Server switch!

[Kimmie]

Thanks to the MSN stalkers that kept asking me when the site will be back.  They didn't really help much, but at least kept me entertained during this web crisis.

I didnt actually bother u this time...i left it to every1 else to, and then they could tell me what was goin on...wheres the angel emoticon? *ding halo* [/glow]

[Jeysie]

Out of curiousity... how many people here generally make heavy use of "Open in New Page" or "Open in Background Page", as opposed to browsing one post at a time? Seems like everyone's saying the new server is faster, but I still have lagging connection problems, both at home and at work (with two different computers, browsers, ISPs, and modem speeds). Not that I'm knocking Yonkey's quick work or having a working server again... I'm just sort of baffled.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[Yonkey]

I noticed this server freeze about half an hour ago.  There wasn't a heavy cpu load or any errors either, so I don't know why it did.  We had 10 members browsing the forum at the time too.  

[Grundy]

It definitely runs faster for me.

I'm on a 512/128 connection right now, using FireFox and WinXP...  

What are the specs for your two pc's?

[Yonkey]

I just did a Bandwidth Meter test and I'm getting 2026.8 kbps downstream right now.  My upstream is usually around 45-50 kbps.

I'm on Win2k and MSIE 6.

[Jeysie]

My home computer:

AMD K6-2 (about equivalent to a P2, I believe) ~350 mHz, 128MB RAM, Opera 7.3, Win98, 56K modem.

I don't know off-hand what my work computer is... probably either a P1 or P2, 32 or 64MB RAM, if I had to guess. I do know it has a DSL modem, Internet Explorer 5, and Win95.

This is the only site that gives me problems, though... none of the other websites or forums I visit consistently give me problems the way this one does, on either computer.

I am wondering if maybe it's because I tend to open links in a lot of pages at once.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[Grundy]

Both those systems are WELL into the 'Ancient' category!  

That's probably why you havn't noticed any difference! lol!

Out my 3 systems at home, the slowest, and most outdated is a 1.33Ghz AMD, 512MB RAM, GeForce3, WinXp... etc etc...

So the new server is obviously faster on all these machines.

[Yonkey]

When I used Win98, I found that if I had 3 or more browser windows open, there would be a significant delay in page loading and scrolling.  I think it's the combination of Flash content and Win98's poor memory management that's lagging you.

Have you tried disabling the Flash plug-in and seeing if there's any improvement Jeysie?  

EDIT: Oh yeah, I have 384kb RAM and I'm on a P3 500 MHz right now lol

[Jeysie]

I never have Flash turned on while surfing the forum pages at home, so that's likely not an issue.

And yeah, both systems are old. Once the pages connect they load and scroll quickly on both machines, however... it's only the initial connection to the pages that lags. And it doesn't explain why I don't have issues with any other websites.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[Grundy]

This site is very graphic intesive, even with Flash turned off, so if you have a slow connection, slow harddrive, not much ram etc... everything will load slowly.  

Especially with a 56k modem... what is your actualt connection speed? because 56k modems can normally only reach about 48k with a good phoneline.

[Jeysie]

I generally get connected at 48K. When I download files, I can get "full" 5.0 kb/s if the server's good.

And it's not the pages loading that's specifically the problem. What happens is, I'll open a link to a forum page. Usually it will load OK, but sometimes the page will just "hang" there blank, not connected to anything. Then after a few seconds or minutes, the link will finally connect, and the page will load quickly and normally, and will scroll without any lag. So it's not the page rendering that's the issue, it's the initial link connection, for lack of a better way to put it. (I know there's probably some technical term for this.)

Peace & Luv, Liz

[Yonkey]

The technical term is "content fetching" or "HTTP GET request/SQL querying" if u wanna be all geeky.

I experienced that a LOT with our old server, and that's what I referred to as "forum freezing".  I have only experienced it once on this server so far, and it disappated (sp?) in about 15 minutes.

[Jeysie]

Ahh. Unfortunately, it's happened more than once to me lately. (shrug) Nothing to be done about it, I suppose.

I do wonder if it has anything to do with the number of requests each page has to make. According to Opera's Info panel, there's something like 50+ inline elements per page. Even if everything's cached, that's still a lot of connections to deal with.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[Yonkey]

A browser isn't supposed to send out a request if the content is cached.  Well, unless you have your cache settings set to renew content every time.  

[Jeysie]

I have documents (i.e. the HTML files themselves) set to check every visit, but images, css files, javascript files, etc., are set to check once a week.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[Yonkey]

Hmm, the only content that changes from post to post is the HTML/PHP.

[Storm]

Out of curiousity... how many people here generally make heavy use of "Open in New Page" or "Open in Background Page", as opposed to browsing one post at a time?

I use "Open in new window" sometimes... but only for as many pages as my computer can handle without crashing, which isn't all that many

As for forum speed - I didn't notice any huge changes... I might have a 750kbps connection but my CPU speed is only 400Mhz

[Yonkey]

The server was down for a few hours because "Something is wrong with the IPs we just assigned you."  

Anyway, the site's now up again!  Sorry for anyone that lost their post before posting. *cough*myself*cough*.  

[Jeysie]

I vote that Yonkey should whack the KQ9.org hosting company with a clue-by-four.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[Yonkey]

Haha, actually in the support ticket evaulation I said that "I would have appreciated it if they had given some notice, or at least an e-mail the next time they decide to do maintenance."