BLOG: Big Change For NorthEscambia.com

July 26, 2010

NorthEscambia.com celebrated a major milestone of sorts over the weekend that we hope will benefit you.

Friday evening, we moved to a much faster dedicated web server. That’s it pictured at the top of the page. We had been hosted on what’s called a “shared server” — a server that contained multiple web sites. But, thanks to readers like you, we had experienced growing pains on that server.

During peak hours, it just was not possible for the server to deliver thousands of requests per minute.  Over the past month, our underpowered little server delivered over 8 million pages to tens of thousands of people.  That, quite frankly, is a huge number of views for a local website and was almost technically impossible for us to pull off with our old server setup. In fact, a small number of our readers would, on rare occasions, receive an error message or notice that a page took a little longer than usual to load.

Friday evening, we moved to our very own, brand-new dedicated server. We are the only company on what is, in simple terms, a mega-server. It’s loaded with all the bells and whistles. We did not change web hosts; our company has been with same web host for 13 years. The web server is connected to eight different major Internet backbone providers with multiple GigE (up to 10,000Mbps) connections.

What does this mean for our readers? First, the end of error messages and slow load times. Second, it means will be able to offer more services and present the news to you in an improved fashion. The new and exciting changes won’t happen right away; there’s lots of behind the scenes work involved.

It also means we will now be able to accept more advertisers. We had to hold back a little bit before due to the technical limitations of the old server. (If you own or manage a business, we’d love to have you as an advertiser. Send us an email, and we’ll talk.)

You are reading NorthEscambia.com from the bottom server in the picture at the top of the page. It is located in a secure facility in the Northeastern United States along with servers for Reader’s Digest, Barack Obama, Yamaha and more high profile companies.

This, by the way, marks the return of our blog column. We’ll work on publishing the column on a more regular basis. The blog will present a variety of topics, from opinion based editorials, to news stories that perhaps we would otherwise never cover, to inside information behind the scenes of our stories.  The column will be available  on our front page and under the “Blog” tab on the top of each page.

We are looking for a name for the column. If you have any suggestions, please pass them along. And don’t forget to send us your news tips and photos to news@northescambia.com.

And, as always, we thank each one of you for reading NorthEscambia.com and being part of the NorthEscambia.com family. We appreciate you.

– William, NorthEscambia.com

*** Here’s an insider secret: We have also started a Facebook page. You can be among the first to join now at www.facebook.com/northescambia

Pictured top: The NorthEscambia.com web server is seen on the bottom. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.

Comments

22 Responses to “BLOG: Big Change For NorthEscambia.com”

  1. Concerned Century Citizen on July 27th, 2010 8:34 pm

    Thanks William for keeping our military loved ones informed on their home town. You have readers all over the world, my loved one has been in some hot spots being in the military but reading northescambia.com makes him feel closer to home.

  2. art on July 27th, 2010 10:02 am

    slow server at pnj is what motivated me to start reading north escambia. then i realized north escambia had more details and was more up to date. the articles were more relevant and the comments were better monitiored. i hung on to pnj for a while but finally gave up as i got more and more errors and it seemed “broken” most of the time. never got an error message on north escambia,com either. have no reason what so ever to ever read pnj again.

  3. Bill M on July 26th, 2010 10:32 pm

    Keep up the great work! You are the best source for local news. The PNJ could learn a thing or two from you guys…….(like how to spell and give accurate info)

  4. Terri Sanders on July 26th, 2010 10:14 pm

    Hey,I will do an advice column…like my call in talk show on the radio years back!

  5. Safebear on July 26th, 2010 10:04 pm

    I have certainly noticed a difference. So good everything is going so well

  6. Cottage Hill Farm Wife on July 26th, 2010 8:01 pm

    We love this site and congratulations……

  7. Lady in FL on July 26th, 2010 1:45 pm

    William you are so right about the advice-givers! LOL :)
    My daughter is serving as a missions intern in Haiti at an orphanage. She keeps up with what is going on at home via northescambia.com. I read it several times a day! Keep up the good work!

  8. David Huie Green on July 26th, 2010 1:43 pm

    REGARDING:
    “During peak hours, it just was not possible for the server to deliver thousands of requests per minute.”

    No brag, just fact?

    David quoting Walter Brennan/Will Sonnett

  9. AL on July 26th, 2010 1:05 pm

    This is awesome news, William!! NE.com is the first place I come for news

  10. interested reader on July 26th, 2010 12:50 pm

    Congrats, William! Thanks for all the hard work and the new site. It is a “must see” at our house. Much appreciated by all interested in the north end .

  11. William on July 26th, 2010 12:30 pm

    >William, the one thing we need is an advice colum.
    How bout it?

    I think some of our comment posters offer more than enough advice from time to time. :-)

  12. Dear Tabby on July 26th, 2010 12:29 pm

    William, the one thing we need is an advice colum.
    How bout it?

  13. Patty on July 26th, 2010 12:22 pm

    Thanks for your news site William. I’m a past resident of Escambia County(AL) and I now live in North Texas and love to read the news every week day morning. Thanks for keeping the present and past residents up to date on all the news.

  14. Angie on July 26th, 2010 12:01 pm

    Congrats, William!

  15. Paul on July 26th, 2010 10:24 am

    Sure wish you could expand into north Santa Rosa county or inspire someone else to do so. Love the site, keep up the good work.

  16. lindfnd on July 26th, 2010 9:29 am

    william. my sister lives in louisana and gets on ne.com to get news from this area thanks for keeping us imformed.

  17. Jim Roberts on July 26th, 2010 9:15 am

    If you live north of the I-10, Northescambia.com is your voice and ears of the community. It’s required reading if you must know what’s going on in North Escambia County.

    Great site and amazing coverage.

  18. C.J. Lewis on July 26th, 2010 8:48 am

    Well done. NorthEscambia.com should be required reading for all South County “bigshots” to include county commissioners, chamber types, etc., etc. One of the biggest thing holding us back as a “county” is the bone-headed perceptiion down south that if it doesn’t happen at or below 9 Mile Road it doesn’t matter. It does.

  19. Mark O'Brien on July 26th, 2010 8:25 am

    congratulations. your site is a must-read.
    Mark O’Brien

  20. LULU on July 26th, 2010 8:22 am

    Friend request sent

  21. SW on July 26th, 2010 7:07 am

    Great news. Congratulations on your growth. Great site, keep up the good work. I appreciate your efforts.

  22. Diddleysquat on July 26th, 2010 5:28 am

    Thanks, William. I wondered why I kept getting the ERROR message.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under Blog, FEATURE TOP STORY, Features, News