Please explain webserver terminology

[Toontje]

Hi all!

When i load something from a webserver (webpage, image, script, etc) i need to go through a couple of steps:

1. DNS lookup
2. Server Connect
3. SSL Handshake (in case of https)
4. Send Content
5. Server Busy
6. Receive Content

Can someone explain to me exactly what these steps mean? I have a pretty good idea what steps 1, 3 and 4 do. But what about 2, 5 and 6?

The reason i ask is because i have a customer that is complaining about slow response from his website and what i see in my stats is that 2 and 5 are consistently long (1,5 sec for 2 and 1,5-2,5 sec for 5).

I need to understand if this is a website or a hosting issue.

Thanks,

Ton.

 

[Stephen]

connect is normally an issue with connection or routing issue that can slow, and 5 is a blend of any of them possible. it could be code, load spike, network congestion, routing, or any number of things

 

[Toontje]

Hi Stephen!

If you take a look at these graphs: http://www.zhduku.com/meigas.html, would you say that these paterns are normal webserver behavior? I lose 90% of my page time in connects and server busy's.

Thanks,

Ton.

 

[Stephen]

I'll need to look at analysis of other php vb/phpbb forums to compare really, it is possible.