Today, January 5, 2010, we finally finished our move from the server we have been using for over two years to a new datacenter and a new dedicated server.

Recently, because of the popularity of our community, we began having server lag issues. Currently, we have anywhere from 100 - 400+ guests, members, and search engines online at any given time. This requires lots of processing resources and bandwidth. Because of the high demands for resources, we decided to upgrade to a new dedicated server to host our web presence.

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The new server is an Intel Xeon machine with dual quad-core processors rated at 2.66GHz per core, and 8GB of RAM. Our port speed has been increased from 10Mbits to 100Mbits per second and we will now be writing to two 500GB hard disks for continued, backup redundancy. To put this into perspective, our setup for the last two years was one-fourth as powerful and contained only 2GB of RAM with a single 80 GB hard drive. This is a huge leap!

People on broadband, cable modem, T-1, or DSL (who comprise 80+ % of our members, according to Google analytics,) should see a marked increase all across the forum, especially during times when the forum is busy. This is also due to the increase in server memory from 2GB to 8GB. Photos and pages will load almost as fast as if they were located on your home computer!

Also, over the last few days, we have been optimizing the new server with enhanced security features to keep our community safe. Our new server has a firewall that has already blocked several Denial of Service attacks within its first few days! And, the new mail system sends notifications on new posts every few minutes if you subscribe to instant e-mail notifications!

In addition to the new server, mail system & firewall, within a month or two, we will be upgrading our community forum software to the most current release available. We purchased it a few weeks ago and have already begun work porting all of the features we love from this community into the new software on our test site. We will even be introducing a new 'look' to our forum. While keeping the same colors and theme, we will be using lots more CSS to replace buttons and other images that your browser currently has to download. With the new software, after a first download of site style, further accesses will simply be rendered - no repeated downloads necessary, so increased speed!

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Our page layout will be softened to reflect the more laid-back and friendly attitude of our members as well. It is a long and tedious job because our forum software has been completely rewritten and we are having to learn how to program using the new coding.

One of the coolest things about the new software is that it uses many of the new web 2.0 features we all love on sites like Google, Facebook, CNN, etc... We are learning so much while programing and converting! The new forum software investment was high ($250.00), but we will have access to any security updates for the next year without additional renewal costs.

If you notice a marked improvement and would like to help us reduce our out-of-pocket costs to lease the server, please, please consider becoming an OrchidTalk Subscriber or making a donation to help us keep our community up to date and online.

To become a Friend of RVO subscription holder, the OrchidTalk Pals Subscription is only $5.00 per month. If enough members subscribe, it will make a huge difference in our ability to stay with this high-speed server, and your contribution would be hugely appreciated--not only by us, but by everyone in our OrchidTalk neighborhood.

So, thank you all again for being here, and very special thanks to those members who are already Friends of RVO subscribers--those members with colored usernames throughout the forum. Enjoy our new speedy community and be sure to PM me if you have any questions or experience any problems with the forum!

Cheers,
BD