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Tag: CDN

Meet CDNsun, A Low Cost CDN Vendor With A Worldwide Content Delivery Network

Introduction

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Lately I’ve been contacted by representatives of CDNsun, offering their services for a fair feedback. I’ve got pretty many visitors from around the world, so perspective of testing CDN service was always quite tempting for me. Looking ahead, experience was rather positive. But now let’s start with the basics.

What is CDN anyway?

Have you wondered why some sites load immediately, while others take a while to load, even though your internet connection is pretty consistent? Even though internet speeds around the globe are sufficiently high, the distance between you and the server from where you are requesting content determines whether the site loads quickly or not. Larger the size of the content (video), the longer it will take to load, if the server is located further from you. This is a phenomenon that almost all internet users face and even though you might be using the best local server available, your site is likely to not load quickly enough in another part of the world. Luckily, there is a solution to this problem and is called Content Delivery Network or CDN.

CDN address the problem of slow loading content by distributing data to different data centers located around the globe. So, when a user requests for specific content, content delivered to him is not from your actual server but a copy from the data center that is closest to him. The difference in loading times may just be over 5-7 seconds but in this time and age of low attention spans (3 seconds), 5-7 seconds is more than sufficient for your user to leave your site and look an alternate provider of information, mostly your competitor.

CDNsun statistics

The success of CDN depends on the number of data centers available. CDNsun prides itself on the large network of 70 data centers (PoPs) that can relay your content to users, where ever they are. Once user requests content from your site, the content is pulled to the CDN servers and delivered at blazing fast speeds. CDNsun supports a wide variety of data formats that it can cache for you. Whether the content is text or audio, pictures or video, CDNsun works for all types of content and a large variety of file formats.

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CDNsun offers quite impressive statistics in the comparison table:

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If you are use streaming to engage with your visitors, CDNsun supports its users not only with various file formats but also high storage capacities. A simple sign up allows you to access to 20GB of CDN storage amongst host of other features. Video content is stored exclusively on solid state drives (SSD) in a variety of compatible formats such as MP4, FLV, and WMV etc. that enables quicker retrieval and streaming so that no time is lost in buffering. Besides, CDN delivery uses any of the protocols whether RTSP, RTMP, HLS or MSS is compatible with most devices.

CDNsun can help users accelerate content over secure HTTP protocol using SSL certificates that users can share or even get custom ones from Let’s Encrypt. Their strength lies in the large number of data centers that are available for their clients to choose and configure. Once can set cache expiries, pre-fetching abilities and much more using the simple dashboard and integrate it into your current set up without much hassle. Major web hosting services now support CDN, so integration should not take much time. Let’s see which options for CDN hosting can offer CDNsun provider.

My experience

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First of all, I enjoyed easy-to-manage interface. Working area (1) provides all needed information about a particular process; while service bar (3) and menu section (2) help you get anywhere you need within one or two clicks. Everywhere you can find “How-To” buttons, or contact support (they respond quite fast, I must say).

Important factor for me, as I wrote above, was amount of suggested PoPs. I decided to run experiment within USA traffic and set up several platforms there just as you can see on a screen below. Guys reading this article from target regions, really looking forward to your feedback, weather website’s speed is really good enough for you, but so far I’m pleased with ping I get.

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Reporting is accurate and clear, highlighting your traffic volume and expenses. Charts are easy to scalable and can be downloaded in appropriate format.

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Though I got a free trial credits, another sweet thing to me is a pay as you go pricing model, let’s have a closer look at it.

Pricing

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CDNsun’s most attractive feature is its pricing plan that is at least half of its competitors. Add to it, the benefit that you current server charges will reduce once opt for a CDN, makes CDNsun a very good choice to me. First, they offer 20GB for free storage to get you started. With no entry, maintenance or exit fee, you can simply use the CDN services and pay as you go.

Final Words

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If you have even an iota of a doubt, you can sign up for a free 15-day trial and check for yourself, if using CDNsun is helping your site and your visitors. If you are happy with the result, you know that you need not look any further. Friendly technical support that’s available 24 X 7 and 100% SLA make CDNsun the perfect choice for business, whether large or small. If you like to keep your visitors engaged with quick loading content, then try CDNsun today and let us know how it works out for you.

How To Speed Up Your WordPress Website?

WordPress is a great platform – yes, it is – that’s why hundreds of thousands of different websites running on WordPress around the world, but experiencing a slow speed on your WordPress website is common especially when you are using shared hosting. Still what, you do not want it to remain the same. I know you want your site running but what, unless and until you take proper measures in consideration.

Without taking the proper precautions and measures you could be end up with nothing but a sluggish site which will not be a hassle for visitors but also keep them away. You certainly lose your visitors, clients, potential customers as well as subscribers. Even, this is not it, as Google may also penalize your site and throw your site such far that you can’t even able to find on it.

Here is a breakdown on what all you require:

A Solid Framework / Theme

Framework

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The time when you have your WordPress installed, you did notice that you have got two themes pre-installed in it: the Twenty Ten/Twenty Eleven. Now, what makes you surprise is that these both default frameworks aka are the default WP themes are quite speedy framework to use. They are the light frameworks which in turn will let you to have a speedy site.

Secondly, do keep a note that themes are something that either can make or break your WordPress installation. You do want to have something stylish theme install but also remember technical wise it remains simple. Always try to choose themes with fewest possible images and a CSS-based design. You might want to choose a minimalist theme and modify it according to suit your needs. To check on various theme clubs collections, check on the following link.

A Good Web Host

Hosting

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You do often notice while on hosting provider websites that almost every other is offering Unlimited bandwidth, Unlimited storage offer and probably the first thought comes in your mind is WOW!!! It is certainly a jackpot but remember since it’s a shared host, your site would be running on same IP just like other 4099 sites are running.

Selecting the right host means more than just buying internet storage space for your site. A lot of hosting providers offer lucrative discounts from time to time, in which most of them are nothing but to fool you around, so it’s always better to have a check on what you are buying. You do take proper care of bandwidth, processor speed/type, databases allowed, domains allowed, which versions of PHP, MySQL are installed i.e. in short is your hosting provider matching up with WordPress minimum requirements or not.

Our Recommendation is HostGator as they are good both in product wise and customer support, details of which you can check at the following link.

Using A Content Delivery Network

CDN

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You might while researching heard the term “Content Delivery Network,” but still a large number of people either does not know or get confused while understanding it. You won’t be surprised over learning the fact that majority of sites these days using the CDN’s as they help in reducing page load times of your site.

Understanding more, a CDN takes all your static files i.e. CSS, Javascript and images and will serve to your visitors by letting them download in faster possible manner by serving these files on servers which are close to them as possible. Selecting a CDN provider often sounds as a huge decision as there are many CDN’s providers out there. In order to help you out, we have detailed out the list of the entire best content delivery network around the world, details of which you can check here.

Plugins

Plugin

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You often notice in your plugin list that you do have a collection of those plugins that you are either not using or are inactive. Such plugin also take part in lowering your WordPress site speed. It is always advisable or even recommended that you remove all those plugins that you don’t actually using as WordPress loads all of your plugins, including those inactive ones.

You need to take a special care of fact that you would be always running the latest stable release of both WordPress and your plugins. The older version plugins will nothing but slow your website down. You need to have all your plugin upgraded while with WordPress 3.0+, there are a revamped plugin update feature, which allow you to update plugins faster, smoother and easier. It also offers you to have your all the plugins updated in one go.

Optimization

Optimization

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There are three things in your WordPress site that you need to optimized from time-to-time: images (which can be done automatically), your homepage and your WordPress database. For the images, you can use this amazing free plugin called WP-Smushit which will do the optimization process automatically for all your images as soon as you upload them.

For optimization of your homepage, you have to make sure that you show excerpts instead of full posts, reduce the number of posts on the page (better if it would be between 5 and 7), remove all unnecessary sharing widgets from the home page as well as remove all inactive plugins and widgets and always make sure your homepage as minimal.

You can optimize your database by directly using phpMyAdmin by selecting all the tables followed by clicking on “Repair” and then “Optimize.” You can also scan for outdated tables which still making its place even after removing old plugins. If you think you are not technically able to do the job, then there are plugins also available which can help you make a fix in friction of seconds. You can simply use either of these plugins: WP-Optimize, WP-DB Manager, Optimize-DB or WP-DB-Optimizer plugin for optimizing your database.

CDN’s That Can Make Your WordPress Website Lightening Fast

CDN

You often come and fall in a condition where you experience slow page load speed for your website, at that time a Content Delivery Network or known basically as CDN would be a savior for you as it can help in reducing page load times. Selecting a CDN provider often sounds like a huge decision as with this step onwards it let you runs your website a real faster.

But, before considering on to taking such a step, some of things do often strikes your mind: the speed and bandwidth. Or, in simple and easy words you would be interested in knowing the CDN provider you are planning to opt for offers server locations in which of geographic area? Is it comes fall under the area where your target audience are? Although, most of CDN covers Americas (USA), Europe (EU) and Asia Pacific (Singapore), but if believe to be you are more concerned on opting for areas like somewhere in Africa, then which CDN provider would be right choice for you?

Other question comes as bandwidth as this variant goes totally as per your purchasing power. Say, if your website bears traffic of 50,000 unique visitors per month, then opting for MaxCDN makes a right choice for you. The decision over this totally varies on how much your website actually consuming. You can also consider by thinking like say your website requires 2GB of Bandwidth every month, which means you think for considering the CDN plan which comes with 1TB. Similarly, if your website consuming 30GB per month, then thinking of opting for 50GB will be a right decision for you.

With this article, I shall address some of the potential best possible Content Delivery Network (CDN) options available for WordPress users. You can choose from free CDN provider to full-fledge paid CDN provider as the final choice is totally on you.

1. MaxCDN

1. MaxCDN

MaxCDN gives you the most powerful control panel and CDN product at a reasonable price. With its powerful API, MaxCDN integrates easily with every site, blog or e-commerce operation. Whether yours is a simple WordPress blog (use W3 Total Cache), a full-featured Magento shopping cart (use our Magento plugin), or a completely custom product built from scratch, our MaxCDN technology integrates in minutes.

Pricing: Starter pack will cost your pocket $39.95 annually and will give you 1TB of bandwidth per year. The business plan cost you $79 per month and will give you 1TB of bandwidth per month.

2. CloudFlare

2. CloudFlare

Just like MaxCDN, CloudFlare protects and accelerates any website online. Once your website is a part of the CloudFlare community, its web traffic is routed through our intelligent global network. It automatically optimize the delivery of your web pages so your visitors get the fastest page load times and best performance.

Pricing: Starts with free offering while CloudFlare Pro cost you $20 per month for first website, and $5 per month for subsequent website. It also offers CloudFlare Business and CloudFlare Enterprise plans, which costs $200 per month and $3000 per month respectively for per website.

3. Rackspace Cloud Files

3. Rackspace Cloud Files

Powered by OpenStack, Rackspace Cloud Files provides an easy to use online storage for files and media over Akamai’s content delivery network. The Rackspace Cloud Files allows to use as much or as little storage as you want, store files and media of any size, highly scalable, redundant online storage plus there are no long-terms contracts.

Pricing: Pay as you grow pricing starting at 10¢/GB/Month while Akamai CDN delivery of your content starting at 12¢/GB

4. CloudLayer

4. CloudLayer

CloudLayer Content Delivery Network (CDN) get your content to users faster and more efficiently as it distributes your content through a network with 24 nodes throughout the cloud, putting your content geographically closer to your end-users. CloudLayer CDN includes robust tools for digital rights management and content monetization.

Pricing: Prices starts at $0.12 per GB.

5. Google PageSpeed

5. PageSpeed

Not known by many, the Google PageSpeed can be used as a content delivery network. Meant primarily for developers, although still in its early days result of which it can’t be used for multipurpose usage. PageSpeed Insights products will help you identify performance best practices that can be applied to your site, and PageSpeed optimization tools can help you automate the process.

Pricing: Free

6. Amazon Web Services

6. Amazon S3

Amazon S3 provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers. The service aims to maximize benefits of scale and to pass those benefits on to developers.

Pricing: Amazon S3 Standard Storage begins with $0.095 per GB up to 1 TB per month.

7. Amazon CloudFront

7. Amazon CloudFront

Amazon CloudFront is a web service for content delivery. It integrates with other Amazon Web Services to give developers and businesses an easy way to distribute content to end users with low latency, high data transfer speeds, and no commitments.

Pricing: Amazon CloudFront starts at $0.12 per month for the first 10 TB for US customers while for other regions, the pricing can be checked here.

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