Welcome to the new Coast to Coast AM website. The current web site is split between several servers, all running on Linux. I love to tinker under the hood, so please bear with me as I fine tune the system and change things around from time to time, as I want to get the site performing as fast as possible. Of course Internet bandwidth limits will apply.

This page is a description of the web servers and the current web page design. I'll describe the functions available on the site and the hardware configuration. This gets a bit technical, but I know there are some of you out there who like to read about this.

This page may become obsolete quickly as I configure and move things around, but you'll still get the basic ideas. (Last Update 04/01/2000)

Server Configuration

Main HTML Server

A 450 Mhz / 128 MB RAM Linux server running Apache is dedicated to serving just the HTML pages of the web site. This server also, does the clock, counting, on-the-air status, and ad rotation calculation. This server sits in the Rowland Network Communications data center on a T1.

Auxillary Graphics File Server

A 200 Mhz / 128 MB RAM Linux server running Apache is dedicated to serving the graphics files, ad GIFs, and some audio files. This server sits in the Inficad colocation center in Phoenix on a T3 circuit.

Mail / BBS Server

A 450 Mhz / 128 MB RAM Linux server running Apache is used for serving the Studio Cam images, operates the BBS Message Boards, and is the Mail server for our domains. It also hosts the web site search engine and station lookup database. This server sits on the T1.

Other Clients Server

A 450 Mhz / 128 MB RAM Linux server running Apache is serving my other clients web pages, like Enterprise Mission, Strieber.com, CAUS.org and Global Superstorm sites among others. This server sits on the T1.

Audio Streaming Host

Shortly we'll have all our audio clips hosted on yet another server, giving us increased capacity for delivering those favorite Sound Clips. This will be located in another data center with lots of bandwidth, the same location where the program is streamed live and archived.

The web server is running the Apache web server under the Linux operating system.

The 'All Things Considered' program on 'National Public Radio' did an Interview with Linus Torvalds the creator of Linux. (Real Audio Link)

Web Page Design

The latest redesign of the web site, in February 1999, is an attempt to support more navigational aids on the left sidebar. I also eliminated the SSI program needed to operate the rotating ad on the bottom of the page and included it in the top of the page ad rotation program. Now only ONE SSI program is needed to sequence both top and side bar ads. This is an attempt to speed up the web server by reducing the SSI load in half.

In 1999, we had over 35 million visitor hits to the home page. And due to proxy servers on AOL and other large ISPs, which buffer or cache web pages, not all hits are reflected in our counters, so it is conceivable we were accessed well over 50 million times in 1999. The current home page counter shows hits from April 1, 2000.

Server-Side Includes

I enabled 'server-side includes' (SSI) to perform some of the new features on the site.

The fact that I now have SSI available, allows me to perform several functions on the web page with a little C program, to enhance the web page and make it more consistent. Instead of using graphical image counters and perl scripts, I can use C programs to perform various functions, which generates very efficient and small programs, and return text to the web server, rather than graphical images. This cuts down on needless hits on the server, saves bandwidth and speeds delivery of the page to you.

Today's Date

The C program that displays the current date on the web server. This allows you to see if the page being displayed on your screen, is the current page. If the page does not show todays date, you'll want to RELOAD the web page. Either click on RELOAD, or press Control-R or F5 depending on the browser you use.

On The Air

The home page on the site also displays in the upper right corner an 'ON THE AIR' sign. The web server will determine whether the time is right for Art Bell to be LIVE on the air and will display a 'lit up' sign. When he is off the air, the sign is dark.

Rotating Advertisements

In an attempt to better manage advertisements, I have converted to a rotating ad system. Rather than load up the home page and other pages on the site with many advertising banners, causing lots of web servers accesses and slowing down display of each page, I only display one ad at the top and one ad at the left side of each page.

Our advertising rate structure was modified to compensate for the sequential type of display, which appears as a random display of their ads on every page. See our Advertising Page for more info. The web server will sequentially deliver the ads with each request of a page on the site. Since many people are accessing the site at one time, you don't see the true order, but just the next one in line. Many others may have accessed the other pages and got the next ad in sequence, so you will appear to see them in a random fashion, even though they do sequence out there to somebody.

Site Features

For those new to the site, here is a brief overview of the purpose and content of this web site. The web site is basically a compliment to the radio show. This site includes items that are talked about on the radio program. That is the first priority. This web site does not profess to be a complete compendium of UFO or Alien related materials. The site is not even a complete reference on Art Bell.

Images, Info, References

There are many images on various pages on this site, that are somewhat divided up into categories. Most if not all of them, have been talked about on Art's program at one time or another.

Search Engine

The web site uses the 'glimpse' search software package and a custom written perl script interface to perform web page searches here. You simply enter a word or two that you are looking for and the server will return a list of web pages at this site that contain the words.

The pages are listed by title, a sampling of the context of the word you searched for and the hot link to go directly to the page.

Message Boards

This site also incorporates the Web Crossing message board product from Lundeen and Associates. It is used to allow you, the web site visitor to post messages to the web site for others to read. Whole discussions can be carried on over many days and weeks. Several areas of the web site itself are posted using this software. For example the Quickening News and READ ONLY sections are posted on the Message Boards.

Studio Web Cam

A recent new feature to the web site and a popular one, is the 'Studio Cam'. The studio cam system captures a snapshot of Art in the studio, once every 90 seconds and uploads it to the web site. You and your web browser can access this image and see within seconds, what Art is doing while on the air.

Art will sometimes hook his Night-Vision Cam to the computer and we can watch the Nevada desert sky while the program is on.

The current system which only updates every 90 seconds was chosen for a couple reasons. First, it is not really necessary to see real motion video of Art on the air, and secondly, it would take lots more bandwidth and server resources to accomplish. You would need more CPU capability on your own computer to view some of the full motion video delivery methods available. While that is nice, we really don't need that capability here. A simple JPG image, updated periodically is a good efficient system for delivering a visual compliment to the radio program.

For those who want to know, the web cam system is made up of the following:

• ATI Video Card and Camera from C. Crane Company
• Video Sequencer: Standard Security Cameras Style Camera Switcher
• Video Capture and Upload Software from I-Spy
• Art's Computer: Pentium Class, Win95, 28.8K Dial Up
• Art's ISP: Connectivity provided by ISAT
• Web Site: FTP Server to receive images from Art
• Web Page: META Refreshed HTML page that loads the image
• Web Page: Javascript to Pop-up New Window for Studio Image.