As long as there's been a Web, people have been trying to make it faster. The maturation of the Web has meant more users, more data, more bells and whistles, and consequently longer waits on the Web. Improved performance has become one of the most important factors in determining the usability of both the Web in general and of individual sites in particular.

Web Performance Tuning is about getting the best performance from the Web. This book isn't just about tuning the Web server software; it's also about getting optimal performance from a browser, tuning the hardware (on both the server and browser ends), and maximizing the capacity of the network itself.

Web Performance Tuning hits the ground running, giving concrete advice for quick results — the "blunt instruments" for improving crippled performance right away. The book then takes a breath and pulls back to give a conceptual background of the principles of computing performance. The latter half of the book approaches each element of a Web transaction — from client to network to server — to examine the weak links in the chain and how to strengthen them.

Includes tips on:

* Minimizing browser cache lookups
* Increasing buffer size on browser operating system
* Buying enough RAM so the browser rarely needs to swap
* Using SCSI disks instead of IDE
* Avoiding the use of symbolic links for Web content
* Avoiding DNS lookups whenever possible
* Using mod_perl for Perl-based CGI scripts

This book is for anyone who has waited too long for a Web page to display, or watched servers slow to a crawl. It's about making the Web more usable for everyone.