Dear Flickr:

I have been wondering for sometime why downloads from your site seemed a little sluggish at times.

At first I blamed your unprecedented growth and success. For a little Vancouver startup (I am a BC boy myself), your entrance onto the stage of social networking applications has been phenomenal. The move from zero to infinity may have played a part in the performance I was seeing.

Nope. There was something else going on; I could see it every time I loaded a Flickr page in my browser. There was something else going on.

So today, I checked something out, and found the problem.

You need to enable persistent TCP connection on the static.flickr.com servers.

Now, that is the simple answer. I know that with large, web-based applications, enabling something as monumental as persistent connections could cause serious issues. If the architecture of the system was not designed to handle persistent connections, turning them on could cause the entire system to collapse.

There are legitimate, if mis-guided, reasons for disabled persistent connections. Some administrators believe that it is actually more efficient to have a client open a connection for every object. Easier to manage state, etc. The only problem is that in order to do that, you have to tune the systems serving data to shorten the amount of time a closed connection spends in a TIME_WAIT state.

When a TCP connection is closed, the socket is not immediately closed by the system in a default configuration. The TIME_WAIT state is the holding pen that these connections are pushed into. While in this state, the socket is locked and this may count against the incoming TCP connection queue, forcing the network stack to delay or reset new incoming connections.

Still, as Flickr is a worldwide company, the delay that the lack of persistent connections injects is astounding for locations in Asia. If you want to grow your business, and support more services, this will likely become a bottleneck very quickly.

Have a great weekend!

smp

Technorati Tags: Flickr, persistent connections, TCP, http, web performance, scalability

Tags: ads, app, application, Asia, browser, business, client, data, design, HTTP, IE, IM, Issues, it, media, networking, Om, performance, persistent, persistent connections, pr, server, startup, TCP, Technorati, web, Web Performance, web-based application

If you try to access GrabPERF via http://www.grabperf.com/ or http://www.grabperf.net/, you will have noticed that you can’t reach the Web server.

The domains are being transferred to a new registrar, and the authoritative servers have not yet been set up. Just use http://www.grabperf.org/ for the next few days.

Sorry.

Technorati Tags: GrabPERF

Tags: GrabPERF, GrabPERF.org, HTTP, Issues, it, Om, Registrar, server, Technorati, web, Web server

Earlier today, I wrote about my issues with a conflict between Check Point and Netscreen VPN software. Well, I figured out how to make them work together.

I had the answer in my hands the whole time. Check Point software binds to the network interfaces on your machine. Once you remove this binding, Check Point refuses to work at all, allowing you to use the Netscreen software. Re-enabling this binding then allows you to use the Check Point software again.

To do this, select your primary network interface, and uncheck the Check Point SecuRemote binding, as indicated below.

If you are one of the two people in the world who needs this, I hope this helps.

Technorati Tags: Check Point, Netscreen, interoperability, VPN

Tags: HTTP, IE, IM, Issues, it, Mac, Om, One, pr, Technorati

On Slashdot today, they note that C|Net has an article on the recent issues that the World of Warcraft site has been experiencing.

WoW Web Site Success Rate — Last 21 Days

Old news for readers here.

Technorati Tags: GrabPERF, World of Warcraft, WoW, Web performance

Tags: ARIN, EAD, GrabPERF, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, Issues, it, Om, performance, pr, RSS, server, Technorati, web, Web Performance

Usually I classify this sort of mail as complete nonsense, and delet it. But this one was such a classic, I had to post it.

The letter is from the new CEO of the joint Borland/Segue. He is announcing that he thinks that Segue and Borland customers will be able to find cool ways to use the products of this new company…at least, after I translate it, it seems like that is what he is TRYING to say.

…

This is a great move for both of our organizations as we come together to tackle what we all know to be a key development challenge and the biggest opportunity for our industry — software quality. Borland and Segue have long shared a common belief that the challenge of software quality reaches far beyond testing and QA. Together we will approach this issue holistically, providing value at each stage of the software delivery lifecycle.

Our focus now is on the development of a comprehensive Lifecycle Quality Management solution — bringing together our unparalleled process improvement expertise with proper skills training and a true end-to-end quality technology offering. Our goal is alignment of people, process and technology, proactively driving higher standards of software quality while systematically reducing costs associated with rework and maintenance.

While continuing to enhance Segue’s quality and application performance technologies, we will also focus on delivering even tighter linkage with Borland’s broad portfolio of Application Lifecycle Management technologies. As part of a complete solution, these technologies will address quality across the entire lifecycle, eliminating quality issues at the root cause.

…

Chaucer and Shakespeare just rose from the dead, and they are looking for the marketing people who wrote this.

Technorati Tags: Fight the bull, nonsense, marketing

Tags: app, application, cool, cro, customers, delivery, EAD, HTTP, IE, IM, improvement, Issues, it, LAN, live, maintenance, marketing, Om, One, performance, pr, Technorati, testing

Looks like Jeremy Wright and Darren Rowse have their own beefs with Google Blahnalytics (Term Courtesy of Jeremy Wright).

Gee Google, these two guys are opinion-shapers. I think maybe you should come out and say that there are issues.

Or say something.

Anything?

Or are your Overlords at the NSA still pawing over the data and won’t let you release it?

Technorati: Google Analytics, Google, analytics, NSA

IcreRocket: Google Analytics, Google, analytics, NSA

Tags: analytics, blog, Darren Rowse, data, Google, HTTP, Issues, it, Om, opinion, pr, Technorati, tinyurl

Just noticed this.

CLICK IMAGE

Anyone have troubles getting PubSub sites today?

Technorati: PubSub

IceRocket: PubSub

Tags: blog, HTTP, IM, Issues, it, media, Om, One, outage, Technorati

Wow. It’s not often you read something like this.

Oh yeah, it’s the blogosphere.

Take away quote:

The question then is: if you ran out of space and were having problems, why did you continue to take on new customers during this period? Surely a responsible business with serious capacity issues would have closed their doors to new business to assure that its current clients were taken care of.

Its called greed.

Tags: blog, business, client, current, customers, EAD, HTTP, IE, Issues, it, Om, outage, pr

The gang at the Never Work Alone blog have a fantastic post describing some of the solutions to the Introverted IT / Extroverted Sales-Marketing integration issue.[here]

The best points:

• When hiring, place a premium on being able to explain technical issues to users and determine whether they’ve mastered the material. Expect this to cost more.
• Offer raises for taking training in oral technical communication
• Offer “days off” learning the essential business function of the department. You don’t understand what they do, they often don’t really GET what you do either, nor why its important - gieve them a chance to understand each other
• Train non-IT staff to repeat back in their own words what the IT person explained to them and confirm that they got it right (a good idea for any complex communication)

My eternal salvation comes from falling into the first category listed above. I can tear apart a packet trace and spot issues at the TCP layer, and then turn around and explain this issue to the VP of Marketing in terms that she can understand, and are relevant to her.

That is not dumbing it down, as many IT people feel. This strategy (or survival mechanism) allows a technical person to appeal to a wider audience. Being recognized across your organization, not just in your team, leads to greater rewards in the long run.

Tags: ads, app, audience, blog, business, cro, EAD, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, Issues, it, marketing, Om, One, pr, run, strategy, TCP, users

The update on my Gutter Helmet posts (1 and 2) is that there is no update.

We received a phone call from a local Gutter Helmet rep about 2 weeks ago. He spoke to Samantha who, outlined some of our concerns and issues. I then called and left him a message last week, re-iterating these same concerns, and noting that there was still a leak between the new roof and the new gutters which needed to be fixed by flashing.

Nothing. No response. Silence.

I know it’s Gutter Helmet’s busy season. I know this because the number of hits to my previous posts are increasing.

Maybe some customers are experiencing better installations; I hope so. All I can do is continue to recount my experience to you.

Technorati: Gutter Helmet, gutters, contractors, customer service

IceRocket: Gutter Helmet, gutters, contractors, customer service

Tags: blog, customer service, customers, Gutter Helmet, gutters, hits, HTTP, IE, IM, installation, Issues, it, Om, One, PHP, posts, pr, Technorati, update