Is it just me, or has the site slowed down again?

[smhardesty]

Hey, guys. I'm a newbie to the hobby and a REAL newbie to this site. I am, however, not a newbie to computing in general. I spent over thirty years in the industry. I'm not being critical of any statement made by any individual here and I'm also not specifically defending the forum at this point. I'd just like to point out that there are so many reason that a "website" can seem slow. The list is actually way too long to get into here, but it includes everything from your web browser to your service provider to the backbone transporting your data to all the various DNS servers, etc, etc. I'm not implying that this specific forum isn't, or hasn't, experienced any difficulty, but I am saying that the real, true culprit might not end up being under the control of this site. I'm experiencing trouble right now with a few sites I visit regularly. I haven't pinned the problem down yet, but I know my bandwidth testing to the sites I'm having problems with indicate only 8 to 12 Mbps speeds with ping times way up in the 75 to 95 ms range, while all the other sites I visit reflect bandwidth speeds of 75 - 100 Mbps with ping times down in the 20 - 35 ms range. I've tried, but I can't find anything common with the sites I'm having trouble with. The problem may very well clear itself up before I find what the trouble is, or I could someday find that some setting on my PC or router is causing the trouble.

Just thought I'd throw my comments out here. One thing I will say is that if you don't do it, you should really consider cleaning everything out of your browser on a pretty regular basis. Browsers can get REALLY clogged after surfing for a while. Kind of like "blowing the cobs" out of your car's engine every little while.

[russosborne]

While that is true, you may find that most here who have posted about this issue state that this site is the only one running slow that they visit. Hard to believe that a user's computer could cause only one site to slow down. When I posted the OP in this thread, I was using two computers, one at home and one at work. The only thing in common to them was that this site was much slower than others I was also visiting.

The site has been doing better, as seen by very few posting about a problem lately.

Russ

[smhardesty]

Hey, Russ. Like I said, I'm in no way defending this site or ruling out any possible problems with the site. I was merely pointing out that slow web surfing can be caused by a large number of things. I totally agree that it's not likely that a browser would be the culprit if only one site is slow. There is a real slim possibility that the one site uses a script, or combination of scripts, that causes a glitch with a browser.

The other thing I should have mentioned before is that it's helpful if everybody is very specific about the problem as opposed to a general complaint of "being slow". A computer tech worth his salt would ask users for specifics such as exactly which part of the page is loading slowly, or do letters not appear as you're typing, or some other specific type question. It might just be a couple lines in a script causing the bug or it could be something on the server. I haven't been a member long enough to have experienced any trouble at all with the site. I guess time will tell if or when I do.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I just typed a lengthy, several paragraph answer to a real-vehicle technical question posed by a member, and when I hit "post" I got the moronic 404-error message that said the page I'm trying to access doesn't exist.

Then, when I backspaced to the previous page, the forum's once helpful feature of saving a response was apparently inoperative.

Several paragraphs gone, time out of my life gone, useless.

Between that and frequently being called a know-it-all for trying to be helpful (even though I DO know rather a lot) I think I'll just quit answering.

Nothing but "awsume build dude" from me in the future.

 

[Rob Hall]

It's hard to say...some threads seem to take a while to open and others open immediately and scrolling seems fast.  But  I know I'm on a fast computer with a fast internet connection (the download rate here in Ohio is 10 times faster than I have in Phoenix), but I see a lot of variability on the site.

[smhardesty]

Ace,

 

That can be more than just a little frustrating. I know because like everybody I have had it happen to me. Regardless of exactly what the problem is I might have a suggestion for you. It’s something I got in the habit of doing because of the exact scenario you described. I don’t type any posts directly on the website. I open my word editor and type my post in it. Once I have completed it, double checked it, and made certain I’m happy with it, I highlight the whole thing the copy and paste it into the box on the forum. There are a LOT of things that can happen to a guy while he is in the process of typing a long message for a forum or any other online place. Losing everything is just not an option to me. While it does take a couple extra steps, it has saved my butt more than a couple times. It really doesn’t take that much longer if you think about it. Just pop open your word processor, or even a text editor, type your message, select it all, copy, and paste.

 

This is something you might want to consider, at least until the problem can be determined and a solution implemented. It’s not perfect, but it’s one idea.

[smhardesty]

One more thought about this problem. I mentioned before that techs need as much info as they can get to properly diagnose a problem. Here are things that will really help find a solution to any website related problem. If you will include as many of the items listed each time you post a complaint about something that happens it should really help.

1) The EXACT error message you received, if any.

2) A thorough description of exactly what you were attempting to do when the problem occurred and exactly what you noticed happening. Try not to simply state the site is too slow, or the site isn't working.

3) Which web browser you use and the exact version.

4) What operating system you run and the exact version of it.

5) Any hardware specifics you can provide, such as make and model of the computer, what video card, how much RAM, etc.

6) How many other applications you had opened and/or how many tabs you had opened in your browser.

7) Any other info you believe to be pertinent.

Keep in mind you don't have to provide all this info, but it helps. If you can do a little research on your PC and browser in advance and have that info readily available it won't take any time at all to include it in your post.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Ace,

That can be more than just a little frustrating. I know because like everybody I have had it happen to me. Regardless of exactly what the problem is I might have a suggestion for you. It’s something I got in the habit of doing because of the exact scenario you described. I don’t type any posts directly on the website. I open my word editor and type my post in it. Once I have completed it, double checked it, and made certain I’m happy with it, I highlight the whole thing the copy and paste it into the box on the forum...

This is something you might want to consider, at least until the problem can be determined and a solution implemented. It’s not perfect, but it’s one idea.

Yes, I've been in the habit of doing that...usually...after having rather a lot of sites "time out" and dump a well-considered response over the years. Never had it happen on this one before though, and I've been here since about 2012 or so.

It's good advice for anyone posting anything to the web where actual thought is involved. 

[MrObsessive]

That can be more than just a little frustrating. I know because like everybody I have had it happen to me. Regardless of exactly what the problem is I might have a suggestion for you. It’s something I got in the habit of doing because of the exact scenario you described. I don’t type any posts directly on the website. I open my word editor and type my post in it. Once I have completed it, double checked it, and made certain I’m happy with it, I highlight the whole thing the copy and paste it into the box on the forum. There are a LOT of things that can happen to a guy while he is in the process of typing a long message for a forum or any other online place. Losing everything is just not an option to me. While it does take a couple extra steps, it has saved my butt more than a couple times. It really doesn’t take that much longer if you think about it. Just pop open your word processor, or even a text editor, type your message, select it all, copy, and paste.

 

I've done this on YouTube where I needed to make a very pointed and lengthy response to someone who wants to post something with no backing or is trying to be a troll. YT gets interesting at times where I try to post a comment (usually a long one), and somehow the post won't show up are I'll get a "comment can't post" message. Soooo, to get around that I did just as you've described, signed out, logged back in again, copy and paste and BOOM! Post the message anyway.

Saves a LOT of hassle, and there's no way I'd remember all that I wanted to say, especially if it's several lengthy paragraphs that's needed. 

[junkyardjeff]

My computer is slow on all sites so time to buy another or have the connection checked,I am using ATT Uverse which goes through the phone line which are very old around here and had a bunch of problems when i first started using them.

[smhardesty]

My computer is slow on all sites so time to buy another or have the connection checked,I am using ATT Uverse which goes through the phone line which are very old around here and had a bunch of problems when i first started using them.

Jeff,

I spent the last 5 years or so of my computing career doing pretty much nothing but reloading customers’ PCs that ran Windows. The Windows operating system suffers from more than one faults, but one of the worst is the buildup of trash in the Registry. When that is coupled with maybe one or two viruses and a few applications that are way too resource hungry, the computer seems to be slow. The fact is that the physical hardware is still fully capable of performing at the level it did when you first bought it. Computer hardware doesn’t degrade, or wear out, like an automobile. It either works, or it’s broken.

The problem is that most larger computer repair shops will steer you in the direction of buying a whole new system. I’m willing to wager a fair amount that if your PC were reloaded the correct way you would be amazed at just how fast it is. There are very few computer techs that know the true way to do a reload and most of the guys that do know how will want to charge so much $$$ that buying a new system is actually cheaper for you.

One alternative is to find someone who knows and understand LINUX and have a user friendly distribution installed on your hardware. LINUX isn’t the same, for geeks only, unfriendly operating system it once was. If you’re willing to devote just a LITTLE time to finding your way around a slightly different looking desktop you’ll be a convert for life. Just food for thought.

[TarheelRick]

Not trying to be a PITA, but it appears to me what is being mentioned about slow response has noting to do with our personal computer.  What I am experiencing is a totally random slowdown throughout this site.  I may open the site and go through three or four posts and they pop right open, then the next one will take upwards of a full minute to open.  Or it may take the site a minute to open and every post will be slow opening.  Yet, I have on occasion not had any problems at all.  The whole system is really frustrating, not to mention I have not received a magazine in almost six months.

[smhardesty]

TarheelRick,

I have one other idea. I just now spent 45 minutes reading threads on the forum. I also posted a reply on one thread and posted one new thread. Then I went back and did a little more reading. I had one page hesitate before loading. I'm not experiencing any really slow page loads.

As for my idea, what sized pipe do you have from your Internet service provider? What speed do they promote as their, "up to" download speeds for the service you have? That might make a big difference in what I see happen and what you see. I've got a 100Mbps pipe. I rarely have speeds under 50Mbps and usually fall in the 70 - 90Mbps range. I just checked and I'm hitting about 85Mbps right now. Occasionally I'll notice things don't seem quite as snappy as they should be so I'll go to my cable box/wireless router and unplug the power. I leave it for a minute or so and plug it back in. That forces a hard reboot. That's something I used to suggest to ALL of my customers. Modems, cable boxes, and routers can get clogged up just like a PC so an occasional reboot is a good idea.

So, first off, what is you speed? Here is a link to one of the places I consider to be fairly accurate. It will take a couple seconds for the page to load. When you see the green "Begin Test" button load it's ready. You'll get 3 results, "Ping", "Download Speed", and "Upload Speed". I'd be interested in what your ping time is and what your download speed is.

http://www.speedtest.net/

Here is another site I use to test. It uses a completely different way of testing. Once again ping time and download speed are most important right now. This site should give you slower ping times and slightly slower download speeds.

http://www.bandwidthplace.com/

If you don't mind, post your results. I'm really curious to see your what you have. By the way, I just retested my speeds. On Speedtest I hit 97Mbps and on Bandwidthplace I hit 68Mbps.

 

[TarheelRick]

Here are the results of the tests:

Speedtest:  Ping - 6 ms, Download - 6.13 Mbps, Upload - 1.09

Bandwidthplace:  Ping - 32 ms, Download - 9.41 Mbps, Upload - 1.15 Mbps

I did not state in my last post, this is the only site I am having this problem on.  I belong to five other modeling sites and they all work just fine.

[Rob Hall]

With Speedtest:  Ping: 23ms, Download: 276.35 Mbps, Upload 33.5 Mbps

With Bandwidthplace:  Ping 37ms, Download 259.54 Mbps, Upload 37.13 Mbps. 

Time of day makes a big difference,  if I try in evening downloads seem to be down in the 90-100 Mbps range.

It seems the slowness I see on this site is mostly if I click on a link I haven't previously clicked on (unread thread), which makes sense as there wouldn't be any cached pages in my browser (Safari). 

[smhardesty]

Well, good news and bad news. TarheelRick, I could see where you Internet connection could be causing part of the problem. Now, keep in mind that I am in no way stating that the fault is all on your end. If this site happens to use certain scripts to call routines that are known to be a bit on the "heavy" side the combination of those two factors could be the problem. I still have never seen any real slowdown, but I have noticed that occasionally when I pop open a new tab or 2, I get a slight hesitation before the page begins to load. It's normally only about 3 or 4 seconds so I don't consider it a problem. From what your saying it's much more than a hesitation. I'd definitely try cleaning your browser out and doing the hard reboot on your router and Internet device.

Which brings us to a "however". Rob, the ping times and download speeds you're getting are great! I wish I had that available. But as to the problem with the site, I can't consider your internet service to be a real cause of trouble. Have you tried dumping all the history and cleaning the cache in Safari? I've included a couple links to steps to speed up Safari below. You might want to consider those. The other thing would be to do a hard reboot on your wireless router and whatever Internet device you have, cable box, modem, etc.

The other thing that could be causing the hitch would be some type of problem with your ISP or DNS provider. The problem can actually be part website, part ISP or DNS provider problem and might not ever be resolved. I have an ongoing problem using Thunderbird as my mail client for my fastmail.com email addresses. Whenever I "Send" a new email it takes at least 10 seconds to send. It took me forever to finally track the glitch down and once I found it I had to make a decision to either live with the problem or use Fastmail's webmail interface. Nothing I can do about the problem. It's actually a glitch between my ISP provider and Fastmail's servers and neither of them are about to make major changes just to satisfy the few customers that have the problem I have.

https://www.lifewire.com/speed-up-safari-with-these-tune-up-tips-2260842

http://www.wikihow.com/Speed-up-Safari

 

[smhardesty]

From what you guys continue to say I would lean really hard towards there being a definite glitch between the forum website and either your ISP or DNS provider. There is just too much evidence that's the problem to ignore it. You don't stand much of a chance of getting any ISP or DNS provider to make major changes in their setups over one or two websites loading slowly for a small number of their customers. The real kicker to this is that the guys may not be able to determine what it is on the forum site causing the glitch. Not everyone is experiencing the problem to the same degree. I see a very slight hesitation, but I would never have complained about it since it is such a small hiccup for me. That doesn't mean some of you aren't seeing really slow page loads. It just means we seem to be suffering varying degrees of trouble. As an old, retired tech, I can tell you that this type problem/complaint is the hardest to diagnose.

I'll keep running things through my head to see if I can think of other possible causes. I think the best thing you guys having the bigger problems should do is continue to report what you're experiencing. Try and be as complete and thorough as you can to help out whoever is working on the problem. He (they) is gonna need it.

[Ace-Garageguy]

My slow page loads or occasional upload dump seem to occur with no rhyme nor reason, with no common denominators as to time of day, topics new or old, etc. My connection speeds are pretty damm fast, and the browser I favor for most web surfing rarely has any slow-loading problems anywhere else but here.

The problem is really only a minor inconvenience though. When we get used to pretty much instant page loads and scrolling, reliable uploads and photo insertions, just about any small degradation in performance seems huge.

And then I remember the days of dial-up. Boy, do we have it good now. 

[Dave Ambrose]

Quick update:

We need to update the forum software. I'm preparing to do that, and I'll have to take the site offline for a few hours. I'll announce the maintenance window ahead of time. It will probably be a weekend night. I'm on the west coast, so east coast people will see very little downtime unless they're night owls.

I trust you can all keep yourselves amused for a few hours by building something, like maybe a model car.

[smhardesty]

My slow page loads or occasional upload dump seem to occur with no rhyme nor reason, with no common denominators as to time of day, topics new or old, etc. My connection speeds are pretty damm fast, and the browser I favor for most web surfing rarely has any slow-loading problems anywhere else but here.

The problem is really only a minor inconvenience though. When we get used to pretty much instant page loads and scrolling, reliable uploads and photo insertions, just about any small degradation in performance seems huge.

And then I remember the days of dial-up. Boy, do we have it good now. 

There is a whole bunch of truth right there, Bill. Not sure exactly where you live, but until about 3 months ago I lived way out in the sticks in a very rural and sparsely populated area of Southern Illinois. Fast Internet didn't exist for me. I now have 100Mbps speeds and I'm loving it. That could very well be why I'm not seeing any slow page loads. Maybe the slight hesitation I'm seeing is the problem and I just don't realize it. Everything I do online now is about, oh say, 50 or more times faster than what I'm used to.

Sounds like the problem is going to be addressed very soon, from what Dave posted. Hopefully that will cure whatever glitch there is.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Just tried to post a reply to the "1/24" thread and got the idiot " 404 can't find the page you're looking for " message. This is getting old.

[smhardesty]

Bill, I feel your pain. I have had frustrating experiences like you described. I'm sorry to say I still haven't had the first problem on the site. I kind of wish I had so that I could possible diagnose the problem. I'm still leaning towards it being a really rare glitch between the forum's server and certain ISP or DNS servers. That's the only thing that I can think of that would cause some guys to have problems and others not to. Hopefully they get the software updated soon and that resolves the problem.

[Xingu]

Dave is going to do a software upgrade that will, hopefully, let the board run smoother. He just has to see where he can fit that into his schedule. The board will be offline for several hours when he does it. I am sure he will give an announcement before it happens.

[smhardesty]

HEY! I was reading a couple other posts, but my mind was still on this weird problem. I remembered having a similar problem with a couple of my computer customers in the past. It took me a while to remember exactly what the problem was, but I recalled enough to find the fix I used.

For anyone using Firefox that keeps getting timeout issues, you can try this fix. It worked for my customers so might work here. Depending on which version of Firefox you have installed and what operating system you are running, getting to where you need to be to make the adjustment Varies. We need to be on the "Connection Settings" page of either "Advanced" settings, or "Options" settings. The bottom image below is where we need to be. On my laptop, I reach the first image below by selecting "Edit", then "Preferences". Then simply click on "Advanced". Some of you will need to click on "Tools" in the Menu Bar, then "Options", and then "Advanced" to get to the same point.

You will more than likely find that "Use system proxy settings" is selected in the "Connection Settings". You need to change that to "Auto-detect proxy settings for this network", then click on "OK". I hope that makes a difference for you guys. Maybe it'll be the solution we hope for. Just keep in mind the change you made. If you notice you begin having other problems you an simply reverse what you did.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2017 by smhardesty
Corrected bad grammar

[Ace-Garageguy]

Again tried to post the same answer to the 1/24 history thread and got this...

404 Error

SORRY. WE CAN'T SEEM TO FIND THE PAGE YOU'RE LOOKING FOR.