Server Upgraded

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The Weboggle servers were upgraded about a week ago. Performance testing showed there was a improvement, and lag has been significantly reduced. A big thank you to all our players for helping out with the testing (if you played in the past week, you helped test it!)

Nonetheless, there are still a few bugs that need fixing, e.g. sometimes the scores for the last game are not displayed. But with the performance issues mostly resolved, more time can now be devoted to making improvements and adding additional features.

Minor updates and server more stable

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There is now a 'Rotate' button. It was implemented as a result of numerous requests, and something that I felt was necessary for effective gameplay - after all, when playing real Boggle, you get to rotate the board and see words from a different angle.

The server also seems to have stabilised over the past week. I was able to locate some spare memory to install, which has helped significantly. I'd still like to increase the memory size more (to 1 GB or more) but other priorities mean it will happen later rather than sooner. I've also done a few tweaks to the database, and the DB server also seems to be coping better. Still, keeping the past two months' worth of historical game data results in about two million database records! The real test will be when 30 players are on...

Higher patronage overwhelms server

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Over the last two weeks (and since the database was transferred to a dedicated server) the site could cope with some 20 players.

Although a long history of games are kept, we are finding it necessary to remove all but the last two months' of historical game data to maintain database perfomance. You will notice the hall of fame will reflect this. So if you were a high scorer a few months ago but haven't played recently, expect your rank to drop.

It has also come to the point where up to 30 players have been on simultaneously, overwhelming our web server. Our web server can use up all available memory when 25 or more players are on, to the point of crashing the whole system.

To this end, we may upgrade the server memory to one gigabyte to support up to 40 players. Keep those donations coming in!

Upgrades - faster performance

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The database has finally been migrated to a dedicated server. It will dramatically speed things up, so it is now playable with 20 concurrent users.

Over the next week or two, we will be assessing the performance of the new configuration. If all goes well, the 5x5 version will have a prominent link.

Server overloaded

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You may be wondering why the site has become more sluggish over time - our server is overloaded due to the unprecedented popularity of this site, and it's at the stage where it can barely cope if ten or more players are on at once.

It's also one of the reasons why the 5x5 version does not have a prominent link - when the 5x5 version is also played, it puts twice the strain on the server.

In the coming days the database will be transferred to a dedicated server, which should vastly improve the performance of the web server.