Speed Problems?

[Richard King]

The site has slowed to the point that it is useless from here. Is it me or is there a problem with the servers?

[Scott Greczkowski]

No speed problems whatsoever.

If you look to the bottom of the pages you will see the following

Page generated in 0.2080040 seconds

Thats the amount of time it take the server to generate the page (Each page is created for you, its not a static html page) then after the page is generated it is sent to you.

The generation time should be under 0.7 seconds if it takes longer then that then we have a server speed issue.

The next issue from there is the internet connection speed from our server. As a test while typing this I just downloaded a 20 meg file from our server and it took less then a minite. So our connection to the internet looks good as well.

Chances are very good that if your having slow speeds that the problem is your ISP or better yet the backbone route your connection travels to hit our servers. If your having slow speeds I bet there is a router having a problem somwhere. Unfortunately we have no control over this.

I do hope it clears up for you soon, if not send me a copy of your tracert (go to a dos prompt and type tracert www.dbstalk.com) and I will see if I can find where your problem lies.

[Richard King]

Page generated in 0.1518110 seconds
I never noticed that at the bottom of the page, but I wouldn't have known what it was anyway. :D Everything else seems to load ok for me, so it must be something between me and the servers. If the pages loaded as quickly as you answered (on a relative basis) all would be well.

[Frapp]

Originally posted by Rking401
The site has slowed to the point that it is useless from here. Is it me or is there a problem with the servers?

It has also been quite slow for me today also. I have tried it from two computers, one with DSL service and one dial up :shrug:

[Scott Greczkowski]

If you guys could post Tracerts it would help me troubleshoot further. :)

I am headed home now, so it will take me awhile to reply.

[Mark Lamutt]

Rking401 and Frapp - I've also been having speed problems since last night.

Traceroute follows (from work):

Tracing route to dbstalk.com [209.151.91.45]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <10 ms <10 ms <10 ms 65.114.226.97
2 125 ms 78 ms 78 ms 65.112.201.249
3 <10 ms <10 ms 15 ms 205.171.10.45
4 <10 ms <10 ms 16 ms 205.171.10.130
5 63 ms <10 ms 16 ms 205.171.16.14
6 <10 ms <10 ms 16 ms 12.124.158.45
7 47 ms 62 ms 63 ms 12.124.158.110
8 * <10 ms <10 ms 209.151.91.45
Trace complete.

Took about 50 seconds to make those 8 hops.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Mark you tracert is not bad at all, the worst hop is hop 2 which is your ISP, however that does not look too bad (Over 200 MS is considered bad)

When you did a tracert did it give domain names (such as router1.myisp.net) if it did that was probably why it took so long for it to run a tracert (it has to do a DNS lookup on each hop)

[Mark Lamutt]

Nope - what I posted above is exactly what the traceroute gave me. I do find it odd though that it took 50 seconds to run, when the response times weren't really slow.

[Scott Greczkowski]

I hear you on the speed there, when you do a tracert the speed of our server has nothing to do with how fast the tracert is done (except for our last hop of course) :)

[Scott Greczkowski]

Here is what mine looks like. Much worse then yours mark, yet the speed is not too bad from here.


1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms 10.4.136.1
3 46 ms 14 ms 11 ms 68.9.8.53
4 13 ms 13 ms 10 ms 68.9.8.241
5 13 ms 9 ms 43 ms provdsrc02-gew0303.rd.ri.cox.net [68.9.14.13]
6 9 ms 11 ms 10 ms provbbrc02-pos0101.rd.ri.cox.net [68.1.0.48]
7 22 ms 22 ms 23 ms nrfkbbrc02-pos0102.rd.hr.cox.net [68.1.0.28]
8 23 ms 23 ms 24 ms nrfkbbrc02-pos0100.rd.hr.cox.net [68.1.0.23]
9 32 ms 38 ms 44 ms 12.124.234.77
10 30 ms 28 ms 27 ms gbr5-p80.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.123.9.58]
11 28 ms 31 ms 30 ms gbr4-p100.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.5.198]
12 40 ms 39 ms 44 ms gbr4-p30.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.2.225]
13 78 ms 54 ms 56 ms gbr3-p20.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.122.2.89]
14 57 ms 54 ms 54 ms gbr4-p60.dlstx.ip.att.net [12.122.1.138]
15 74 ms 74 ms 84 ms gbr4-p50.dvmco.ip.att.net [12.122.2.102]
16 101 ms 109 ms 75 ms gbr1-p20.dvmco.ip.att.net [12.122.5.22]
17 79 ms 76 ms 78 ms gar2-p360.dvmco.ip.att.net [12.123.36.137]
18 76 ms 77 ms 73 ms 12.124.158.110
19 71 ms 73 ms 72 ms 209.151.91.45

[n0qcu]

FYI

I've been seeing this a few times:

Page generated in 55.2649390 seconds (100.00% PHP - 0.00% MySQL) with 47 queries.

This one was at 7:58 EDT

[Scott Greczkowski]

Hmm I wish I was seeing this here, I am monitoring this closely.

As you may know our ISP upgraded our server software late Saturday Night with the latest versions of PHP and APACHE.

This is really the only thing that has changed on the server in 3 weeks. (Well except for my new homepage found at http://www.dbstalk.com/ which NOBODY has seems to notice) :(

If ANYONE sees anything wierd PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE report it here so I can nip this problem in the bud.

Thank you!

[n0qcu]

Scott,
Just wanted to tell you I am still getting some really slow pages.
The last one at 12:04 EDT:
Page generated in 53.5757290 seconds (100.00% PHP - 0.00% MySQL) with 47 queries.
I had onetime over 68 seconds. (Sorry I was at work and didn't write down time.)

BTW I normally see times around 0.5xxxxx or less.

[Richard King]

It happened again when trying to enter the room:
Powered by: vBulletin Version 2.2.4
Copyright ©2000, 2001, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited.
Copyright 2002 Chris Blount
Page generated in 68.8464030 seconds (100.00% PHP - 0.00% MySQL) with 27 queries.

Seems to be surfing ok though once I got in.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Rking are you on Starband? Im just wondering if that has anything to do with it.

I also need to fix the Generation code, It's reading wrong for PHP and MySQL use. Since the server is all generated by the SQL Server its impossible that the MySQL is 0.00%

[Richard King]

I am on Starband, but this problem is very intermittent. I wonder if it has something to do with the weather being "Offline". It could be that it is waiting to download the weather until it times out or some such thing?

[Richard King]

Weather is back on now and I am entering the site faster.

[Scott Greczkowski]

It could be!

I noticed that AVSforum removed the weather feature yesterday! This could be one of the reasons why! Good detective work! I will keep an eye on it, I would hate to loose the weather it is a popular feature.

But we have no control of MSNBC's Weather server unfortunately.

[Steve Mehs]

David removed the weather hack to help conserve bandwidth, but fortunatly AVS we be getting a new server in a few weeks :) They've been really tied down the past week.

[Richard King]

Page generated in 45.8814310 seconds (100.00% PHP - 0.00% MySQL) with 28 queries.

It's the weather report. Weather conditions were once again unavailable. Is there a way that I alone can turn off the weather in my preferences? After all, it's always beautiful here. :D

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have adjusted the weather code, so now instead of every time you connecting it tried getting your updated forecast from MSNBC now it wont try to get it unless the forecast is more then an hour and a half old (they only update every 2 hours anyways)

This should fix the problem (fingers crossed)

[Neil Derryberry]

Nope...

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok I have emailed both the author of the Weather Program and have also contacted our ISP as well.

It appears that besides the weather there is a slight speed issue, I have been noticing that some pages (ones that have nothing to do with the weather) are taking from 1 to 2 seconds to generate. According to my standards I like this number to be around 0.5 seconds or lower.

Thanks everyone, I will keep you informed.

[James_F]

Only sometimes, I'm not having any trouble. I've never had a page take longer than 3 seconds to load. I'll keep an eye out, but I'm just not seeing it. :shrug:

[James_F]

Mine says...

Page generated in 0.8580620 seconds (100.00% PHP - 0.00% MySQL) with 31 queries

But 2 seconds doesn't seem slow? How fast is your connection. I don't think IE or Mozilla can render a page that fast... :shrug:

[James_F]

I've hit most pages and the slowest I've seen is..

Page generated in 0.5412450 seconds (100.00% PHP - 0.00% MySQL) with 26 queries

Its the server, but why are you having so much longer generation times than me? Interesting...

[MarkA]

I'm on a 56k modem which only makes it worse. The problem isn't that two seconds is that long to wait - it's not (though 75 seconds, the highest generation time I've personally got - is) - but that it adds two seconds before you even start downloading and rendering the page.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yeah the ISP is now investigating, it appears as though when they upgraded our Apache software and our PHP is where the speed started taking a hit.

We are aware of it and working on it. :)

Hang in there!

Thanks

[MarkA]

Sounds great Scott (that you're working on it that is:) ) I know I just got Page generated in 60.0453740 seconds (100.00% PHP - 0.00% MySQL) with 47 queries. on the homepage when looking for new posts. That really is too long to wait:) Have a great day!

[Scott Greczkowski]

Remember the time is not really 60 seconds to generate the page. There is a bug in that script and when the time gets above a second it sometimes just makes up numbers. (I had one last night that was 417.32 something seconds (even though I got the page in a second or two by clicking on the link.)

We will get this fixed. :)

[Scott Greczkowski]

BTW the server does not know if you are on a modem or broadband connection. :) Just thought I would share that. :D

[Scott Greczkowski]

Our ISP did something!

On all pages (except for the main page) I am showing BLAZING FAST speeds!

I was getting the following when going to a place like http://www.dbstalk.com/usercp.php
Page generated in 4.3951620 seconds

But now when I go to that page I am getting
Page generated in 0.1910779 seconds

Quite a difference!!!

Now for our two main pages
http://www.dbstalk.com/home.php and http://www.dbstalk.com/index.php there still is a speed issue there.

The problem is indeed with the Weather, I have contacted the author and have been told that he contacted MSNBC and MSNBC is having problems getting the forecasts from the Weather Channel. It appears that the Weather Channel is having some kind of issue.

With this being said, he was told that the problem should be fixed soon (its also affecting things at MSNBC)

I am at a catch 22 with this, I could let things stay the way it is now and wait for the problem to fix itself, or I could remove the weather from those two pages.

Removing the weather is hard because if I do the home.php page I made will need some serious work (Because of the way its written it is all tied into tables, by removing the weather it will throw all the tables off.

I have been busy today getting the room ready for my new baby which will be coming soon. But as I was thinking about this problem as I worked, I have an idea but I have not had the time yet to sit down and try my idea.

If my idea works out I might be able to temporarly remove the weather without messing up our custom homepage. Again the problem lies in having the time to sit in front of the computer to fix it. I do have Monday off from work so hopefully I can tackle it then (if not before)

Again thanks for your patience on this, and I would like to thank the guys from our ISP for tweeking whatever they did to give us some speed back!

[James_F]

Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
BTW the server does not know if you are on a modem or broadband connection. :) Just thought I would share that. :D

Yea, I know that... I was wondering if it was more of him thinking it was slow because of the page loading time, not the number at the bottom of the page...

[Scott Greczkowski]

Dont know, but I got a few PM's from people saying that it was much slower on Dialup then it is on a broadband connection. :)

I am happy with the speed improvement except in regards to the weather. :)

[James_F]

As I said earlier, I'm having no issues with the page loading times. I have noticed as you said that the index and home pages load slower than most other pages. But neither is that big of deal. Its not like it was a couple of months ago when the weather was screwing everything up.

[Steve Mehs]

My latest for loading-
Thread- 0.2067970 seconds
UserCP - 0.1727600 seconds
Profile - 0.0755910 seconds
Home Page - 1.3982860 seconds
Forum Index - 0.7629499 seconds
PM Area - 0.1727600 seconds

Not too bad :)

[Mark Holtz]

Hmmmm..... while I had noticed problems last weekend of dbstalk simply not coming up, everything has been fine. Since co-locating at your ISP, the uptime has been better than DBS Forums. Of course, Dan is running his server off a DSL like which, at one point, went through where the WTC was.

[James_F]

Yea, the weather thing is acting up again. I've been seeing times like that again. It only does it when the weather is down... :shrug:

[Richard King]

I had the weather thing yesterday one time also, but didn't mention it since we figured out that it was the weather bug causing the problem. Took about 70 seconds to generate the first page. Maybe it's time for a poll as to whether (not weather) to keep the weather (not whether) page. I think I am confusing myself. :lol:

[Scott Greczkowski]

We have been lucky, the MSNBC outtages have been only happening (from what I can see) at night away from our prime time hours. :)

Other then tonight I think the weather service has improved greatly over the past few weeks.

I have an idea, I can keep the weather on the home.php page and remove it from the Index.php, that will speed up the most accessed page on nour site, yet it will keep the weather for those who like checking it out.

Let me know what you think of this idea.

[Richard King]

Great idea. I like the feature, but normally it is just a novelty item for me.

[James_F]

Agreed, I'd assume just remove it if it keeps acting up...

My 0.02

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok I have made the changes!

Weather is now gone at http://www.dbstalk.com/index.php
But is is still avilable at http://www.dbstalk.com/home.php and
http://www.dbstalk.com/weather.php

This should take care of the issue. :)

[Doug E]

Thanks Scott. MUCH better, at least for me.

[James_F]

Its doing it again on the http://www.dbstalk.com/home.php page again. Maybe the weather has run its course. I'd rather just kill it than have to wait 70 seconds for the home.php page to load IMO.