Optimsing SSL page load time

Client/ADSL

[aspdaddy]

Hi,

I have a site using SSL for all the pages. The app server has 2Gig RAM for encryption/decrytion and both app and db servers are < 60% utilised and connected by a gigabit switch. The leased line between the app server and the internet has plenty of spare capacity.

But the end user experience is still slow.

Can anyone suggest any practical ways of speeding things up over the ADSL network?

Or any instructions for the users to help speed things up at the client?

Someone mentioned increase receive buffers, does any one know how to do this?

A session can take up to 10 seconds to initialise. Most pages load in under 2 seconds, but every now and then within a session a page takes around 20 seconds to load. Anyone know how to pinpint the actual bottlenecks here?

Thanks

[j4mes]

Are you sure this isn't a problem at the user end? Your server-side looks up to the job!

[aspdaddy]

Thats what I mean, I think it is a client/adsl issue as most users in the uk use adsl. But even so there must be ways to improve it.

[j4mes]

By user end, I meant users' processors (rather than connection speeds) as both ends need to encrypt and decrypt data.

What spec computers are you testing clients as?

[aspdaddy]

User processors is one of thie things I have no control over whatsoever. I'v been testing on Win2k & WinXP machines, various specs down to a AMD2300 with 256Mb RAM.

I was sort of looking for an ssl optimisation guide, with server and client machine settings and tweaks but doesnt appear to be such a thing!