Technology

8-10 seconds

Studies have shown that, on average, users lose patience after approx. 8-10 seconds. If they haven't received a useful answer from the website they are looking at within that time, they will normally leave and try another site. This waiting time naturally depends in part on the user's Internet connection, combined with the content on the web page - but as more and more users get access to broadband, the bottleneck will move closer and closer to the actual website.

This means that a number of conditions must be met in order for the user to have a positive experience of their visit, at least in relation to response times and speed: sufficient bandwidth, optimal utilisation of this bandwidth, and finally, plenty of system resources.

Requirement: high quality resources

There has to be sufficient bandwidth available so that the web server can supply web pages as quickly as the user can download them. We have the option to adjust the available bandwidth we have with our line provider at short notice, which means we can always supply sufficient excess capacity, and we generally ensure that we operate with a relatively low load on our lines to ensure that there is enough "breathing space" to handle short-term load peaks.

Compression is the key

When you recognise the central role bandwidth plays in relation to a user's experience of a website, it seems amazing that only very few webhosting companies make an effort to optimise bandwidth utilisation. We have chosen to powerfully compress all static HTML pages served by our Windows 2000 servers, and EVERYTHING, static and dynamic, is compressed before leaving our Linux servers. This compression requires no special equipment at the user end, as virtually all browsers from 1999 and on support this compression method, and if the user's browser doesn't support compression, they automatically receive the uncompressed pages.

Speed doubled - or better!

Experience has shown that compression halves the bandwidth usage for an average website - and this applies all the way to the end user. Modem users will experience the smallest difference, because the data is compressed in any case for the last leg out to the modem, but since the server's compression is more powerful than the modem's built-in compression, there is still some advantage. Broadband users (ADSL, Cable, etc.) or fixed lines will receive the full benefit of compression and experience the website as being much faster than it would otherwise be - pages containing a lot of text are compressed by over 80%!

Powerful servers make it possible

The server must also have sufficient system resources to present web pages virtually immediately. This was no major problem in the past, as most web pages were static HTML documents that didn't require substantial data processing - but that time is over. Today, many web pages are generated dynamically, e.g. through database lookup, or based on parameters entered by the user, such that every user receives a unique, customised, web page. The finished web page does not necessarily contain more data than a static HTML page, so bandwidth is not a problem in this context, but dynamic content places much greater demands on server resources (processor, memory, etc.), given that the relevant data has to found in a database, the web page has to be generated, and the content compressed.

Quality from top to bottom

In order to be able to satisfy these constantly increasing resource requirements, we exclusively use very powerful Dell PowerEdge Servers which can quickly be expanded with extra processors and more memory if the need arises. We also consistently use reliable and physically robust technologies when we build servers - to simply remove as many bottlenecks as possible while also maximising machine uptime. Our servers are designed from the ground up to run uninterrupted at very high loads, year after year, without hardware failure or service interruptions, as they supply web pages quickly and efficiently to your visitors. It’s their job. It's your business.