Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Web Host Speed

[gobeyond]

Hi,

I signed up a site with iPowerWeb over a year ago. I recently signed up another website with LunarPages. Now if I put the site hosted by iPowerWeb on the LunarPages server, I noticed the pageloading was a bit faster from LunarPages. I am in the process of switching the site from iPowerWeb to LunarPages.

I was wondering if there was a way to measure the download speed for different web hosts.

I know iPowerWeb hosts websites using different servers. The package I got has only 800 MB space. I know they offer 10 GB now, but no free upgrade for existing customers. I bet they would use faster machines these days for new customers. I was wonder if I could assume that the server which hosts my site is becoming obsolete. Does anyone know if they keep upgrading their hardware for existing customers?

Thanks!

Terry

[sgarbus]

You should try www.hostingspeeds.com

[qwidjib0]

Originally Posted by gobeyond

Does anyone know if they keep upgrading their hardware for existing customers?

So long as the servers aren't oversold, I actually wouldn't think this would make a huge difference. There's dozens of things that could play a big role in the overall performance though. Data center location, network setup, carriers, ping response, bandwidth availability, processing, memory are all things to consider. Some of them you can test, some you can't - but the best indicator is probably what's experienced by just browsing your site.

[Biol]

You could always run tracert or traceroute (Linux) to your provider from different locations and judge which provider will serve you best.

It all depends on routes and different people in different locations will get varying routes.

[layer0]

Originally Posted by PE-Steve

You should try www.hostingspeeds.com

I concur, just recently found the site, I must say it's nicely coded, a ton of features! Major props to developers!

[The Stealthy One]

Yes, hostingspeeds is a good one. Also, you can gauge transfer speeds just by doing a simple ping at the command prompt for each company's server.

[SinghandSons]

Hosting speeds is good.

[vidahost]

Originally Posted by mynameweb

Yes, hostingspeeds is a good one. Also, you can gauge transfer speeds just by doing a simple ping at the command prompt for each company's server.

:/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/

Ping = latency; latency != speed.

The biggest factors affecting site loading time are server load and network saturation (well, that'll affect download speeds, you wouldn't notice network saturation with simple HTML pages unless it was _extremely_ saturated), not ping.

[The Stealthy One]

vidahost,

You may not be aware, but ping can indeed measure the response time of a server.

For those of you who do not know, you can go to a command prompt, and type something like the following:

ping www.yahoo.com

Unless you specify otherwise, this will send a packet of data to www.yahoo.com four times, and measure how long it takes in milliseconds for each one. It is indeed a very good way of measuring response time in realtime. Response time affects the speed with which a website loads.

[vidahost]

Originally Posted by mynameweb

vidahost,

You may not be aware, but ping can indeed measure the response time of a server.

For those of you who do not know, you can go to a command prompt, and type something like the following:
Unless you specify otherwise, this will send a packet of data to www.yahoo.com four times, and measure how long it takes in milliseconds for each one. It is indeed a very good way of measuring response time in realtime. Response time affects the speed with which a website loads.

Firstly, repsonse time is latency. Same difference.

Secondly, I am fully aware of the simple ping utility

Response time != transfer speeds.

Ping is _not_ about "transfer speed". If you get a ffaster net connection, your ping to a foreign host won't increase, and vice versa.

Additionally, it's possible to get high speeds from high-ping hosts.

Ping is about latency. ie, how long it takes for you to start receiving content from the moment your PC requests it. Which I think is what you meant by "transfer speed." I'm just being pedantic.

This is also why hosting speeds uses not only a ping but also a download, for example.

[The Stealthy One]

Just admit it - I was right, and you misunderstood what I said! Disguising that simple sentence in a seven-paragraph response doesn't make you look bright!

[vidahost]

I surrender to the sillyness, but am comfortable in the knowledge that I'm correct

[The Stealthy One]

No I'm correct!

(Watch out everyone, it's a battle of the nerds!) lol

Ok, I'm just kidding! Honestly, vidahost, I respect your info. It is indeed correct - I just thought mine was a simpler way of explaining it. But yours is indeed more indepth.

[vidahost]

I was fairly certain you were messing around, but you never know...there are some strange people around :p