A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a system of computers containing copies of data placed at various nodes of a network.
36
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4answers
722 views
When did you decide to use a CDN? How did you measure the “success” of using a CDN?
When did you decide to use a Content Delivery Network?
How did you measure the "success" of using a CDN to help justify the additional cost?
Added a bounty. Hoping to get interesting stories from ...
30
votes
3answers
3k views
Why do big sites host their images/css on external domains?
Why do big sites (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Tumblr & so on) host their images/css on external domains?
Facebook:
http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/
Twitter:
http://a0.twimg.com
Google: ...
17
votes
2answers
845 views
Where can I find the full list of Google/Microsoft CDN hosted AJAX files?
While Google hosts this list and Microsoft hosts this one there are several files missing such as jQuery UI CSS. Where can I find a complete listing of all the resources offered for major AJAX CDNs, ...
15
votes
4answers
15k views
Is the Bootstrap CSS on a CDN yet?
Just checking to see if anyone knows of a CDN for the bootstrap css framework.
14
votes
2answers
7k views
Is there a way of using HTTPS with Amazon's CloudFront CDN and CNAMEs?
We use Amazon's CloudFront CDN with custom CNAMEs hanging under the main domain (static1.example.com). Although we can break this uniform appearance and use the original ...
14
votes
4answers
4k views
CDN - Content Delivery Networks. How do they work and why would I want to use one?
What exactly is a Content Delivery Network (CDN), how does it work, and why would I want to use one for my web site? Which are the well-known CDNs out there?
11
votes
3answers
23k views
What's the best FREE CDN service available? [closed]
It seems like using CDN is a best option to provide users a great browsing experience. But, plans of the major CDN providers seem costly. So, I would like to get used to the CDN thing before I ...
11
votes
2answers
359 views
When to switch to a CDN?
I have read about CDNs and what they do. The question I have is three fold.
When should you start to use a CDN? My site is small currently and do not see the need for a CDN but is there a general ...
10
votes
1answer
269 views
When and when not to use a CDN
I'm working on a web-application that loads a couple of small gif images onto the screen. I'm using a relative path, which means they are loaded from the same web server that serves the php page. The ...
10
votes
2answers
1k views
Image CDN with API?
My company uses flickr and picasa web albums as poor man's content delivery networks (CDN) for image hosting, but I'm curious if anyone has any recommendations on any other services that might be ...
8
votes
5answers
1k views
What is the advantage to hosting static resources on a separate domain?
I notice a lot of sites host their resources on a separate domain from the main site, e.g. StackExchange using sstatic.net, Barnes & Noble using imagesbn.com, etc.
I understand that there are ...
7
votes
1answer
399 views
How is Apple's enormously image-heavy site served so fast?
Took a profile of the "Smart Cover" page on Apple's site using Pingdom. It's requesting 241 objects for a total page weight of 3472.6 KB! An absolute mammoth.
How does this possibly translate into ...
7
votes
1answer
182 views
How much do other CDNs charge?
I'm currently using Amazon S3 and CloudFront as a CDN to serve my images. Amazon publish their prices on the site: $0.120 per GB transfer and $0.0075 per 10,000 HTTP Requests.
However, other CDNs ...
5
votes
7answers
293 views
Looking for a CDN
Most of the CDN's that I've seen require you to upload your content in advance. I'm looking for a CDN that, upon receiving a request for a resource it hasn't seen, will contact my application server. ...
5
votes
2answers
448 views
How does a CDN work on the tech side?
I never used a CDN before so this is a noob question, but how does it work on the tech side.
For example right now when a user uploads an image on my site it is uploaded to the "/uploads" folder at ...
4
votes
2answers
402 views
Creating a CDN to boost page ranking?
I had a thought about CDNs and if they affect page rankings. Lets say hypothetically if I was to create a CDN as a subfolder in my site. This folder would contain a resource that is useful e.g. ...
4
votes
2answers
292 views
CDN for authenticated sites
We have a site that requires users to sign into. Typical stuff. Today, all the content (dynamic and static) is behind the login process, and you cannot access any of the pages or files via a URL ...
4
votes
1answer
347 views
Does google contribute ranking from cdn.example.com to example.com?
Background
From my understanding, http://mywebsite.com/image.jpg, can help the ranking of http://mywebsite.com in a search engine, such as Google (obviously the search engine of primary concern).
...
4
votes
1answer
982 views
HTTP Header Cache Time: s-maxage and max-age
I am setting up a CDN for my website, I found the following sample for adding to the 'httpd.conf' file, this is used to adjust the cache-time for client and CDN:
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType ...
4
votes
2answers
341 views
CDN solutions pros and cons
As the sysadmin in our organization I've been asked to look into CDN solutions as we have plans to roll out a web platform that is targeted at developing countries. Here is my research so far on the ...
4
votes
1answer
442 views
Google CDN or Akamai
We combine and minify our JS with Minify - the combined JS is then cached on Akamai. I'm suggesting to my supervisor that we put JQuery and JQueryUI on Google CDN and take it out of our combined JS.
...
3
votes
9answers
238 views
How do you enhance your websites speed without compromising the design and access?
How do you enhance your websites load speed without killing the design and accessibility? File compression, CDN, Gzip? What are the best tools for doing so?
For example, Google has optimized their ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
is it true that CloudFlare really doesn't affect dynamic content?
I've been reading the CloudFlare FAQ, I understand that is acts as a reverse proxy
and all requests to your domain will go through CloudFlare.
They say in the FAQ that it won't slow down dynamic ...
3
votes
2answers
108 views
Images on a subdomain, hosted on the same server — will simultaneous downloads increase? (CDN)
Browsers only allow you to download a limited number of concurrent files from the same domain.
Would a subdomain for images (basically as a content delivery network) on the same web hosting server ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
Can Amazon Cloudfront files be served GZIP'd?
If i'm running a WordPress website with the W3TC plugin installed, and have my static CSS/JS minified files hosted on Amazon's CDN, is there a way to serve them GZIP'd?
I have the basic understanding ...
3
votes
3answers
232 views
Need a CDN with SSL
We currently use Edgecast through Speedyrails. Back when I did my research they were both fast and very cost-effective.
I haven't looked in a while, but now we need SSL on our assets as well.
I ...
3
votes
5answers
1k views
Does it matter where a server's physical location is?
I am located in the UK, and most of my client's are also in the UK, however I find some of the products available in the US to be easier to use, I won't name specific companies, but the pricepoint and ...
3
votes
3answers
200 views
Is it possible to know where a CDN's servers are located?
Are there any tools or online applications that can list where a CDN's servers are located?
3
votes
3answers
66 views
About cdn architecture to route way
Our web system, use the third-party cdn service.
Assume that the user set the local dns with the googledns or opendns to visit our web sites, so cdn service will select the closest cdn proxy node. ...
3
votes
2answers
96 views
prevent hotlinking of off-site content?
I have a www.example.com site where I serve all static content (e.g. http.//www.example.com/image.jpg) off a CDN with URLs like http://static.example.com/image.jpg
An Apache 2 .htaccess rule ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
Costs of hosting static files on Google App Engine
I am considering using GAE as a kind of CDN, to host an entire static website. Soon they will start using new pricing. Does every site visitor start a frontend-instance? What will be the cost ...
3
votes
3answers
268 views
Cloudflare in cpanel is it a no brainer?
I recently noticed Cloudflare cdn service add on in my cpanel. I understand what CDN is, but though it was a more complicated process than the one-click solution that seems to be offered in cpanel ...
3
votes
1answer
566 views
What's the pro/cons of Adobe TypeKit API? Any best practices?
With all the Open Source fonts I have available, and I can download them via the CSS font directive, what's the benefit of the TypeKit API?
Are there drawbacks of this? How does it work technically? ...
3
votes
2answers
56 views
Web hosting for Israeli visitors
I developed a version of a client's main website in Hebrew. Most of the Hebrew site visitors will be coming from Israel. My server is fast in the States but sluggish in Israel (per some ping testing). ...
3
votes
1answer
98 views
Is Cloudflare unzipping gzipped dynamic content?
I'm using Cloudflare for a small website that is frequently accessed from mobile phones where bandwidth usage is crucial. I used to gzip every php response and this reduced my bandwidth usage, ...
3
votes
1answer
108 views
Significant drop in SERPs on 12th November 2011
Earlier this year I decided to have a look at the SEO of our website. We noticed almost immediately that we dropped significantly in the SERPs for the keyword 'probiotics' (plural) on the 12th ...
3
votes
2answers
620 views
Using YouTube as a CDN
Why isn't YouTube used as a CDN for video and audio files? Through YouTube's api and developer tools, it would be possible to post all media files to YouTube from a CMS and then make a call to them ...
2
votes
5answers
334 views
Is it ethical to use Google Analytics on a site crime victims use to make 'anonymous' reports?
Our local police force have a website for rape victims to use to report attacks anonymously. At the top of the page is a 'Report anonymously' link, which takes you to a page using Google Analytics as ...
2
votes
3answers
306 views
DNS lookup when using a CDN
Using a CDN can vastly improve the load time of a website. I been thinking of using it to host all my external files like CSS, JS, Images, Videos etc. However I was thinking when linking to a CDN, ...
2
votes
1answer
180 views
Two URL CDNs are better than one for SEO and Speed?
For example, my URL is:
www.site.com
For SEO, PageSpeed and Server Tweaking for ultimate performance, and speed, my code places static files like JavaScript, CSS and Images on my CDN:
...
2
votes
1answer
545 views
How to use Cloudflare and Namecheap email forwarding at the same time?
I want to use Cloudflare, and it requires that I use their nameservers.
The problem is that I'm using some features from Namecheap like email forwarding, which will be disabled (if I didn't get it ...
2
votes
2answers
184 views
Do any CDN services offer multiple urls (or aliases) for your files?
Lets say a company has multiple commercial web properties that happen to use a lot of the same images on each site. For SEO reasons, the sites must not appear to be related to eachother in any way. ...
2
votes
1answer
117 views
Internal CDN and setting up subdomain to increase maximum parallel connections
I've heard that browsers can have around maximum of 6 parallel connections per domain at a time.
So I decided to have another subdomain "cdn." then use mod_rewrite to point to media folder then ...
2
votes
1answer
145 views
Is there any other CDN than Amazon which supports hadoop?
I need know about CDN which offers to store HDFS .
I know amazon offers such service but i am looking out if some others are giving some better service , additional features or cheaper service.
Please ...
2
votes
0answers
12 views
I want to build a script CDN for my place of employment [duplicate]
I write a bunch of scripts (javascript, php, perl) for my work. Right now, people have to get the scripts themselves from our sharepoint, and then install it as either a bookmarklet or a greasemonkey ...
2
votes
0answers
40 views
CDN for zocial css file [closed]
I am looking to use zocial css file for a site and need to figure out if any CDN hosts this file. If not, I will resort to using the local server (or my own CDN package). I do not think relying on ...
2
votes
1answer
57 views
CDN for site with target market in Australia
I was told that http://www.edgecast.com/ is very good CDN provider for Australian market.
I have a cloud server based in Sydney Australia but was wondering whether it's even worth getting cdn as my ...
1
vote
2answers
233 views
Do Google/Twitter etc actually use distributed servers to serve their resources?
I'm trying to optimize my website and running a few tests using webpagetest.org. I tried the test from Singapore and Hongkong.
I saw that while all facebook, quantcast, chitika scripts were loading ...
1
vote
2answers
427 views
Tahoma, Verdana, Trebuchet, Georgia, etc as webfonts?
Does anyone know if the so called "web safe fonts" like Tahoma, Verdana, Trebuchet or Georgia are available as webfonts (that you can link to and safely use in your stylesheet) on a public CDN ...
1
vote
1answer
143 views
CDN png image not accessible from my machine
I'm getting a very strange error on http://cure.org where the following PNG image is not being delivered from the CDN to webkit browsers (both Chrome and Safari), but Firefox is loading it just fine.
...
