B2B Fetish Store DOWNLOAD FILE SIZE LIMIT PROBLEM FIXED
Posted: 13 Jul 2013, 10:55After days of tracking down the causes of the download problem, and with a lot of help from the staff at Dreamhost, we finally seem to have overcome this limitation. I have just successfully downloaded a 2GB file via the bibfetishstore.com and Just Skirts 28 (1.65 GB) via b2bfetishstore.com. Over the next day or so I will get the store back to operational mode, kicking off with Star's new set of movies.
I have spent the last few hours experimenting with the download limits of the new store, and I'm afraid there is a problem. I checked on what might be causing some downloads to cut off prematurely, and here is the answer:
"Downloads are piped through a php script, and the php script's memory consumption increases exponentially as the script is left open. Once the download is held open for a while, the script hits the shared server's memory limit and is killed off. The memory limit is in place to keep our shared servers happy and stable for you and other customers, so it's not something I can circumvent for you."
This limit seems to be around 850 MB at present. I may find ways to increase it, and I gather there may be another way to control downloads using mod_xsendfile which is far better for handling large files. However, I will quickly get out of my depth here and may do more harm than good by tinkering so I have to go very carefully when I implement changes. For now I have removed all files larger than 850 MB from the store. This limit will preclude almost all sets, holding contests and complilations such as Just Skirt, Just Jeans, etc. I could sell them in 2 parts which probably would not be a major hassle for most people, especially if they favour one part over another, but it does mean cutting up the file and re-uploading them. More time on maintenance and less on production. Very frustrating.
Sorry about this glitch but I suppose there had to be something. I'll keep you posted on my progress in looking for a solution.
Dave.
I have spent the last few hours experimenting with the download limits of the new store, and I'm afraid there is a problem. I checked on what might be causing some downloads to cut off prematurely, and here is the answer:
"Downloads are piped through a php script, and the php script's memory consumption increases exponentially as the script is left open. Once the download is held open for a while, the script hits the shared server's memory limit and is killed off. The memory limit is in place to keep our shared servers happy and stable for you and other customers, so it's not something I can circumvent for you."
This limit seems to be around 850 MB at present. I may find ways to increase it, and I gather there may be another way to control downloads using mod_xsendfile which is far better for handling large files. However, I will quickly get out of my depth here and may do more harm than good by tinkering so I have to go very carefully when I implement changes. For now I have removed all files larger than 850 MB from the store. This limit will preclude almost all sets, holding contests and complilations such as Just Skirt, Just Jeans, etc. I could sell them in 2 parts which probably would not be a major hassle for most people, especially if they favour one part over another, but it does mean cutting up the file and re-uploading them. More time on maintenance and less on production. Very frustrating.
Sorry about this glitch but I suppose there had to be something. I'll keep you posted on my progress in looking for a solution.
Dave.
