UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.classic UBB.classic 6 Support How many users?

I am running the forum at http://forum.fiatcoupe.net and it's going quite nicely.

As it seems, we're coming to a point where the visitors (over 700 on peak days) are causing a bandwidth of over 8GB a month. I have around 1000 members. Would it be useful to upgrade to UBBThreads?

Users quite fancy the look and feel. Can I copy this 100% to UBBThreads?

Any ideas/remarks on possible transfer appreciated.

- Kayjey -
www.fiatcoupe.net

The Threads look and feel is vastly different from UBB - your users might not react well to the change. (Threads 6 is going to have a nifty templating feature, far better than the one UBB has... perhaps someone will come up with a UBB skin in the future?)

You appear to have the Accelerator enabled, and it is using zlib compression... Log into your control panel - how many of your total hits are coming out of the cache? If it's a somewhat low figure (< 50%), a small hack can add zlib compression into the UBB scripts as well...

If you don't like the idea of hacking, I have a few general tips.

1) Use the lowest values for topic and forum pages possible, i.e. 15 posts per page.

2) Disable the reply iframe.

3) Run all the graphics you've added through an image optimization program or service

4) Run your server log files through a hit tracker... most reputable hosts include this in their hosting plans. It should tell you what URLs are hit the most and where major bandwith is being transfered.

--
Charles Capps
Programmer, Infopop Corporation
Please do not contact me privately for support - post on the board or open a support ticket instead!

That's a nice reply!

User reaction to Threads is a major concern. To be honest I think it really lacks style that Thread thing. The engine might be better, but after all we're looking for user experience, so...

I went through UBB Threads. Might want to make a template for it if that's possible on the Trial version - want to wait for 6 to Appear though.

I see the Accelerator hits are around 70% - 80% so no problem there.

Took your advice on keeping number of topics down a bit. Would think number of posts would require more user-clicking and multiple page go-through thus increasing bandwidth.

Reply iframe... hmmm... quite fancy that though. Would you reckon it causes a real major gain? Anything to replace it with?

Graphics etc are all kept down in size.

Am using webalizer which reports 2GB of bandwidth on Forum alone. Server itself however states 6,5GB... Must be a lot non-html traffic going on then...

- Kayjey -
www.fiatcoupe.net

Well you can use either that or the Topic Review. But do keep in mind that the iframe uses extra server resources, because the topic page is requested again, and extra bandwidth. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

TOpic Review is just as good, if not better, MO.

Yes, but the standard topic review stops showing up after 25 replies... <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

The iframe uses quite a bit of bandwidth...

--
Charles Capps
Programmer, Infopop Corporation
Please do not contact me privately for support - post on the board or open a support ticket instead!

...and install mod_gzip if you're on Unix.

It dropped us from 30+GB a month to 8GB.

50K pages get compressed to almost nothing, and show up faster for your users.

Disabled the iframe.

Haven't heard about mod-gzip but I presume that's something up to my host?

- Kayjey -
www.fiatcoupe.net

Yes...

To see if that's installed:

• Create a document, with Notepad or so.
• Place the following lines in it:
  
  Code

  <? phpinfo(); ?>

• Name it phpinfo.php (or anything, as long as it ends in .php).
• Upload it to your server and open it in your browser.
• Scroll down to a section titled "Apache". It will tell you which modules are loaded; if mod_gzip is listed there then it has been installed already.

I just installed mod_gzip on my server and woah the board is way faster now.

Brett (AKA Slurpee)
Van Halen Forums.com
http://www.vhforums.com
Moderator - Install - Unix/OS X, Web Hosts & ISP's, and Community Management
I Do Not Provide Assistance Via E-Mail

Most web hosting providers do NOT have mod_gzip installed, as it can be CPU intensive...

(However, you can simulate mod_gzip in your UBB scripts using the cgi_buffer hack. <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> )

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Charles Capps
Programmer, Infopop Corporation
Please do not contact me privately for support - post on the board or open a support ticket instead!

Slurpee Stop showing off <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

the cgi_buffer hack, i had a look at ubbdev but couldnt see it.

Well, all I can say is it's installed and... that was a lot of useful information in that test.php you taught me!!!! Thanks Kitt!

- Kayjey -
www.fiatcoupe.net

cgi_buffer seems to have fallen off of the face of the earth - I'll go looking for it... <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

--
Charles Capps
Programmer, Infopop Corporation
Please do not contact me privately for support - post on the board or open a support ticket instead!

Found it. It's a hack for 6.1, but it should work fine with 6.2

https://www.ubbdev.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=30;t=000049

--
Charles Capps
Programmer, Infopop Corporation
Please do not contact me privately for support - post on the board or open a support ticket instead!

I don't like hacks too much. I mean, they're good, but you see... it's like tuning a car. You enjoy it while it lasts. After that, you have to get a new one.

- Kayjey -
www.fiatcoupe.net

Hi Charles,

I installed as shown I get this on running "Can't locate auto/MD5/new.al in @INC (@INC contains: ./Modules . D:weball-forumscgi-bin D:weball-forumscgi-binModules D:/Perl/lib D:/Perl/site/lib) at D:/Perl/site/lib/MD5.pm line 12
END failed--call queue aborted."

Any ideas

I got 6.2.1
win2k server iis5

Thanks

Just though...

I shouldnt be asking you for helps with hacks..

Sorry <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

maybe if I head read the next page in the thread I would have seen the answer.

Right I'm going to install the modules, will let you know..