Principia Cybernetica Web much faster!

Francis Heylighen (fheyligh@VNET3.VUB.AC.BE)
Wed, 1 Mar 1995 12:04:30 +0100

We have just upgraded our server software for the PCP Web to a "threaded"
version, which allows different connections to be processed independently.
The net result is that slow connections (e.g. via modems) no longer slow
down fast connections (e.g. via ethernet). Before, a single connection
(file request) to the server would be processed very quickly (say 2 seconds
for a typical node on a fast network), but when 10 connections were active
simultaneously the time needed would not be 10 times as much (like you
would normally expect), but sometimes 100 times (several minutes). This
made using the server very frustrating during busy periods, resulting in
lots of "timeouts" (connections interrupted before data had been
transmitted).

We hope that this time things will run much more smoothly. At least they
seem to do from our side. But we would like other people to try it out too.
So, please consult PCP Web (http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/) intensively in the
next few hours, so that we can see how the server handles the load. (this
is still beta software, so problems may appear) Let me know whether you
experience an increase in average speed compared to previous sessions. (the
increase may only be noticeable if you have a fast line yourself. If you
are working on a slow line, this will constitute the bottleneck).

_______________________________________________________________________
Dr. Francis Heylighen Systems Researcher
PO, Free University of Brussels, Pleinlaan 2, B -1050 Brussels, Belgium
Phone: +32-2-629 25 25; Fax: +32-2-629 24 89 (**new numbers!)
Email:fheyligh@vnet3.vub.ac.be; URL: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html