Slow windows httpd server

[Charles Blair]

> I made two mistakes in my last posting regarding this problem.  To 
> clarify:
> 
> 1)  In fact our pages are not graphics intensive.
> 2)  If you want to test it and tell me how fast or slow the home 
> page loads the address is:
> 
> http://www.library.american.edu
> and to compare us to the campus page try
> http://www.american.edu

Yours loaded significantly faster. :-)

One thing not mentioned so far, which I think is the most important
factor, other things being equal--the point being that when you make
the other things equal, you may still have this one to contend
with--is network bandwidth: one thing to check is the topology of the
network around each server. Simply comparing the server boxes is not
enough: once one equalizes the boxes, a slower leg of the network (up
to and including the network adapter) may still have an impact on
perceived performance. Some servers cope very well with heavy traffic,
including graphics-intensive traffic--the load on them is negligible,
but even an Ethernet can experience almost continuous packet
collisions with such traffic. This will degrade perceived
performance. 

(Note: Ethernets max out at about 3-4 Mbps of their nominal 10 Mbps
capacity. So a server that's internally capable of 10 Mbps is still
capable of outperforming the Ethernet to which it is attached; the
speeds are only nominally well-matched. Someone feel free to correct
me if I'm wrong.)