1000+ People on the forum right now...

[Wayne 962]

Thanks to my search engine upgrade that I performed last week, the forum is still lightning quick!

Some people have asked me why we're not running the latest version of the vBulletin software. From my discussions with other BBS owners (including John Dunkel from Rennlist), the newer version has lots of bells and whistles, but slows things down if you have a lot of users on, or if you don't have a heavy-duty server. Our server is medium-duty these days.

The new search engine algorithm (for those of you who care), uses FULLTEXT searching, which means that the database searches the index on the server, instead of the table itself. This eliminates table locking, which was previously the worst thing that happened to this server. Someone would search for something weird, and the server would lock everyone out while it processed it. Now, it doesn't do that.

The older version of vBulletin runs very, very quick - I don't really have any plans to upgrade in the near future. The only reason I was thinking of upgrading was for the new search features in the new version, but I've "hacked" them into this version instead, so we're good to go for a while now...

-Wayne

[widebody911]

Cool!

I don't know if the new version has it, but some time in the not-too-distant future it's going to need a CAPTCHA implementation to cut down on drive-by spam.

[Moneyguy1]

Kudos.

I may be just making an idle observation, it seems that there are fewer "trolls" in the form of "spam". If so, double kudos!!

[pwd72s]

Hmmm, 1,000 users. I wonder how many of them are visiting on "company time". I've noticed that things slow down a bit on weekends... BTW, I'm retired...not robbing any boss of productivity here.

[tabascobobcat]

Thanks Wayne
Keep up the excellent work.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by widebody911
Cool!

I don't know if the new version has it, but some time in the not-too-distant future it's going to need a CAPTCHA implementation to cut down on drive-by spam.

The forum I am admin on just upgraded last week to the newest version. Not concerned about everyone logging on but spammers hit another forum 10 days ago.

They went online with computerized 'bots and overnight registered 8500 new members on a forum that normally has 3000 people total. Will take the admin over a day to delete these, one by one.

Its just the prelude to a spam attack and all of us are concered with "drive by spam" hitting us.

[david.avery]

Wayne, I admin and mod several phpbb forums, and the one thing to be cautious on with not upgrading is the security bulletins. There are many holes in these bbs's that get fixed with ever minor version. One bbs I belong to was recently fully comandeered by the hackers and they demanded an Xbox 360 to release it (lol dang kids).

Also, you can tune your SQL server to do queries without locks, some of the vb and phpbb queries do read with intent to write queries, these can be changed to "dirty" queries which prevent any sort of bottleneck like you may be seeing.

Just my .02 of course.

[Wayne 962]

Originally posted by Joeaksa
They went online with computerized 'bots and overnight registered 8500 new members on a forum that normally has 3000 people total. Will take the admin over a day to delete these, one by one.

I know SQL - with one statement, you can delete all of these in less time than it takes to write this sentence. Still, annoying though...

-Wayne

[Wayne 962]

Originally posted by david.avery
Wayne, I admin and mod several phpbb forums, and the one thing to be cautious on with not upgrading is the security bulletins. There are many holes in these bbs's that get fixed with ever minor version. One bbs I belong to was recently fully comandeered by the hackers and they demanded an Xbox 360 to release it (lol dang kids).

Fortunately, they are still supporting the older versions with security patches...

-Wayne

[beepbeep]

Is it possible to know dirty tech details about server?

RAM, CPU, brand etc? Which database server are you using? MySQL or SQL Server?

I like MySQL beacuse it's free, but it doesn't have certain things I like. I'm working as DBA for car company bussines system. 12GB of database running SQL server on Fujitsu Primergy RX 300 with dual Xeon's.

I noticed few things when it comes to SQL: CPU isn't bottleneck (at least not with double Xeons). RAM size and disc speed are. I installed 8GB of RAM and moved databbase from RAID5 to RAID1 partition and speed quadrupled.

[Wayne 962]

Dell Poweredge Server, running at 2.8 ghz with dual Xeons. Dual SCSI running RAID 1 (mirror), 2 GB RAM (never even close to using all of that). MySQL 4.1 with PHP, running under Windows 2003 Web Edition.

With the new search engine fixes, it runs pretty good and super-fast now. I figure that we could support 40% more users on the same machine with no slow down. The CPU is never highly loaded...

Similar configuration for the Pelican main webserver...

-Wayne

[jluetjen]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts
Thanks to my search engine upgrade that I performed last week, the forum is still lightning quick!

Some people have asked me why we're not running the latest version ... the newer version has lots of bells and whistles, but slows things down....

Sounds like a lot of products, 911's included!

[75Carrera]

Love the upgrades... Keep up the good work! Pelican is the best BBS I've ever seen. I'm more than grateful, Wayne.

[ThePointman]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts



The only reason I was thinking of upgrading was for the new search features in the new version, but I've "hacked" them into this version instead, so we're good to go for a while now...

-Wayne

I knew it! Wayne you are a computer geek I am a comp geek at heart myself so good on ya!

[Cory M]

Thanks Wayne, this BBS is a great service to the Porsche community!

[juanbenae]

i am just glad the spell check is so much better now.

[David E. Clark]

Originally posted by Cory M
Thanks Wayne, this BBS is a great service to the Porsche community!

[Paulporsche]

If nothing else, the numbers alone are a testament to the quality of this board.

[klaucke]

For what's it worth, Wayne, I actually prefer the older, simpler look of the forum anyway (then again, I suppose you can probably specify this look w/ the newer versions). I remember logging on when you were doing an update, and the forum had the look of the Early S Reg. forum, and I was pleasantly surprized when you switched it back to this look. Faster speeds are always a plus.

[Paul K]

1000+. That's cool. Every time I see a 911 driver, I wonder if he/she knows about Pelican. We almost need business cards for those who don't!