Within the last couple of years, the amount of guests to the site has greately increased. It has increased to a number that PC's servers have issues with supporting.
While some systems are in place to increase server relibilty, the real issue still remains - More connections then the server can handle.
What we need to to cap off these connections - We need to have a set cutoff for when the server can start rejecting connections.
Right now the server limits connections while under heavy use, and provides members with access to the site during such times. A good system to have in place, but it doesn't address the real issue.
What we need is a definite cap on the amount of guest connections. After a set number of guest connections, say... 400?, the site would automatically redirect additional guest connections to a page where the guest would be given 3 diffrient choices - Logging into their PC account, registering a PC account to bypass the connection limit, or just waiting until the number of active guest connections goes down.
This solution isn't perfect I suppose - It would cut down on guest connections but would cause a drastic increase in the number of registered users which would, eventually, lead to the same problems - Way more connections then the server can support.
This would also lead to a drastic increase in the amount of junk accounts - that is, old accounts with absolutely no activity. This could be partially solved though by deleting accounts - Every... hmm... say 3 months, any accounts older then a month and with no posts would be deleted.
Alternatively, I'd suguest that any new accounts require staff approval before it could be used, give staff a chance to run the registration info through a publically avaliable archive of usernames, emails, and ip's known to be used for spam or advertising. Although we have a lot of registrations per day, it's not so high that it would overburden current staff.
While some systems are in place to increase server relibilty, the real issue still remains - More connections then the server can handle.
What we need to to cap off these connections - We need to have a set cutoff for when the server can start rejecting connections.
Right now the server limits connections while under heavy use, and provides members with access to the site during such times. A good system to have in place, but it doesn't address the real issue.
What we need is a definite cap on the amount of guest connections. After a set number of guest connections, say... 400?, the site would automatically redirect additional guest connections to a page where the guest would be given 3 diffrient choices - Logging into their PC account, registering a PC account to bypass the connection limit, or just waiting until the number of active guest connections goes down.
This solution isn't perfect I suppose - It would cut down on guest connections but would cause a drastic increase in the number of registered users which would, eventually, lead to the same problems - Way more connections then the server can support.
This would also lead to a drastic increase in the amount of junk accounts - that is, old accounts with absolutely no activity. This could be partially solved though by deleting accounts - Every... hmm... say 3 months, any accounts older then a month and with no posts would be deleted.
Alternatively, I'd suguest that any new accounts require staff approval before it could be used, give staff a chance to run the registration info through a publically avaliable archive of usernames, emails, and ip's known to be used for spam or advertising. Although we have a lot of registrations per day, it's not so high that it would overburden current staff.