GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - Thumbsite owners: Increase your productivity!

Hi guys,

I noticed that some webmasters still use old hardware and old / outdated software. Yes, having 300+ days of uptime is something good for you but hardware prices fall so quickly and it is time for you to get a newer hardware.

As an adult webmaster since 2000, I made & sold many sites, scripts and services. I even managed the worlds first thumb tgp ( before xApster sold it ). First of all, I can assure you that slow loading thumbs scare your visitors. They usually close your site without browse it so you get a low productivity. Next, if clicks to the galleries (trade script --> gallery or trade) is not fast enough, that also lowers overall productivity because there are many fast sites for your visitor out there.

On the software side, I see some of you still use Apache 1.3.X which is about %25 slower than Apache 2.2.4. Using an outdated apache is also a security risk (how do you think these russian hacker hacked so many adult sites recently?). So if you want to keep your current setup, atleast upgrade them to their latest version. I have a few pcs in my home and I do some tests on linux using these boxes. Upgrading to apache 2.2.4 from Apache 1.3 is very easy and flawless. Apache 2 can also compress your scripts/pages on the fly which makes your site load even faster.

What I recommend is:
* A dual core server. Come on! They are cheap! Dual core server can handle your web sites (apache/php/html) and mysql very well.
* 2 Gb ram: Ram is also cheaper nowadays, except ECC (Registered ram)
* 2 Harddrives: You can host your sites, mysql and thumbs on one harddrive but, moving thumbs to an empty, dedicated harddrive gives you the BEST performance you can imagine. For example, you can add a second harddrive to your server and move your thumbs to there (don't forget to configure your thumbscript for new location). That way first harddrive will be used by mysql (mostly) and php/html files. If you use mysql intensively, you can have 3 harddrives; mysql / thumbs / system + php/html files. If you use linux Os, mount your thumb harddrive with NO_ATIME option.
* Linux OS with kernel 2.6.X: I use centos 4.4 32bit for my sites. I know freebsd is good bla bla. However, linux has some goodies like sendfile() and aio-sendfile which is not avaible in freebsd.

Of course these are my recommendations and you may disagree with some of my ideas. But let me tell you, these are fruits of my 7 years of system administration experience. Anyway, lets continue with software side.

* Main Http Server: Apache 2.2.4 with mod_php, with sendfile enabled and keep-alive off: Enable sendfile if you use linux with kernel 2.6.X (eg. new linux distro) and disable keepalive.
* Thumbs Server: Lighttpd 1.5.0 / Lighttpd 1.4.16 or Nginx 0.5.31. I heard lighttpd is not so stable on freebsd, so nginx is better choice for freebsd, however, lighttpd 1.5.0 has some good optimizations and I recommend it for users.
* Mysql: Mysql 5.0.Latest.
* Php: Php 5.2.3 with Eaccelerator (php-cache) 0.9.5.1 is very good combination. Also get zend optimizer if you use any script encoded with zend encoder.
* Enable mod_deflate for apache 2: This reduces your html page size by compressing your pages / php scripts on the fly.

And finally,
You don't have to host your thumbs on a Premium network / bandwith! Premium bandwith is expensive and you may save hundreds of dollars by hosting your thumbs on a Value network. Bandwith prices (with server!) is as low as $10 / Mbit (50mbit for 500$) in value networks.

If you have any questions, type here and I will answer.
btw: if you would like to see one of my work in action, visit http://www.boneprone.com/moviest/amateur1.shtml
Mainpage of boneprone.com is using another server to serve thumbs which is not optimized by me. Subpages of boneprone is using another server to host thumbs using centos 4.3 with lighttpd 1.5.0 and sendfile.