Thanks for the offer, but we are covered.
It's not just the bandwidth, it's everyone wanting it at once that is the problem.
That is were you need a CDN (Content Delivery Network) like we use.
Regardless of huge powerful your dedicated server is, or how much bandwidth you have, they are not suited to even small scale streaming podcast shows like ours.
A CDN means that many servers around the world share the load and can stream the file, not only on distributed servers, but a server that more local to the listener.
We use Libsyn for this, and it's only $20/month.
http://libsyn.com/
e.g. Even a fast 100Mbit connection is going to allow 1500 or so 64Kbit streaming connections/downloads at once, at best, much less than that in practice.
When we upload a new show we'll get a several thousand trying to download it at once.
And that does not include people downloading older shows a the same time.
Dave.
So what you're saying is it's about how much bandwidth you have.
So what you're saying is it's about how much bandwidth you have.No, it's a combination of things, I was being simplistic.
Processing power, disk throughput and architecture optimized for multi-channel streaming, and bandwidth all play a role.
Distributed server CDN's handle the job of streaming MUCH better than any dedicated box ever can. It's one of the first things you learn when your video blog or audio podcast grows to be even remotely popular.
Dave.
EEVBlog.com on a Gbit or 10Gbit ded?
EEVBlog.com on a Gbit or 10Gbit ded?eevblog.com and the forum runs on a 100Mbps Xenon dedicated server with 500GB RAID-I drive.
Dave.
So what you're saying is it's about how much bandwidth you have.
No, it's a combination of things, I was being simplistic.
Processing power, disk throughput and architecture optimised for multi-channel streaming, and bandwidth all play a role.
Distributed server CDN's handle the job of streaming MUCH better than any dedicated box ever can.
This is true, but it's not accurate to say a single box can't handle it for your load. I think a well connected box on a single gigabit link would probably suffice, if properly set up.. Also amazing what you can do with a couple of cheap proxy appliances in the same rack (on different networks, obviously).
This is true, but it's not accurate to say a single box can't handle it for your load. I think a well connected box on a single gigabit link would probably suffice, if properly set up.. Also amazing what you can do with a couple of cheap proxy appliances in the same rack (on different networks, obviously).
This is true, but it's not accurate to say a single box can't handle it for your load. I think a well connected box on a single gigabit link would probably suffice, if properly set up.. Also amazing what you can do with a couple of cheap proxy appliances in the same rack (on different networks, obviously).
Maybe, but for 20 bucks a month?
What if our audience doubles?, or more?
Dave.
What if the single box goes down?
$20 a month real cost? Sure. $20 a month for the customer? Yeah, right!
And when the audience doubles, you start scaling.
Note I never said a CDN is the wrong way to go about it.
And what if DNS for the CDN goes down? Yes, this happens. Far too often. I've also seen some utterly obscene routing issues with CDNs. Not to mention you're boarding a ship made a big, juicy target by hundreds of other people.
It's a trade-off whichever way you go.
$20 a month real cost? Sure. $20 a month for the customer? Yeah, right!
$20 a month real cost? Sure. $20 a month for the customer? Yeah, right!
Yes, really.
http://libsyn.com/3/plans-and-pricing/
$20/month gets us a proper CDN podcast streaming system, with 400MB/month storage. Enough for a daily show if we wanted it.
Dave.
Today I Learned: You can get blocked by speedtest.net if you run to many tests on your Gbit lines.