andymerrett - 3:20 pm on Mar 13, 2006 (gmt 0)

I syndicate (with permisison) a number of feeds (currently at 40) on a central hub site.

I currently use CaRP Evolution, storing data in a mySQL database, and using its caching functions. I update feeds once an hour, due to ISP restriction on cron jobs.

I'm wondering if there's a more efficient way of doing this. CaRP seems pretty good though sometimes feeds seem to stop updating for a few days, then start again, even though they're valid markup, and I wonder if it's a server issue or trying to collect too many feeds at once.

I currently have about 5 cron jobs running each hour that collect about 8 feeds each. This number is likely to increase over time.

Some pages use CaRP directly to display feeds, others rely on the mySQL database it maintains.

Any thoughts on the most efficient way that is scalable and doesn't place strain on the server or make my ISP mad? :)

I'll try external services (for example, I was looking at whether Bloglines could export a single feed from multiples) if they work well and reliably.