WinCustomize Library: Status Report

The epic of running a skin site is always about the race between three resources: 1) Bandwidth 2) CPU resouces for handling scripts 3) CPU resources for handling the database Occasionally you'll see the notice of an upgrade to one of these three things. At the beginning of last year, WinCustomize was hosted on around 15 megabits (equivalent of ten T1 lines). Today, it requires 35 megabits of bandwidth. But we're okay on bandwidth, we've done the upgrading there. Thanks to subscribers and Stardock customers. But then we ran out of CPU resources for scripts. That was last Fall. We got a new mega server and things improved allowing even more people onto the site. And that brings us to now. so now the machines that handle the SQL database stuff are stuffed. We're working on a solution to this. But as many have noticed, the site has become incredibly slow due to the literally millions of people trying to access the site. While we could close the libraries for everyone (which is what most sites end up doing in this situation) we have decided that we can keep the libraries open for Stardock customers (make sure you cross-reference your accounts), WinCustomize subscribers, and user swith above citizen access (i.e. skin authors and other contributors). These peopel are, after all, the ones who pay for the hardware upgrades needed to keep the site going on a day to day basis. We expect this situation to be temporary (i.e. a couple of days). If you click on one of the sections on the left and get the library closed message, you can eitehr cross reference your account if you're already a customer or subscriber or you can become a subscriber. Alternatively, you can also gain access by buying Object Desktop and then cross referencing your account then. We apologize for the inconvenience.