Would this speed up my website

We have an asp.net website where the web server is outside our network while
the database is inside. In order to talk to the database the web site has to
go through various security layers and this means it is slow as there is a
lot of talking to the database.

Is there some way I could set up a second web server *inside* our network,
so that this second web server does all the database interaction, and just
talks to the outer web server, receiving HTTP requests and sending back the
web pages and other files to the "outer" web server which is the public
facing server that browsers connect to?

To speed things up further, could I put all the non-aspx files on the outer
web server and just leave those that interact with the database to
communicate through the security layer?

Something like this:

<--inner web server--> || SECURITY ZONE Z|| <-- outer web server--><--
browsers

Is this possible? How could it work in practise?

RE: Would this speed up my website

yes its possible and is a common solution. its called a reverse proxy. you
can build aone yourself, usually a httpmodule, or buy a commerical product
(usually hardware).

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)


"Jane Hopkins" wrote:

> We have an asp.net website where the web server is outside our network while
> the database is inside. In order to talk to the database the web site has to
> go through various security layers and this means it is slow as there is a
> lot of talking to the database.
>
> Is there some way I could set up a second web server *inside* our network,
> so that this second web server does all the database interaction, and just
> talks to the outer web server, receiving HTTP requests and sending back the
> web pages and other files to the "outer" web server which is the public
> facing server that browsers connect to?
>
> To speed things up further, could I put all the non-aspx files on the outer
> web server and just leave those that interact with the database to
> communicate through the security layer?
>
> Something like this:
>
> <--inner web server--> || SECURITY ZONE Z|| <-- outer web server--><--
> browsers
>
> Is this possible? How could it work in practise?
>
>

Re: Would this speed up my website

Hi:
Microsoft has a product called ISA Server which is a somewhat decent
product. Scroll to the reverse proxy section of this article.
http://www.isaserver.org/tutorials/Microsoft_ISA_Server_Part _I__introduction_installation_configuration_Web_caching_and_ Internet_access.html

If you expect a heavy load, a hardware appliance would be the way to go.

I've also seen people setup Apache on Linux as a low cost & less complex
alternative, which can scale really well. The linux world has a lot of
documentation on how to do this.

Cheers,
-Naraen

"bruce barker" wrote in message
news:4787974C-C22D-4714-910B-C0837A7CFA9E@microsoft.com...
> yes its possible and is a common solution. its called a reverse proxy. you
> can build aone yourself, usually a httpmodule, or buy a commerical product
> (usually hardware).
>
> -- bruce (sqlwork.com)
>
>
> "Jane Hopkins" wrote:
>
>> We have an asp.net website where the web server is outside our network
>> while
>> the database is inside. In order to talk to the database the web site has
>> to
>> go through various security layers and this means it is slow as there is
>> a
>> lot of talking to the database.
>>
>> Is there some way I could set up a second web server *inside* our
>> network,
>> so that this second web server does all the database interaction, and
>> just
>> talks to the outer web server, receiving HTTP requests and sending back
>> the
>> web pages and other files to the "outer" web server which is the public
>> facing server that browsers connect to?
>>
>> To speed things up further, could I put all the non-aspx files on the
>> outer
>> web server and just leave those that interact with the database to
>> communicate through the security layer?
>>
>> Something like this:
>>
>> <--inner web server--> || SECURITY ZONE Z|| <-- outer web
>> server--><--
>> browsers
>>
>> Is this possible? How could it work in practise?
>>
>>

Re: Would this speed up my website

Something else that you can do that's fairly simple is to analyze the number
of round-trip operations you need to make to the db. You can then get an
idea of what items you can group together. For example, if you load a series
of default values for a form, such as states and countries, see if you can't
use only one call to return the data, thus reducing the round-trip by half.
Also see where you could cache data, such as the states data in the previous
example.

I only mention this because a lot of developers don't optimize enough and
limiting round-trips and caching often used but fairly static data get
pretty good speed improvements for the time spent working on them.


--
Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP - Expression

"Jane Hopkins" wrote in message
news:OOkPK0KVIHA.3400@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> We have an asp.net website where the web server is outside our network
> while the database is inside. In order to talk to the database the web
> site has to go through various security layers and this means it is slow
> as there is a lot of talking to the database.
>
> Is there some way I could set up a second web server *inside* our network,
> so that this second web server does all the database interaction, and just
> talks to the outer web server, receiving HTTP requests and sending back
> the web pages and other files to the "outer" web server which is the
> public facing server that browsers connect to?
>
> To speed things up further, could I put all the non-aspx files on the
> outer web server and just leave those that interact with the database to
> communicate through the security layer?
>
> Something like this:
>
> <--inner web server--> || SECURITY ZONE Z|| <-- outer web
> server--><-- browsers
>
> Is this possible? How could it work in practise?
>

Re: Would this speed up my website

Thanks to everyone - this is exactly what I was looking for!

"Naraendirakumar R.R." wrote in message
news:%23xVTSlNVIHA.4440@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Hi:
> Microsoft has a product called ISA Server which is a somewhat decent
> product. Scroll to the reverse proxy section of this article.
> http://www.isaserver.org/tutorials/Microsoft_ISA_Server_Part _I__introduction_installation_configuration_Web_caching_and_ Internet_access.html
>
> If you expect a heavy load, a hardware appliance would be the way to go.
>
> I've also seen people setup Apache on Linux as a low cost & less complex
> alternative, which can scale really well. The linux world has a lot of
> documentation on how to do this.
>
> Cheers,
> -Naraen
>
> "bruce barker" wrote in message
> news:4787974C-C22D-4714-910B-C0837A7CFA9E@microsoft.com...
>> yes its possible and is a common solution. its called a reverse proxy.
>> you
>> can build aone yourself, usually a httpmodule, or buy a commerical
>> product
>> (usually hardware).
>>
>> -- bruce (sqlwork.com)
>>
>>
>> "Jane Hopkins" wrote:
>>
>>> We have an asp.net website where the web server is outside our network
>>> while
>>> the database is inside. In order to talk to the database the web site
>>> has to
>>> go through various security layers and this means it is slow as there is
>>> a
>>> lot of talking to the database.
>>>
>>> Is there some way I could set up a second web server *inside* our
>>> network,
>>> so that this second web server does all the database interaction, and
>>> just
>>> talks to the outer web server, receiving HTTP requests and sending back
>>> the
>>> web pages and other files to the "outer" web server which is the public
>>> facing server that browsers connect to?
>>>
>>> To speed things up further, could I put all the non-aspx files on the
>>> outer
>>> web server and just leave those that interact with the database to
>>> communicate through the security layer?
>>>
>>> Something like this:
>>>
>>> <--inner web server--> || SECURITY ZONE Z|| <-- outer web
>>> server--><--
>>> browsers
>>>
>>> Is this possible? How could it work in practise?
>>>
>>>
>
>