We’re all busy at Three Rings HQ writing code that’ll make it into the next release of Three Rings: Milestone: Hafnium – but we thought we’d take a few seconds to share with you the news of some of the “back end” upgrades our team have been making over the winter period. These aren’t the same kinds of exciting updates that come in our milestone releases. But they are little things which will have an ongoing benefit in the years to come. We like to think of it as investing in the future of the Three Rings service. Changes include:
- New Processor – We’ve upgraded the processor of the server that powers the Three Rings service. Rather than being powered by two “cores” – which can be approximated as being like two little “brains”, working tirelessly – it’s now powered by six, as well as a handful of other minor upgrades. This should result in a boost to the speed and responsiveness of the system when used at peak (busy) times, by enabling the server to consecutively deal with more simultaneous users without slowing down.
- New DNS Servers – DNS is a crucial part of the backbone of the Internet. It’s our DNS servers that enable your computer to know where on the Internet to look for the Three Rings service, when you type the web address into the address bar or click on a link. Previously we had two DNS servers, both hosted in the UK. To improve our redundancy, we’ve upgraded to four DNS servers spread across three continents. This means that users’ computers should be better-able to connect to Three Rings, even during times when Internet links are damaged or servers become unavailable, as occasionally happens.
- IPv6-ready – You may have heard that every computer on the Internet has an IP address, that looks a bit like this: 12.34.56.78. Well: a problem that’s facing Internet engineers right now is that we’re running out of IP addresses. When the Internet was invented they only bothered to make it capable of having four billion addresses (they didn’t ever suspect that someday we’d all be on it), and we’re running out! There have been a few hacks made to make the Internet work for as long as it has, but the only long-term solution is for everybody to switch to a new system, called IPv6: your Internet Service Provider be planning for this to happen within the next few years. Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, and others all plan to test IPv6 soon, and we decided to join these tech giants in making sure that we’re ready for the Internet of tomorrow. That’s why Three Rings is now accessible via IPv6 (the new one): you don’t have to do anything, but if you’re already using IPv6 (you can find out, here) you’ll see the IPv6 version of the service when you log in to Three Rings (it’s identical, so you won’t even notice!). There are other benefits to IPv6, too, but I’ll refrain from boring you with the details.
Now you know how Three Rings is preparing for the future and laying the groundwork to continue to provide a fast, resilient, and future-proof service for years to come. Of course, if you’ve got any questions about any of these changes, you’re welcome to leave a comment or get in touch!