TSO Host

sunama · 1 Jul 2011 at 21:48

Hi,

A friend of mine is making a new website for my project.

Now, the original version was built on his own server.
He started copying it over to my host (TSOHost), however, the load times are beyond a joke.

This is the website, hosted on his web server (linux).
http://www.s318156197.websitehome.co.uk/aip/
The above took 4 seconds to load on my PC.

This is the website, hosted on TSOhost (Windows).
www.aicore.co.uk
The above took 14 seconds to load on my PC.

Now, a 14 second load time is simply unacceptable.

The web designer has told me that if this site has too many visitors, it will just overload and grind to a halt.

Now, is there anything that I can change in the control panel settings to improve load times?

What is the best way to speed up the loads times?

Would it be better to simply abandon TSOHost and go with another host? If so what is the fastest Windows based host around right now?

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks

sunama · 1 Jul 2011 at 21:55

There are 2 applications which have been created using ASP.NET.
The website use php.
But the web apps, use ASP.Net.

Hence, I am using Windows hosting and Linux.

I've not yet spoken to TSOHost.

sunama · 1 Jul 2011 at 22:04

I've just fired off an email to TSOhost.

You say that this is a database problem...how can you tell this?

sunama · 1 Jul 2011 at 22:13

Spunkey said:
Also, what plan are you on? Is it the el cheapo virtual shared dealie?

el cheapo.

I pay about £2/month for hosting, and can ditch them if need be. I'm not tied to a contract.

sunama · 1 Jul 2011 at 22:18

ok.

So its the database. Would this have anything to do with the site being hosted using a Windows server (vs Linux)?

Is there anything which I can suggest to my web developer to try out?

sunama · 1 Jul 2011 at 22:29

I just got a reply from them:

What I would recommend is setting your site to 'Hybrid Hosting with Linux Bias' with the drop down. This will run your Joomla installation through our Linux servers, but your .asp and .aspx files would get served via Windows.

After making the change, you'll need to wait a few hours for the DNS to propagate.

My problem is that when I tried using the Hybrid system, my asp.net page failed to load (http://www.aicore.co.uk/webclient/)

The above web app is the center of the entire project, so I can't afford to have that web app fail to load.

Anyway, I think I am going to give the hybrid setting a go. I have also asked the TSOhost staff to try making the change themselves and seeing if it works.

sunama · 1 Jul 2011 at 22:53

Yep.

I just made the change to hybrid hosting.
I've also checked the webclient page and it is loading.

The change hasnt yet taken effect.

Once http://www.aicore.co.uk/webclient/ fails to load, this will show that the change has taken effect.

The TSOHost rep stated that I would then need to use
http://www.aicore.co.uk/webclient/default.aspx
to load the web app and it should work, so now, it is just a case of waiting and seeing whether or not the website speed increases to acceptable levels, or not.

sunama · 2 Jul 2011 at 10:35

Guys, can someone load up the following url:

http://www.aicore.co.uk/webclient/

and tell me if the page loads ok?

Also, how long is it taking them load the page: www.aicore.co.uk?

Thanks

sunama · 2 Jul 2011 at 10:51

OK thanks.

The DNS seems to have updated fine then.

I think that perhaps my own ISP has cached the old (slow) website and is loading from it, rather than loading from the new (faster) version.

Thats the only explanation I can come up with.

http://www.aicore.co.uk/webclient/ still loads fine for me.

sunama · 3 Jul 2011 at 00:31

I thought I would post some comments about hybrid/linux/windows hosting.

The customer service rep told me that the hybrid server and windows server should handle aspx pages in an identical way. The only difference is that a hybrid server cannot handle aspx pages without an extension.

I believe this is untrue.

The same app has been loaded onto both directories. The only difference is that one domain is using linux/hybrid, while the other is a pure windows server.

Hybrid server, Linux bias
http://www.aicore.co.uk/webclient/default.aspx

windows
http://webclient.aicore.co.uk/

Notice that on the hybrid server, all the controls are dead.
On the windows server, the controls are working, as intended.

The hybrid server is definitely running the aspx page in a different way to the way the Windows server runs it.

I've been at my computer screen since for the last 14 hours trying to sort this nonsense out, so it hasnt been straight forward, especially when I'm being given information that may not be correct.

In the end, as can be seen above, i set up 2 different domains: 1 running on a windows server (to run the aspx page) and the other running on a linux server (to run the php website).

sunama · 3 Jul 2011 at 11:13

Tetsujin said:
First thing, those buttons are clientside. Server "handling aspx pages in a different way" can't have anything to do with them (directly). Initial suspicion on my part is there's some AJAX going on and the URL you're hitting with the AJAX doesn't have .aspx on the end. Let's take a look...

I am using Ajax controls.

Are you saying that there are some urls, inside my program which do not have the ".aspx" extension on the end? From memory, my code itself doesn't have any urls listed.

In any case, I think the best way for anybody who is running asp pages, would be to set up a (Windows server) sub-domain and then run the asp pages separately in that subdomain. This way, you are guaranteed to have 100% compatibility without any issues of missing .asp or .aspx extensions.

sunama · 3 Jul 2011 at 21:33

Beansprout said:
I think that's the best option here as it's simpler than debugging your app most likely

Yep.

Also, as I make further changes to the web application, in the coming months, by hosting on a Windows server, any code that works on the development machine is almost guaranteed to work on the TSOHost's server.

It just saves a lot of hassle by having a separate sub domain handling asp/aspx pages.

sunama · 4 Jul 2011 at 19:53

Hi,

Thanks for letting me know that suarve.

The issue is now sorted, so load times have decreased to acceptable levels (and not the 14s-20s load times I was initially seeing).

In a nutshell, if you want to run a php site, with TSOHost at least, it is best to use a Linux server.

If you want to host an asp/x page, its best to use a Windows server.

Hosting the php part of the site on a Windows server resulting in load times of between 14s-20s.

When you run a Hybrid server, with Linux bias, the server is essentially a linux server. Everything gets sent to it, as per normal. However, if any file/url extensions have .asp or .aspx on the end, these will get handled by a separate windows server.

Both the Linux and Windows server will have access to all the data on your web page.

Now, I'm pretty sure that it is more complex than what I have explained above, but I believe those are the main points.

Now, to configure a subdomain and assign it with an Windows server is such a no-brainer, IMO that should be the default method of hosting a website which uses both php and asp/x. Not running a hybrid server.

The above technique, cuts out ALL the headache that may occur if you are attempting to use the hybrid server, ie. your asp/x page not working, once it is uploaded to the webhost (although it worked fine on your development machine).

Based on my own experiences, I would advise against using a hybrid server - use it only if you absolutely have to.

Having been through the above though, I believe TSOHost offer fantastic value for money, where webhosts which offer both Linux and Windows hosting, at an affordable price, with good bandwidth allocation and good reliability, are very rare.