Web Performance Tuning

Publisher: O'Reilly
Author: Patrick Killelea
ISBN: 1565923790
Publication Date: October 98
Retail Price: $32.95

Buy this book now!

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Even if your Web site is just your personal inquiry into the realm of UFOs, you probably want your site's visitors to enjoy the experience. This book, Web Performance Tuning, is a look into the many tools and methods you can use to fine tune the performance of your site.

While the book does delve deeply into Web server tuning, it doesn't stop there. It also shows the reader how to fine tune the Web browser and network to better serve the Web surfer. Among the many aspects covered are:

• capacity planning
• Web performance measurement
• principles and patterns
• client and server software
• network, client and server hardware
• network protocols
• server OS
• content
• CGI programs
• Java
• databases

Web Performance Tuning doesn't make the reader wait until the middle of the book before it starts providing real world solutions. Page nine starts the section entitled "Improving Performance from the Server Side." Little things like turning off reverse DNS lookups on your Web server, increasing the TCP retransmit timeout, and buying additional RAM for your Web server are all covered in a "drive-by" manner.

The book shows the reader how to estimate how much bandwidth their pages will require, how much memory the server may need, and other factors that the administrator/developer will find helpful. You may even be reminded of factors that you once knew, but in time have forgotten or ignored.

If you are a Web developer, the section on "Content" is a must read. It covers size, (in a section humorously entitled "Size Matters"), HTML, graphics, audio and video. Each section also provides what author Patrick Killelea calls "key recommendations" for developers.

It seems that the longer we remain in the Web development business the more we are required to read and know. If you value your visitors, it's your job to make their visit as enjoyable, or at least as memorable as possible. By tuning the performance of your Web pages, Web server, and, if possible, the client's Web browser, you ensure that you've done everything possible to make their visit a good one. As with most O'Reilly books, Web Performance Tuning is a book that all conscientious developers should read.

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