ToddW Blog

If you have one popular proxy or a handful of proxy websites you may be wonering how to get the “extra power” out of your dedicated server.  Well, the answer is pretty simple TWEAK your httpd.conf file. (Configure apache to work better with proxy websites).

To edit your httpd.conf file you will need to have pico or vi installed.  Next you should locate your httpd.conf by typing locate httpd.conf (please note that if you are running a control panel httpd.conf may be in a couple locations).

Simple things to change that don’t require much thought are:

• KeepAlive Timeout: I keep mine set at 1 or 2.  This is the number of seconds to timeout a client before freeing up their slot for another user.  Since proxy websites normally have a bunch of users that browse, stop, browse, stop it’s best to free up clients as SOON as possibly. Do not turn keepalive off as your visitors will suffer greatly and the server will slow down as well.
• Connect timeout:  This should be set low as well for the same reasons as KeepAlive Timeout.  300 seconds is 5 minutes!!! This means that a faulty/errored out client will stay “connected” for 5 MINUTES before it is killed off.  This should not be set to low because if a user is lowing a page with a lot of images they could get errors and the page will not load entirely.  I suggest setting this between 10 and 20 seconds.

• MaxClients: I can’t accurately tell you how many clients your server will allow/work with because of so many variables.  Which proxy website software are you running? How much ram does your server have, etc.  On my servers this ranges from 150 to 250.  If you have tweaked other things in httpd.conf and your server is STILL overloading then I suggest lowering your MaxClients or adding more ram to your proxy website server.

I know we barely touched on things in httpd.conf but the other items found in there are even more server dependent.  You can read Free Proxies Blog to pickup more tips regarding Minspare, Maxspare and Startservers Max keepalive requests and a more overall look at httpd.conf.

If your proxy websites are loading slow or your server is on the verge of an overload the above simple modifications might be all you need to do to save your server.