Rubifruit may have to close.

[crowhen]

Edit (or, before you use the word "bandwidth")
I've said this before, but the bandwidth is not a problem. It's the RAM usage and resources that cost money. Every time we display a banner hosted via Rubifruit, our server has to make a calculation. That calculation takes up processing power, usually in the form of RAM

Comments

[grimepoch]

Wow, $60 is quite a bit. Have you tried like DreamHost? I've been using them for about 5 years now and it's very inexpensive for how much bandwidth you get. My site was down for one day in five years. I know others experience has been different, but at least this would be an option of not having to let it go.

[crowhen]

I am in fact with Dreamhost.

I've said this before, but the bandwidth is not a problem. It's the RAM usage and resources that cost money. Every time we display a banner hosted via Rubifruit, our server has to make a calculation. That calculation takes up processing power, usually in the form of RAM.

Bandwidth is how much information you can transfer from the host across the Internet, like images, files, etc. But we're talking about core processes that happen before the images ever even hit your screen, before they leave the server. And RAM isn't cheap. Most personal sites won't have to use much of it, but a calculation-heavy site like Rubifruit apparently gorges on it.

I currently work for a company that hosts many calculation-intensive processes, and they face many of the same difficulties I am encountering now.

[grimepoch]

What kind of calculations are you doing? In fact, every file, image, text, etc goes through the processor on its way from the hard drive to the network connection. This is why many websites, like eBay and the like, put a lot of the information into memory (cache) so the images stay persistent and don't require access to the hard drive which DOES block CPU performance and degrade the operation of a machine (IO blocking

[crowhen]

We're PHP-based, not CGI-based. The code keeps track of every impression and click on every banner. Beyond that, it's beyond me. I'm not a programmer. I use Easy Banner Pro, though, I can tell you that.

I've spoken several time with the host and the person who made the script, and we've modified it a few times to improve performance. But then there are 20 people reading through the Penny and Aggie archives and another 40 over at Yume, indeed it does add up fast!

[grimepoch]

My understanding of PHP is that it depends if the interpreter is compiled into the web server (I am assuming Apache) or not. CGI just indicates when the webserver calls a program to generate output, and you can in fact call PHP, Perl, native code, anything you want! (provided the webserver allows it to run). So you may or may not be running all inside of apache. I am also not aware which one has better performance or even if there is an option to run either with DreamHost, but I am sure there is a lot of discussion about this on the web

[crowhen]

Yes, we're using Apache, I'm pretty sure that's what Dreamhost uses.

Well, we kind of have to keep the statistics of the impressions. That's how we know how many impressions to hand out. See, users only get impressions if the banners on their sites generate clicks. 1 click gives them 200 impressions. This encourages people to put banners where they will be seen as well as make their banners look interesting. So we have to keep track of every impression AND every click.

[joamette]

That would be horrible. o_o

I actually just bought some impressions. I hope it helps.

[crowhen]

Thanks, Joey :)

[taiki]

argh. Today our Joomla based CMS at work is doing something wonky where MySQL takes forever to respond when going through Joomla's mysql API but just fine from raw php mysql transactions.

This makes page requests go very slow.

yet I keep getting emails, "Is the bandwidth fine to the webserver? Are you guys dropping packets?"

Even worse, i work for an ISP's techsupport department, the group that should be vaguely aware of how to troubleshoot speed issues.

Can I cry now?

[kimonos_house]

I intended to buy some impressions, but I haven't transferred any Project Wonderful earnings to my Paypal account yet. My Paypal is completely empty.

I'm wondering you might end up having to change the Rubifruit model altogether. You might just have to settle for a purely random banner exchange for the moment, something that just serves up banners instead of tracking clicks and impressions. I know it's not exciting, and it does nothing to reward those who place banners where they get clicks. But it would keep the exchange alive until you're able to work out issues with RAM usage and money.

[crowhen]

I don't think it has a purely random setting. The closest I could get would be a 2:1 exchange and that would mean that sites like panney and aggie would be perpetually advertised throughout the network while kicking back very little traffic due to the nature of their readers' browsing habits.

[kimonos_house]

Maybe switch to another code for the time being?