This site is so slow....... - Page 4

**tubut** · #46 (**permalink**) 05-12-2008, 04:47 PM

Would you be comfortable to install and run the free WireShark protocol analyzer and capture a trace?

180OUT · #47 (**permalink**) 05-13-2008, 01:25 PM

I connect to the internet via cable with a relatively slow AMD 2000+ processor and Zone Alarm, SpySweeper, Avast antivirus, and sundry obscure programs I haven't bothered to remove. I just timed accessing this thread and from first click to read was around 10 seconds. Lately, I haven't noticed any marked slowness although eariler there definitely was. My cable IPS isn't particularly fast at +/- 10mps. High speed connections outside the US tend to be faster so I continue to wonder about the sit's slowness when accessed outside the US. Perhaps all the connections are being intercepted by Carnivore.

**lgbalfa** · #48 (**permalink**) 05-14-2008, 07:58 PM

works fine for me.

Pat Braden · #49 (**permalink**) 05-14-2008, 08:21 PM

The only slowness I experienced today was in e-mail notification receipts. I'd go look at the threads and there were posts that I should have received e-mail notifications about new posts. Then around 5:00 p.m. I suddenly had two pages of e-mail notifications for posts I'd already read earlier in the day. So some gremlin must have taken control of the notification system for a while.

andytitterton · #50 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tubut

Would you be comfortable to install and run the free WireShark protocol analyzer and capture a trace?

**wctouring#7** · #51 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 07:20 AM

This site is fast for me... I visit it with one of 3 different pc's on a regular basis using either Internet Explorer or Firefox and it is always quick.

**aldo** · #52 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 07:39 AM

I have a regular comcast high speed connection and it takes three to four seconds for each page to load. This is slower than most sites but considering the reward, its worth it. Its just a couple of heart beats.

180OUT · #53 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 08:41 AM

Quote:

As a guide, I'm finding it takes typically 27 - 32 seconds for the new screen to appear from the green Alfasud page.

Not as it's perhaps a great help, but the AlfaOwner.com site in the UK, which is similar in layout and format, takes two or three seconds to display a new page.

andytitterton · #54 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 10:50 AM

Whatever the outcome of this thread may be, i've got to add, at this point, how impressed I am with the concern of the folk looking after this forum. It isn't as if we have to pay for it either! Top marks to you!

AlfaSZ · #55 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 10:59 AM

I'm in the UK and this site is very very slow.....

Not complaining, just reporting.

++

**tubut** · #56 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andytitterton

No thanks. I've looked at what it is, and don't feel competent enough.

As a guide, I'm finding it takes typically 27 - 32 seconds for the new screen to appear from the green Alfasud page.

Not as it's perhaps a great help, but the AlfaOwner.com site in the UK, which is similar in layout and format, takes two or three seconds to display a new page.

**smestas** · #57 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 03:27 PM

Thank you to everyone who is working on figuring this out!

I have been getting reports from mostly members in the UK complaining of the sites page load times. So I really think it is something that is a regional problem and why we don’t see the same issues here in the US or other areas.

I have a feeling that it is due to one or more of our advertisers but I would like to know if that really is the case. So far it’s just a guess on my behalf. If it is a particular advertiser I can install software that will remove the offending ads from that region. The only trick is I would need to know exactly which advertisers (ads) are causing the problems.

We also have a few other scripts loading in our pages which are for stats purposes that could also be contributing to the slow page load times.

Any and all help to try and resolve this issue would be greatly appreciated. It’s important that we get the UK back into the fold!

180OUT · #58 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 07:25 PM

Here are some stats that might help Simon isolate and solve the d/load problem.

If logging on from the UK, please provide a general location (i.e., North, South, Central, Surrey, Reading, etc.). Then time how long it takes to pull up a forum. Is there a time differential. i.e., faster in the morning or evening? Post the results here.

If you are logging on from contential Europe, do the same thing.

If you are logging on from, OZ, New Zeland, or elsewhere in the Pacific or Asia, do the same thing.

As I mentioned a little earlier, my logon time from opening screen to forum read is around 10 seconds. I think Simon is right that this isn't a problem eminating from his server or software. Most likely it's a regional problem outside the US. But, to figure out where and what it is, he's going to need some concrete information.

**tubut** · #59 (**permalink**) 05-25-2008, 05:02 PM

I have some more information about load time (speed) variations for users:

While traveling with my notebook computer this week, I conected from a remote area to AlfaBB via a Hughes Direcway broadband satellite link and encountered load times of 30 seconds or more for the Forum Index page.

I took a WireShark trace of a page refresh (using "F5" on IE 7) and took another trace of the same page when I got home (load times of about 6 seconds via Cable broadband). I was logged in in both cases (due to my subscription level I see less ads than non-paying subscribers).

Attached is an Excel file with a Side-by-Side comparison of elapsed time for the same page element requests (i.e those requests that were identical on both pages). I also included the raw traces of both traces. A few things are worth mentioning:

Ping roundtrip time (RTT) to www.AlfaBB.com was 750-800 msec via satellite and 15-40 msec via cable.
The longer RTT over satellite caused packet losses, packet duplication, duplicate ACKs, and some timeout conditions where requests (e.g. DNS queries for ad servers) were sent more than once.
The computer was the same, but time-of-day was different. Variances stemming from ad servers are not accounted for, etc.
That being said, the satellite connection trace has about 10% more packets than the cable connection trace.

Roundtrip delay (and possibly the number of hops between a client system and the AlfaBB and ad server hosts) seems to be the major culprit why pages load slow for some users. One can see how the elapsed time in the two traces diverges from the beginning and does so at a fairly constant rate. When I googled for latency, I found service level agreements that indicate worst-case delay between two routers in North America is about 45 msec and 90 msec for North America to Europe. Even with complicated pages like the one traced (with 50+ page element requests from various servers) this difference should not add a lot of delay. However, if the roundtrip time gets longer (e.g. via satellite) the load time increases substantially.

Therefore, I would suggest that everybody with slow load times checks (and posts here) their roundtrip time. Users of Microsoft Windows can check this easily by first typing "command" in the "Start->Run..." box and then typing "ping www.alfabb.com" in the DOS window that opens. In case the result consistently shows "Request timed out." your system or network uses a firewall that suppresses ICMP traffic and the firewall must be configured to allow such traffic.

Craig_m67 · #60 (**permalink**) 05-28-2008, 04:52 AM

I'm in London (SW18).
It's taking between 10 and 30secs per page refresh for me at the moment

I'm not running any live AV (I kapersky sweep once a month or so - nothing yet)
My i'net connection is about average for this area 3.5K (or so i'm led to believe)
Average roundtrip PING for this site is 195ms

It really is slow.. i don't visit the site nearly as much as i used to due to this.
Hope you sort it out soon