Markus

Hi,
I've got a very large forum running on Windows 2000 and 2003 servers, using the vbulletin software, and it's becoming very slow indeed. I've got users who are unhappy.

I've tried changing things, such as removing a navigation popup, changing the way adverts are displayed, turning off hover effect when you hover over a post, removing (then later reinstating) a "quick reply" dialog. I've also changed the style for the forum to something very basic indeed. But none of this seems to really help.

Can anyone offer me any suggestions on how to speed up the forum?

NotoriousREV

I recommend making some large alterations and wait for people to complain. Once you've found your whingers, delete their accounts and ban their IP. Hope this helps.

GaryCat

I hope you didn't try all those things without informing the users first. Otherwise it would create loads of threads about faults and missing features.

Markus

Users won't mind, they are used to the forum being slow, or acting like a yo-yo on speed.

I guess the solution would be to use linux servers instead of windows servers, but I'd rather avoid spending any money on the problem. Upgrading the forum software and tweaking things might work, so I'll try that.

Any other suggestions?

NotoriousREV

FreeBSD with a highly minimised and tuned kernel is what you need.