use of CPU

[Prog]

I turned this chat 2 days on a freehosting, after 20 friends joined the chat frozed. Next day I receive an mail about the high usage of CPU.

How can I keep this low?

Is it better to use the first version and strip all things, like icons, lang packs, and other things.

Can that make it more stable? I tried on many hostings but the freezing keep alive.

[OldWolf]

Basically, having such high numbers is always going to use a lot of system resources. Remember, each person in the chat is consitantly hitting the server for updated data.

You could reduce your refresh rate, that would help, but ultimately there's no way you'll be able to host 20 friends on a free server. :/

[jopiek]

so on a dedicated one, what will be the max ammount of users?

[OldWolf]

Uh, it's abosultely impossible for me to define what you could do with any dedicated server.

That's like me asking you "How many pieces of candy can you fit in a candy jar?" You're going to have a hard time answering not knowing if the candy I'm talking about Jolly Ranchers or Giant Jawbreakers, or how big the jar is and what shape it is.

The same applies here. I don't know what sort of users you have, how fast your refresh rate is, what sort of server it is (a make shift server you put together in your basement or a $20,000 state of the art screaming machine), where it's hosted (your Uncle Joe's spare bedroom or a Tier 1 hosting center), or about a trillian other factors.

I can tell you this much: generally speaking, the more valuable your hosting is (be it free, shared, dedicated, co-located, or anything else), the greater chance you will be able to support more people. The amount of people is directly related to your hardware and to hosting allowances, so the better your plan and equipment, the more you'll be able to pack in.

[phpfreechat]

To unload the CPU, try to play with the refresh_delay parameter.
For example:
$params['refresh_delay'] = 10000;
(don't forget to rehash the chat)