I recently signed up for a FreeBSD "Virtual Private Server" account at viaVerio. I have been shocked at how fast my server responds to browser requests, and my FTP client logs on and makes transfers almost instantly. I am hoping you folks can enlighten me as to what might account for this.

Although I am spoiled by the ease and speed of updating my and testing my sites there, I need to move to a host that offers a more novice-friendly admin interface. But before I leave, I want to know what to look for when I check out new hosts. I love this speed!

Part of the speed I see must be explained by the fact that I was able to select one of their data centers in my own city of San Jose. But what else would account for super speed between me and my server? Below is a tracert if that reveals anything to you.
----------------------------------
Tracing route to kwebs.biz [192.220.109.180]
1 20 ms 20 ms 21 ms adsl-63-204-135-254.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net[63.204.135.254]
2 21 ms 20 ms 20 ms dist3-vlan50.snfc21.pbi.net
[206.171.134.132]
3 10 ms 20 ms 20 ms bb2-g1-0.snfc21.pbi.net [209.232.130.29]
4 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms bb1-p14-0.snfc21.pbi.net [64.161.124.53]
5 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms sl-gw11-sj-3-0.sprintlink.net
[144.228.44.49]
6 10 ms 20 ms 20 ms sl-bb20-sj-8-1.sprintlink.net
[144.232.3.137]
7 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms sl-bb21-sj-15-0.sprintlink.net
[144.232.3.158]
8 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms p4-0.sprint.mlpsca01.us.bb.verio.net
[144.232.8.166]
9 20 ms 20 ms 21 ms p16-0-0-0.r01.snjsca03.us.bb.verio.net[129.250.5.78]
10 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms ge-1-1.r04.snjsca03.us.wh.verio.net
[129.250.28.228]
11 20 ms 20 ms 30 ms ge-2-2.r01.snjsca03.us.wh.verio.net
[129.250.154.1]
12 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms ge-v-2.a0101.snjsca03.us.wh.verio.net[129.250.152.27]
13 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms kwebs.biz [192.220.109.180]
----------------------------------
Thank for any ideas!
Ken Douglass

My god 20ms!
Wheres the server? in the next room?

Put simply, the request is taking 20miliseconds to respond due to you being so close to the server. Add on the fact that the server has pratically NO load...

its probably at verio with god knows how many connections to all the different carriers

IT LOADED IN LESS THAN A SEC ON 56K DIALUP

I think u should stay with your current server.
Just install webmin or something

Originally posted by anantatman
its probably at verio with god knows how many connections to all the different carriers

Which makes no difference, since he's only testing one path - the path from his location in the same city.

FWIW, the server is 78ms away on a cross-country trip. Still nothing wrong with that. No doubt our servers would be approximately that "far" from him as well. It's the speed of light kicking in :)

As for the connection setup time being so remarkable, this has been my experience with FreeBSD 4.x. The difference from FreeBSD 2.x and 3.x was tremendous and after we upgraded, many people noticed and commented on it. So just find another FreeBSD 4.x server that meets your needs.

Kevin

Question.... why use Virtual Dedicated... and pay that much?? Why not go and get a DEDICATED for $150...

lates

Thanks to all who replied!

To lates:
I'm not paying that much really - $55/month - it's their starter Virtual Private Server A plan - only 100 MB disk space.

To Kevin:
Thanks for the tip. I didn't realize FreeBSD 4.x had speed advantages like this! What do you think FreeBSD 4.x is doing better that other OS's don't?

To roly:
Yes, I think I will stay after all. I'll just keep a hold on this plan till I learn more about working with Unix/Apache. Just a novice but I think it's time to study up.

To acidHL:
So it's probably the light load? Oh **** - so after they've got me hooked, then they may start adding more sites and loading my virtual server up to it's quota? Then it will be just like the other hosts? Damn! If so, I guess you'll hear back from me here.

Well.. I think one thing you are not realizing completely, is that about 50% or more of the reason you are getting such a fast speed is because the server is so close to you.

It was also mentioned, it is greatly dependant on server load. If there are a lot of sites, it will slow down.

If you do change your mind and want to move, one thing you can do is run traceroutes on all the servers you look into, this will give you an idea of their speed.

Originally posted by Ken Douglass

To Kevin:
Thanks for the tip. I didn't realize FreeBSD 4.x had speed advantages like this! What do you think FreeBSD 4.x is doing better that other OS's don't?


I'm not a kernel expert, but I'd offer that FreeBSD advantages include an excellent virtual memory system and one of the most mature, thoroughly tuned and tweaked and debugged TCP stacks out there. RFC 1323 support. Those are semi-educated guesses. The proof is in the pudding.

Kevin

Originally posted by spiceman
Question.... why use Virtual Dedicated... and pay that much?? Why not go and get a DEDICATED for $150...
Well... not speaking for him, and especially since he pointed out he's paying $55, but: where would you get a dedicated server for $150 with Verio's connectivity, high quality hardware, daily backups (that are actually done) and real 24/7 telephone support?

Even the more pricey virtual dedicated servers can compare very favorably, depending on what you're using them for, to a "real" dedicated server.

I'm getting ping responses of 150+ from a T1 ..

Originally posted by Mike
I'm getting ping responses of 150+ from a T1 ..

Thats exactly what I mean. 150 is normal to expect from a good server. I think my average ping to the server I used to have was around 225, but that was from Florida to BC, Canada, and it wasn't with Verio...

Originally posted by TheException
Well.. I think one thing you are not realizing completely, is that about 50% or more of the reason you are getting such a fast speed is because the server is so close to you.

It was also mentioned, it is greatly dependant on server load. If there are a lot of sites, it will slow down.

If you do change your mind and want to move, one thing you can do is run traceroutes on all the servers you look into, this will give you an idea of their speed.

I'm not sure you are entirely correct.
I am certainly probably closer to San Jose than some of the others posting here, however, I'm definately a good way away from there.

This is my tracert from Los Angeles:


Tracing route to kwebs.biz [192.220.109.180]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 20 ms 20 ms 30 ms bdsl.66.13.6.225.gte.net [66.13.6.225]

2 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms 4.24.45.21

3 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms p4-1.lsanca2-cr1.bbnplanet.net [4.24.207.1]

4 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms p3-0.lsanca2-br2.bbnplanet.net [4.25.111.2]

5 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms p15-0.lsanca2-br1.bbnplanet.net [4.24.5.45]

6 20 ms 30 ms 30 ms p15-0.snjpca1-br1.bbnplanet.net [4.24.5.58]

7 20 ms 30 ms 30 ms p9-0.snjpca1-br2.bbnplanet.net [4.24.9.130]

8 20 ms 30 ms 30 ms p2-0.paix-bi3.bbnplanet.net [4.24.7.38]

9 20 ms 30 ms 30 ms p4-2-3-0.r06.plalca01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.9.145]

10 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms p16-1-1-0.r20.plalca01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.3.80]

11 20 ms 30 ms 30 ms p16-0-1-1.r21.mlpsca01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.4.1]

12 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms ge-2-1.r00.mlpsca01.us.wh.verio.net [129.250.31.111]

13 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms ge-26.a0254f.mlpsca01.us.wh.verio.net [192.67.241.150]

14 30 ms 30 ms 31 ms kwebs.biz [192.220.109.180]

Pinging resellersisp.com [198.177.254.22] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 198.177.254.22: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=249
Reply from 198.177.254.22: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=249
Reply from 198.177.254.22: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=249
Reply from 198.177.254.22: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=249

Ping statistics for 198.177.254.22:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 13ms, Maximum = 15ms, Average = 13ms


Tracing route to resellersisp.com [198.177.254.22]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 13 ms 13 ms 14 ms user-1120mg1.dsl.mindspring.com [66.32.90.1]
2 14 ms 15 ms 14 ms acr01-vl-3.ga-atlanta0.ne.earthlink.net [207.69.
143.1]
3 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms cor01-vl-10.ga-atlanta0.ne.earthlink.net [207.69
.223.158]
4 13 ms 13 ms 14 ms bor01-g2-3.ga-atlanta0.ne.earthlink.net [207.69.
223.144]
5 16 ms 14 ms 13 ms 209.165.105.22
6 14 ms 15 ms 13 ms ge1-4-amc-b1-00.bb.webusenet.net [64.154.60.113]

7 16 ms 15 ms 15 ms greataccess-cust-ams-b1-0.gw.webusenet.net [64.154.39.26]
8 14 ms 14 ms 16 ms resellersisp.com [198.177.254.22]

Trace complete.



Wha't taking you guys so long on your ping's
:D :blush: :D

My PH Server @ RackShack

ping resellersisp.com
PING resellersisp.com (198.177.254.22) from 207.44.208.100 : 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from gamma.sitesouth.com (198.177.254.22): icmp_seq=0 ttl=248 time=33.866 msec
64 bytes from gamma.sitesouth.com (198.177.254.22): icmp_seq=1 ttl=248 time=33.756 msec
64 bytes from gamma.sitesouth.com (198.177.254.22): icmp_seq=2 ttl=248 time=33.707 msec
64 bytes from gamma.sitesouth.com (198.177.254.22): icmp_seq=3 ttl=248 time=33.765 msec

--- resellersisp.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/mdev = 33.707/33.773/33.866/0.192 ms

traceroute resellersisp.com
traceroute to resellersisp.com (198.177.254.22), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
1 207.44.208.1 (207.44.208.1) 0.633 ms 0.369 ms 0.233 ms
2 twhou-7200-3.ev1.net (207.218.245.3) 0.443 ms 0.701 ms 0.377 ms
3 ge-0-2-0.r00.hstntx01.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.10.69) 1.145 ms 1.177 ms 1.034 ms
4 p16-1-1-1.r21.dllstx01.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.5.4) 5.863 ms 5.907 ms 5.884 ms
5 p16-2-0-0.r00.stngva01.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.5.35) 38.694 ms 38.933 ms 38.694 ms
6 p16-0-1-0.r20.asbnva01.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.2.75) 41.411 ms 39.676 ms 39.626 ms
7 p16-7-0-0.r02.asbnva01.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.2.83) 39.583 ms 39.827 ms 39.629 ms
8 p4-4-0.r00.asbnva01.us.bb.verio.net (129.250.2.233) 39.405 ms 39.568 ms 39.344 ms
9 ge4-peering-br1-ash1.webusenet.com (206.223.115.47) 39.689 ms 39.551 ms 39.605 ms
10 ge2-8-660m4-amc-b1-00.bb.webusenet.net (64.154.59.209) 33.590 ms 33.831 ms 33.491 ms
11 ge1-2-amm-b1-00.bb.webusenet.net (64.154.61.33) 33.579 ms 33.590 ms 33.695 ms
12 greataccess-cust-ams-b1-00.gw.webusenet.net (64.154.39.26) 33.841 ms 34.058 ms 33.889 ms
13 gamma.sitesouth.com (198.177.254.22) 33.798 ms 33.763 ms 33.647 ms

Ken,

That Data Center is fast. I have a Server B there and my pings right now with a newly installed SDSL line are 13-15ms.. With my old ADSL line with another provider it was 30-50ms.

Oh and I'm located in the east coast. I have another Server B located in the Orem data ceter, and My ping to that one was in 100+, but with the new line its down alittle bit to 80-85ms.

Your server should not slow down as they load more people on it. You are given x amount of of processes to use. The only times I had server slowness was when I had a user offering some "questionable" material. Then all the processes were taken up from the massive hit the server got.

Some things you should consider. Your not being monitored for bandwidth usage, just processes are limited, which ultimately affects your bandwidth (i'm trying not to say its unlimited bandwidth, since it seems to tick off so many people here).. Also their support is superb.

Every month when I get my bill, and i look at my space that I get, I want to switch to another webhost, but I just come here and see all the horror stories :) Also remember these are Managed servers. So verio does all the updating and patching for you.

Their support site with the help files are very good to help you administer the server. although some are alittle dated. There's also the Imanager, which is made even better with the ImanagerPro upgrade that allows you to complete some day to day tasks. But yes, alot of it is done from the command line.

Greetings:

See http://www.viaverio.com/support/virtual/web/subhost/limits.cfm for limitations of the Verio VPS.

They do have a lot of DS-3's coming into their data centers, but there are limits <smile>.

Thank you.

I got between 7 and 9 ms from my server :)

From Indiana

03/22/03 12:13:45 ping 192.220.109.180
Ping 192.220.109.180 ...
1 Addr:192.220.109.180, RTT: 89ms, TTL: 52
2 Addr:192.220.109.180, RTT: 88ms, TTL: 52
3 Addr:192.220.109.180, RTT: 89ms, TTL: 52
4 Addr:192.220.109.180, RTT: 88ms, TTL: 52
5 Addr:192.220.109.180, RTT: 97ms, TTL: 52
6 Addr:192.220.109.180, RTT: 89ms, TTL: 52
7 Addr:192.220.109.180, RTT: 88ms, TTL: 52
8 Addr:192.220.109.180, RTT: 87ms, TTL: 52
9 Addr:192.220.109.180, RTT: 88ms, TTL: 52
10 Addr:192.220.109.180, RTT: 89ms, TTL: 52

My servers (Venturesonline Data Center) Englewood CO

03/22/03 12:16:33 ping 1gighost.com
Ping 1gighost.com (209.197.255.24) ...
1 Addr:209.197.255.24, RTT: 95ms, TTL: 242
2 Addr:209.197.255.24, RTT: 97ms, TTL: 242
3 Addr:209.197.255.24, RTT: 67ms, TTL: 242
4 Addr:209.197.255.24, RTT: 69ms, TTL: 242
5 Addr:209.197.255.24, RTT: 69ms, TTL: 242
6 Addr:209.197.255.24, RTT: 68ms, TTL: 242
7 Addr:209.197.255.24, RTT: 68ms, TTL: 242
8 Addr:209.197.255.24, RTT: 67ms, TTL: 242
9 Addr:209.197.255.24, RTT: 67ms, TTL: 242
10 Addr:209.197.255.24, RTT: 67ms, TTL: 242

based on the website I can see why it loads fast

1. Physical Location.
2. Indisputably, Verio has a good network
3. Page is just a small little HTML page (obviously it loads fast)
4. Load on the server probably is still low currently
5. FreeBSD helps though I am not sure by howmuch. Never did any benchmarking before.

That should be it :)

Pinging platinum-hosting.com [207.44.208.100] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 207.44.208.100: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=47
Reply from 207.44.208.100: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=47
Reply from 207.44.208.100: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=47
Reply from 207.44.208.100: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=47

Ping statistics for 207.44.208.100:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 43ms, Maximum = 45ms, Average = 44ms


Tracing route to platinum-hosting.com [207.44.208.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 14 ms 14 ms 14 ms user-1120jo1.dsl.mindspring.com [66.32.79.1]
2 14 ms 15 ms 14 ms acr01-vl-3.ga-atlanta0.ne.earthlink.net [207.69.
143.1]
3 167 ms 228 ms 207 ms cor02-vl-11.ga-atlanta0.ne.earthlink.net [207.69
.223.190]
4 13 ms 15 ms 14 ms bor01-ge-6-4.ga-atlanta0.ne.earthlink.net [207.6
9.223.169]
5 14 ms 15 ms 15 ms 209.165.105.22
6 14 ms 14 ms 15 ms 50.ge-4-2-0.cr1.atl2.us.mfnx.net [208.184.232.13
8]
7 28 ms 27 ms 27 ms so-6-0-0.mpr1.iah1.us.mfnx.net [64.125.31.25]
8 44 ms 43 ms 44 ms 216.200.251.53.ev1.com [216.200.251.53]
9 44 ms 44 ms 47 ms 207.218.245.40
10 45 ms 44 ms 44 ms platinum-hosting.com [207.44.208.100]

Trace complete.
:D

14 170 ms 170 ms 171 ms kwebs.biz [192.220.109.180]

170ms is awesome for someone living in Singapore :gthumb:

If you are on SCV, their US traffic peer through Verio.... that's the reason...