60
votes
Why do big sites use multiple servers instead of one server with better specifications?
A single powerful server can only be upgraded so far. Once you have the most powerful server available, your site cannot grow more without splitting it between servers or making it more efficient.
...
- 93.6k
31
votes
Why do big sites use multiple servers instead of one server with better specifications?
From Rear Admiral Grace Hopper:
On the building of bigger computers: "In pioneer days they used oxen for heavy pulling, and when one ox couldn't budge a log, they didn't try to grow a larger ox. We ...
- 419
12
votes
Accepted
Could an adult site affect the other sites in same server?
If you do not have specific experience running this kind of websites, then I would strongly suggest you to get a separate server. While having an adult site on same server with different websites ...
- 1,274
12
votes
Why do big sites use multiple servers instead of one server with better specifications?
Stephen explains the major consideration to make when deciding on a systems architecture: the tradeoff in vertical and horizontal scaling. I'll add a few other considerations:
Separation of concerns: ...
- 270
10
votes
Redirect visitors when site is too busy
When your website is too busy due to a large traffic, the best way of redirection is using custom error documents. So, when a user gets 503 error code, the server will redirect visitors to the custom ...
- 669
10
votes
Accepted
Godaddy Server location?
Do a traceroute on the IP address in question and you will more than likely find that the IP address traces to Europe somewhere. The whois record for the IP address in question is simply returning the ...
- 10.1k
9
votes
Accepted
Does server location and geo location based on IP impact SEO?
In a Google Webmaster Help thread, Google's John Mueller said in response to the question of SEO and server location:
For search, specifically for geotargeting, the server's location plays
a very ...
- 3,848
9
votes
Accepted
Which is the practical difference between a server and a web server?
"Server" is a generic term that represents a computer that shares something.
There are many different types of servers. Some share databases, others share web sites, still others share ...
- 2,826
8
votes
Why do big sites use multiple servers instead of one server with better specifications?
Size limit. We like to pretend that a single box with multiple processors, memory chips and disks is uniform. This isn't entirely true, but it's true enough if your numbers don't get too big. There ...
- 181
8
votes
Understanding CNAME and NS in DNS
No, CNAME and NS are quite different.
CNAME associates an alias with a canonical ("true") name. So in your example, dns.mysite.example would be an alias for canonical/true name mysite....
- 210
7
votes
Why do big sites use multiple servers instead of one server with better specifications?
Let's take the problem at small scale. A tiny office with one server running mail, ActiveDirectory, file share, and the web site for the company.
Hackers hit it and you have to reboot because IIS is ...
- 171
7
votes
Accepted
How to add a prefix to my domain name?
You would need to do two things,
One: You will need to create the sub-domains in your DNS. You will use a CNAME (alias) for this. For example.
Creating a CNAME for www.example.com that points to ...
- 32.5k
7
votes
Will Changing My Websites Static IP Address cause any DNS issues?
No matter what you do, you can't 100% control clients cache and hence some will continue to use the old IP address for "some" time.
Which means, your service needs to continue to exist to ...
- 7,062
6
votes
Accepted
What is SymLinksIfOwnerMatch?
From the Apache docs
SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
The server will only follow symbolic links for which the target file or directory is owned by the same user id as the link.
So, enabling this option (as ...
- 41k
6
votes
Can I create/host my own .com/.net domain name at home?
Host a DNS server at home, set it up so the domain points to your static IP. Maybe use https://www.virtualmin.com/ for this, makes life much easier.
Register a .com domain (this will cost you $, see ...
- 181
5
votes
Could an adult site affect the other sites in same server?
Do you mean with regards to search? From Google's point of view: no, that's fine. There are a limited number of IP addresses, so you need to share.
The only exception I can think of is if you have a ...
- 7,303
5
votes
Redirect visitors when site is too busy
It seems like you're aiming for the second-worst outcome. If you're expecting a spike, you have time to do something:
Implement in-code caching (can be easy, can take a while to get right)
Optimise ...
- 151
5
votes
Parallelize downloads with one server by using apache
Yes, this is a perfectly valid solution to the problem. It also covers the "use a cookieless domain for static assets" speed recommendation, if setup correctly. This won't add additional server load, ...
- 4,334
5
votes
Accepted
How to implement WordPress in a subdirectory, hosted on a different server?
The subdomain is certainly the easiest option since you are wanting to host the site on another server. The reason for this is that a hostname can only ever resolve to a single location. If you are ...
- 635
5
votes
Does server timezone affect SEO?
Does server timezone affect SEO?
No.
I understand that the geolocation of a server impacts search engine rankings.
Only indirectly. Major search engines don't care where the files are coming from.
If ...
- 582
4
votes
Can DNS point to specific port?
What you are looking for is Dynamic DNS (DDNS) with port forwarding and a majority of DDNS service providers are offering port forwarding as well. You can then set up your domain something.something....
- 290
4
votes
Accepted
Why do servers need to know their domain?
The main reason is: HTTP requests include the domain name. You could have stackoverflow.com and askubuntu.com all served off the same front end machine. When the server gets a request it needs to know ...
- 155
4
votes
Setting reverse PTR
PTR records can be set by your service provider. If the IP is delegated into their ownership, they are the ones who can set the PTR record.
- 562
4
votes
How can I find my website's IP address?
There are multiple ways:
If you're in Firefox, open the console (F12), go to the tab [Network], click one of the resources. Then on the right there's "External IP".
When you use FireBug, tab [Net], ...
- 6,736
4
votes
Is it safe to give write permission to _www user account?
It is generally unwise to allow www or apache to have write access, however, this can be done safely by limiting the access to a single directory and not allowing any executables in that directory.
...
4
votes
Accepted
.htaccess how to redirect the contents of a directory to a subdirectory
RewriteRule ^/folder(.*)$ /folder/subfolder/$1 [R=301,NC,L]
As just mentioned in this other answer... in per-directory .htaccess files the RewriteRule pattern matches the URL-path less the directory-...
- 41k
4
votes
How do I disable socket.io cookie named io server-side?
Just pass an option to do it:
var io = require('socket.io')();
io.on('connection', function(client){});
io.listen(3000, {
cookie: false
});
See it in the docs: https://github.com/socketio/engine....
4
votes
Can I create/host my own .com/.net domain name at home?
It's perfectly possible to host a website using your own 'infrastructure'. If you want a .com domain name, you will need to register it, and that's not going to be free. (10 to 15€ a year)
- 161
4
votes
Which is the practical difference between a server and a web server?
The word "server" has become a bit ambiguous but general means a computer which provides information to other computers.
A web server used to be a physical machine that provided web pages to ...
- 5,825
3
votes
How to make files (hosted on free hosting website) ready for 'fast download'?
Time till start download
The startingtime depends (mainly) on:
- Time it takes to run the PHP code (this should take little time)
- The time it takes before the first data is send
The latter one ...
- 6,736
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible