Server Speed and PHP Requests

[takuhii]

Is there any way I can speed up the rate at which the FREE server deals with PHP requests. I have a script that queries my Flickr account and drags my photo album information into a page, unfortunately this page seems to be timing out becuase the query data from Flickr isn't being dealt with quickly enough, what I would like to know is:

1.) Is this a connection issue between the FREE server and Flickr?
2.) Can I speed my connection up slightly?
3.) How do I create a timeout in PHP so I can make the script wait a little longer?

Regards
Darren

 

[Corey]

Is it using a different port besides 80?

 

[Bryon]

How are you connecting to Flickr? Using file functions (fopen, fread, etc), something like cURL, or.. something completely different?

 

[dest581]

Here's a way to greatly reduce your imprint on the server:

Have it get the information and put the timestamp for that moment in a file or DB. Save the information from Flickr to a file.
Have the script grab the info from the saved file instead, until the current timestamp is 30 minutes ahead of the one from when it got the data. The next page load after 30 minutes would also grab the new info.
Could also be done with just cron.