Why do
websites get slow? Am I getting what I paid for?
I wish that was an easy answer
and that it was a simple fix like pressing the "TURBO"
button, but the truth of the matter is that it is very
complicated and could be for any number of reasons.
Lets explore some of
the common reasons what servers slow down.
Overloaded CPUs
The first and most common
cause of show website response is server overload. This occurs
when too many requests for pages or programs occur at the same
time. Requests get backed up because of hard drive response rates
or CPU or memory being fully occupied. With todays higher speed
multi core processors and large memory banks the slowdown is
usually at the hard drive trying to read data and deliver it.
This can be fixed by having
less traffic on the server or splitting traffic over multiple
servers so that the load of each server is below capacity. Of
course automating this process requires multiple dedicated
servers and is likely far beyond what the average website can
afford.
With people expecting
unlimited bandwidth and unlimited disk space from hosting
companies this is all too common. The machines cannot handle all
the bots and users hitting site and downloading content. An
average $5/month website will be lucky to have just a few
simultaneous users before having a problem with performance. That
is in part caused by the fact that the host need to place
hundreds or thousands of websites on a server to make it cost
effective. Essentially, you get what you pay for.
If you need more recourses you
would commonly by a dedicated server costing hundreds or even
thousands of dollars a month depending on the model, hard drives,
CPUs and memory allocations.
Many people never experience
slow downs on cheap websites and that is in part luck because the
other websites on the server have not hogged any of the resources.
Many website hosting companies
have solved the problem of over usage by limiting CPU time and
Simultaneous connections. Where as a website that exceeds limits
such as 5% of the processing power or more than 10 people looking
at a website at the same time the website gets cut off or shut
down.
It is not particularly helpful
to have users cut off from your website because other people are
there, but again, you get what you pay for. Need more resources,
get a better hosting plan.
Server overload can be
compounded by poor programming. Programs cause too much CPU time
or access too many files and cause the server to slow down or
even crash with just one person on the website.
Many people will download and
install free programs on their website and really have no clue
about how they work or what kind of resources they consume. Of
course if you are careful and only have the best and most
efficient programs that does not mean all of the websites hosted
on your server are as careful, so any one website can prevent
yours from working.
Oversize Files and
Pages
Another mistake website owners
make is having massive files on pages. I have seen thumbnails as
many as 100 images that have not been resized but left and full
size in the page making one page many megabytes and taking as
much as several minutes to load. This problem taxes the server as
well as challenging the users connection speed and can even
overload the user accessing the page exceeding memory of their
computer.
Such a simple thing can cause
so many problems.
Hosted platforms such as
pageBuzz.com control images sizes and programing so that no page
can become to big or resources intensive to slow down the servers.
Of course we also use servers that have much higher than average
performance so they can sustain much heavier traffic without any
issues. For our users, these issues are not n issue because we
control programming and don't give the users the ability to
install programs which could potentially crash a server.
But not all users can use
packed programs and they need custom applications. So there will
always be a need for FTP type hosting with open access to sites
and programming. But it is the number one reason that websites
are slow or unresponsive.
Network Routing
Another big reason that
website can be slow is not the fault of the website or server at
all. Each time you access a website the data can pass through up
to 30 ISP's that is 30 datacenters, tens of thousands of miles of
fiber optic cable countless servers and companies controlling the
destiny of the data.
Large bandwidth providers will
exchange traffic and pass data from one company to another before
you see it on your screen. If any of these services is slow then
your website may seem slow but in fact it could be a traffic jam
thunders or even thousands of miles from your web server.
Since all users will not have
the same data route to any give server, it may seem slow for one
person but fast for another. Just as if 2 people leave the same
place at the same time but take different roads home. One person
hits traffic, the other does not and the time to get to the same
place can be dramatically different.
So you can't always blame the
website even though everyone does anyway.
Users Computer
& Adware
Then we have the must
frustrating issue, the users computer itself.
Many people just download and
download and download until they have so many programs running on
their computer that any additional resource could cripple them
and often does.
If your computer is running to
overloaded then website accesses may only be your perception. The
website may be delivering data quickly, but your computer cannot
process it. I see this all too many times.
If you have problems with your
computer and access a simple static page it may seem fast or
normal to you. But if you access a page with flash or heavy
javascripting your computer can slow down or even crash before
the page loads. This is because your computer is being asked to
take some of the CPU load off of the server by running programs
on your browser but it just does not have enough resources to do
that. It could be out of memory or just too busy running all the
other programs you have installed.
People will tell me I don't
have anything else running, just the website. When we look closer,
they may have 50 or more programs running looking for automatic
updates, looking for possible viruses, processing downloaded
content for tool bars on the browser or even reporting back to
software vendors with your activities and preferences.
The real problem is that
people think that everything should just work and don't want to
bear any of the responsibility for the problems.
Unlimited Hosting
and Overselling
I don't care who the website
host is they can't provide unlimited service to unlimited
customers for a few dollars a month. Shame on them for
advertising they can and shame on you for believing it.
If you need more resources,
better programing or more reliable service, you will likely have
to pay for it.
If you are paying $3 a month
for hosting and are complaining about it, you don't need to look
too far for answers. Open that wallet and fork out more money for
something that is more reliable and better suited to your
business.
Just because it is cheap does
not mean it is a good deal it usually means the exact opposite.
You really do get what you pay for.
If you want it all for nothing,
don't expect performance. If you can take less for more you will
more likely see better results with your website and customers
will see higher speeds and have a better time accessing your
pages.
It All Matters
Everything matters. Every file
access and user, every program and the way the traffic gets
around the Internet.
In some cases, it is one of
these issues but in most cases it is a combination of many
different things.
If a server is overloaded as
far as the CPU and another website has oversize files the problem
is compounded and becomes worse. If an ISP has a traffic jam over
the 1000 miles of fiber between the customer and the website and
there is some data loss, the connection becomes even slower.
So even a little degradation
at each point of failure can add up to very slow servers even
though all are within acceptable operating parameters can result
in slow websites.
That is not to say any one of
the problems can't cause server slowdowns on their own, but it is
more common that all the processes involved will contribute to
the overall problems.
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