Forum pages slow to load

[Boater Sam]

Is it just me or are the forum pages very slow to load recently?
I know that some of the WiFi connections I have been using are pretty poor but everything else seems OK.
Today's connection is via a router that is hanging from the hotel ceiling by its wires!
My other 2 forums are loading fine, but this one is taking forever to find and update a page, sometimes needing several refreshes.

[camallison]

No problems here.

Colin

[Refugee]

There is more than one thing that can do it.
Here we have an automatic photo resize feature.
If a user uploads huge photos it can on some sites make things run slow while the processor changes tasks to sort it out.
The other thing that could do that is a forced reboot on a server else ware often caused by bad weather and only effecting sites routed through it.
There will be more for us to think of.

[_Clint_]

Try giving the valves a chance to warm up

But no problems here either.

[Mr Moose]

Hello,
You are not alone. I get the same thing every so often. It is very slow to load and 'Waiting for vintage radio net' appears at the bottom left of the screen. It usually corrects itself after a while.
Yours, Richard

[Paul Stenning]

The only times I'd expect it to be slow are between midnight and 4am as that's when server backups and updates etc run. There are periods between those times when it is very slow for several minutes.

The rest of the time there shouldn't be any significant issues though. There will always be odd moments when the server is busy with something on another site or a connection somewhere along the way is busy, but those should be fairly rare.

Every time people comment on forum speeds etc here I ask for traceroutes and information on operating system, browser, ISP etc. It's the sort of thing the hosting company will need if there is any chance of figuring out what the issues are. But invariably that information isn't forthcoming. So there's nothing I can do or suggest.

I have never noticed any problems (other than at the overnight times mentioned) with my Zen fibre connection.

[Paul Stenning]

A quick look at the IP address locations and providers of the two people here having problems suggests that one is currently via a 4G connection in the far east and the other is on a 3G connection with Three. I suspect the issues are more likely at your end than our end.

[HamishBoxer]

Fast as ever at my end Thank You.

[Boater Sam]

You got it wrong Clint, not valves. Steam! Turbine takes time to get up to speed!
Always wanted an hydraulic laptop.

Paul, how would I collect the information you need? Sorry if I appear thick but I'm 1st generation internet, still all mirrors and magic to me.

Its me in the far east, if its 4G I'm surprised, I'm in hotel in Dumaguete, Philipines.

The power here is generated by geothermal plant, could that be the problem, grounding?!

[paulsherwin]

Bottlenecks and glitches can occur at any of the dozens (sometimes hundreds) of stages between the screen and the server. There's an awful lot of complex technology involved in the connection. Anyone connecting via wifi should always suspect that initially, as signal problems and contention can cause freezes and massive variations in throughput.

[Paul Stenning]

Originally Posted by Boater Sam

Paul, how would I collect the information you need? Sorry if I appear thick but I'm 1st generation internet, still all mirrors and magic to me.

In Windows, open Command Prompt and type:

tracert vintage-radio.net

It will take a minute or so and will list all the servers etc between you and here, with their response times from your end (a * indicates no response). Often the problem point is fairly obvious. Copy/paste the results and send to me by PM.

Originally Posted by Boater Sam

Its me in the far east, if its 4G I'm surprised, I'm in hotel in Dumaguete, Philipines.

The website of the internet provider there has a lot of stuff about 4G, though they could be a company like EE here that has 4G and fixed line broadband options. I can only get the country and the owner of the IP address.

Remember with the time difference (8 hours ahead), if you are accessing in the morning from there you would be hitting the overnight backup and maintenance slowness on the server here. That may well be your only problem.

[paulsherwin]

The equivalent command for Linux/Unix users is

traceroute www.vintage-radio.net

You may need to install it if you don't have it already.

[Nuvistor]

tracert and traceroute use different protocols, ICMP and UDP. if a firewall along the way blocks one try the other, it is a switch in the command, I forget what the switches are but the man pages should say.
Frank

[Tyso_Bl]

We had a problem here with the forum being unreachable or slow which started last Sunday night (a week ago), however some other sites were affected too, but not all, traceroute showed a failure after around 12 to 16 hops on affected sites. All equipment here checked OK.

I've now lowered the MTU here to a ridiculously low value which restored nearly normal operation. I've no idea what changed out there last Sunday, but it did.

Hope this may help anyone still having problems.

[Paul Stenning]

If other sites (not on my server) were affected too then there's nothing I or the hosting company can do. I'd need to see the traceroute to confirm where the slowness was though.

There have been some issues with BT Internet and their infrastructure recently which may have been part of the problem.

[Boater Sam]

Thank you, Paul and Paul, running Xubuntu.
Have loaded traceroute will use it when I find how to mount it!
If the problem persists then I will send details to Paul S.