I've had it with boards.ie!

mike65

I'm posting this here as it'll proberly get more views and it effects all of us I suspect.

How slow is surfing boards going to get?

Every page starts loading at no more than 2kbs then slows rapidly to no more than 250bs which is nearly dead!

Its getting truly frustrated and I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to put up with it, flat-rate or no flat-rate.

Every other site I visit flys in comparison.

Anyone else finding the going tough?

Mike.

DeVore

Mike, on an Eircom line with broadband Boards is flying in for me at the moment. Less then 3-4 seconds for any page.

That means the server isnt the bottleneck.

Perhaps rather then starting threads like this and posting emotively you could run a tracert and see if its that or go to
www.boards.ie/funneh and see if that loads fast (its just jpgs, so that tests the connectivity.)

Since we havent added tons of extra bytes to the pages, since it was running ok, and its serving us alright then it cant be the server (if it was, it wouldnt matter if we had a 10meg line to it).
Unless you think we are deliberately slowing your requests then it has to be something outside out control and since its good for at least SOME people, then it has to be something to do with your connection to that area of the internet. Stop me if my logic is false...

We fixed a problem recently which was not indexing the database properly and theres been a considerable speed improvement from that. We're still looking at tweaks to improve things. We've just order a 1GB strip of memory and an extra processor btw and we're moving host to improve routing.

But if all that isnt enough effort for you, and you still feel you have to leave then goodbye.

DeV

Kali

I'm on an bog-standard modem IOL Gold connect.. pages are loading grand (and have never noticed any of this slowdown apart from the search function missing for a day)... perhaps theres a routing problem with your ISP?

Lenny

A much improoved, though pages are streaming in speedly, its just about surfable, just when I was getting pissed off with it

Goodshape

Eircom ISDN... boards.ie is the absolute slowest site I visit.

As mike says, it starts off ok (around 3.5kb) but then it drops way down and spends about a minute seemingly dead at <250bps.

I actually thought this was a common problem at the moment and was being looked into... used to be fast enough... back in the day like.

mike65

I checked out http://www.boards.ie/funneh/ and images loading at about 3.5 kbs, I'm on indigo now so its not the ISP but boards pages are as slow as earlier (on UTV).

Mike.

Pugsley

Its fine for me, no page takes more than 5 seconds to load up enough to start reading. And im only on ISDN.

mike65

I am truely bambozled!

For a 5 min period not a sinlge bit passed between boards.ie and my PC, while
http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=18&daysprune=30&sortorder=&sortfield=lastpost&perpage=35&pagenumber=1 loaded in seconds.

Mike.

phaxx

Occasional problems like that, (retry and it goes away :P) but overall I find boards is fine.

Goodshape

Looked at http://www.boards.ie/funneh/, loaded fine (between 3 and 7kbs).

But it took two and a half minutes from when I hit the 'Post Reply' button to when I could actually start typing this. Logging on to board's these days is like watching paint dry...

...pity it's such a damn good site :rolleyes:

Bard

eircom phoneline. oceanfree dialup. 56Kbps modem. allegedly connecting at 50.6Kbps.

seems ok here.

jmcc

Could be the load of Javascript slowing down the browser. The browser is processing the Javascript before rendering the page. This effect is even more apparent on Netscape 4.7 and I've seen it on Mozilla as well. The page will d/l and then will seem to hang as the javascript gets processed. (To tired to even see if it is the dhtml as well.)

Regards...jmcc

lynchie

Im hitting boards.ie from a bank in London. It usually flies along but I have noticed really bad response times this week. I know there were db probs etc.. but if as DeVore has said, this has all been fixed then there must be something else causing a bottleneck - it sure aint the 54MB internet pipe we have in the office! More likely a routing problem - cant include a traceroute due to da bank's security setup

hazbot

Seems to me like it's a Javascript problem (big loop or something somewhere?)

Using Opera:

Javascript enabled: pages take ~30sec to load.

Javascript disabled: pages load immediately.

lynchie

Hmm strange... Im using opera and when I turn off javascript pages do load straight away, but as soon as I turn it own they take ages... Is there a javascript problem on the server?

Enygma

Ya I think it's a Javascript problem, ever since ye got rid of the stars the page is loading really slowly.
It's nothing to do with connections or anything because all the HTML is downloaded it just takes about 30 seconds or so to process the javascript.

My CPU usage goes up to 100% everytime I load a page here. It's actually slowing down other applications on my PC. Could ye try the old menu or even get rid of it for a while just to see?

DeVore

Right. Here's what we're going to do about it:

1. Move the server. As I've said in the announcement we're moving server to a new host and to a new box. We own this box and we'll be upgrading it too.
It should have 2 733Mhz cpus and 1.5 gigs of Server RAM.

2. Recode the Javascript so its cacheable. We've done some tests and we think we can make it easier for the browser to read the javascript. Also it SHOULD then cache it locally so you wont have to reinterpret it every time (or download it!). That should speed things up.

3. Minor other things like caching more of the disk and reindexing the database etc. However from the stats from the OS, its saying that its waiting on the disk to spin faster basically and that its happily servicing requests like a mofo.

From the testing we've done though, we've come to the same conclusion that its the navigation via JS thats the problem and we need to make that script considerably simplier (and try not to lose the functionality in the process)...

DeV.

DeVore

Number 2 from above has been done... People *should* be noticing a big difference now. Can we have some feedback?

Thanks,
DeV.

Quigs Snr

Dev,

It was running slowly for me as well (dedicated T1 line in work). I'm the the same area of the country as mike actually. Seems to be running a lot better now. Good Stuff.

po0k

ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip

40Meg ATM connection on HEA.net to NUIG through about 1-2 proxies and a VLAN+gateway opver 100Mbit FD ethernet to a box running NT4.0 SP6 and Ie5.5 (Opera 6.05 is ziiiiiip fast too)

Class.

Will try out to conn at hom over the weekend if I get a chance.

Gaz

Flying along now ... im on a 512 link and it was taking maybe 7 seconds or so to load pages ... loading fine now though

po0k

I seem to be having some problems with regards caching right now....I'm almost certain I just posted to this thread (righ after Quigsnr had put up one) but it doesn't seem to be working......

proxy/local box seem to be having trouble copping on that it's dynamic data......

{edit} that's a bit fncked up to say the least...... seems to be displaying the up-todate page now.,....{/edit}

po0k

I'm convinced these machines are posessed.
Some seriously strange stuff has been happening lately.

mike65

Much better! Thru put of about 2.5-3.5 kbs which is quick enough.

Now I'll switch java back on and see what happens....still okay, y'see DeVore there was something wrong!

Mike.

po0k

This should go in the Bugs/suggestions, but i landed here:

There seems to be a problem with the drop-down menus.
For example, when I click on the afterhours link under the afterhours header it displays teh afterhours board as it was about an hour ago.
This may be something to do with the caching, but I doubt it, as if I negotiate my way to the afterhours board by alternative means it displays the up-to-date board.

Hope this helps

ondafly

no probs here - smooth on a 56K dialup, and while MSN'ing my friends (who have ISDN) i see the pages before they do. Jave is enabled on mine, talking 5-10secs to load a full thread

in work (T1) no probs either

Goodshape

Javascript off the page loads in seconds.

Javascript on, better than it was, about 30 seconds. Looking forward to those changes.

WhiteWashMan

yep, theres a pleasant improvment in the speed.
i was getting 15 second load delays on a t1 line, but its down to about 3 seconds now.
go gurls....

DeVore

Originally posted by mike65
Much better! Thru put of about 2.5-3.5 kbs which is quick enough.

Now I'll switch java back on and see what happens....still okay, y'see DeVore there was something wrong!

Mike.

Gosh yes, I see the light... this explains all those people who said "seems fine here" and "its still slow for me" and still do...

This is a multi-cause problem with routing from Nevada, javascript versions between browsers, database indexing problems and hardware bottlenecks contributing, not to mention the arbitrary nature of ISPs service, the vaguries of the internet, the time of day, the phases of the moon and your own machine.

Its an interesting approach to getting people to help you by first petulantly exploding and when they work all day to fix it, sticking your thumbs in your ears and saying "I told you so". You dont work in HR do you?

There are still problems, we will still try and fix them, we were doing this anyway. Does this mean you are going to stay? Pretty Please?

DeV.

mike65

Touchê DeV!

Mike

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

DeVore

Sorry Mike, I had a rottenly presurised day yesterday.
Its working better, thats whats important.

DeV.

sutty

Hey Tom, Nice one. its loading in about 4 secons on duel ISDN while I'm downloading something



Nice one Centurion!

mike65

Originally posted by DeVore
Sorry Mike, I had a rottenly presurised day yesterday.
Its working better, thats whats important.

DeV.

Thats okay DeV, I was beginning to think your humour was as fierce as your avatar!

Mike.

DeVore

It can be, I can have a sharp tongue. (*surprise*).

You should thank Regi though, he did loads of work to speed things up.

DeV.

sceptre

Originally posted by DeVore
You should thank Regi though, he did loads of work to speed things up.

Thanks Regi!

See, at least one person here appreciates all the work:p

Up yours, nonbelievers:)

TacT

nice one lads, pages are flying along here nicely now T1 and same on the isdn at home! Good work, although I think the fluctuating of temperatures with the turning of the 3rd moon
and the hair on my chest might have had something to do with it all, sorry

Slydice

Tis workin way better now

Good work Regi

adnans

its still too slow..... SLOW AS A FOX!!1

adnans