's no secret: bandwidth issue is severely degrading performance lately on WinCustomize. So I told to myself: What could be done to "patch" this issue since buying bandwidth is *very very* costy. Here's what I come with. (Btw, sorry for my lack of english vocabulary. I'm a french speaking guy so I'll try to do my best to explain things clearly).

I've noticed there's no filtering on submissions file size. Whether it is a zip file or a jpg thumb, my "investigation" showed me there are important differences in file size which, you can easily understand, affects bandwidth availability.

Let's take for example thumbs in the Wallpaper section. They're all the same dimensions but file size vary's a lot. Ok, jpg compressions takes into consideration # of colors and stuff but from my own tests, some thumbs that weighted 40KB could have easily been compressed to half their size with barrely noticeable lost in quality. You may say: Hey, 20 KB less is no big deal! But consider that if 75,000 users comes in and see this thumb, 20 KB less means we save in bandwidth 75,000 x 20 KB = 1.5 GB a day! Now take this result and apply it to every zips and jpgs that floats around WC (coz remember, the previous result was for a *single* thumbnail!!!)... Now I think you get the picture.

So my suggestion would be to thighten the rules around submissions in terms of file size and format (BMP vs JPG in zips, thumbs file size, etc.). Details of what could be done is up to the admins of WC so I won't get into it (although i'm open to chat with them about it). But for sure, something has to be done for that aspect, IMHO.

Hope this help. Ciao all!
4,644 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It is apparent to me that this is an issue which should be addressed. I see some difficulty for the admin. at WC with its' registered users and frequent uploaders wanting no restrictions. With the availability of cable modems and dsl it is still a large load for users to get news and themes. A good topic for discussion and if widely brainstormed a reasonable solution will be found.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Flipnet, that is a very good suggestion. It has fleetingly crossed my mind in the past but had been forgotton. I think that is something I will look into.
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Good suggestions and you're right, it would make a difference. If we could get those thumbnails down in size it could help *immensely*.

Heck, if we could just flip a switch to where it would use the small thumbnails by default during high traffic that would help too.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ah...new macro....'Listen to FlipNET'...
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
An easy way, I think, to "patch" the problem for upcoming submissions would be to restrict the file size of thumbnails uploaded. Also, for all the thumbs actually stocked on your server, I've discovered a cheap tool that can process files in batch (with many effects supported) so that you could convert in few steps all your actual thumbs to make them fits your size needs. (http://www.prismaticsoftware.com/Photobatch/PhotoBatch.html)

Frogboy, for the "switching" idea, if i'm right, you are using Win2K as your NOS with IIS 5.0. Then you probably use QoS so that bandwidth is properly managed and distributed. I wonder if there isn't a script or a tool that could integrate with the QoS service and which could do that "switch" thing (a file for another) when a certain level of b/w usage is reached. Lemme have a look for that and I'll come back to you if my "quest" is successful