Get rid of the Page Loading Time!

[Chris 62]

I'm not complaining

I busted your chops plenty on this (and other stuff ) Mark, but the site has been decent lately, only slow once in awhile.

Almost always in midday to afternoon in NY (6pm GMT-10pm GMT).

[Gatekeeper]

Markos, et al.:

I have been using the light style pretty much since we switched over to vBB. I have many of the same problems as others have mentioned above — but there's one thing I'd really like to know: Why do threads only partially load and/or display the information?

This only happens at Apolyton and only since the switch to vBB. The thread will finish "loading," and I scroll down only to see a partial thread. Sometimes I have to reload three to four times to get the thread to properly display in its entirety. Other times it never stops "loading" per se, but keeps active, almost as if it's waiting for some linked item (smilies? ads?) to show up.

I also use Netscape 4.08. Yes, it's an older version ... but that doesn't explain why it acts up on Apolyton only. It's just me, but I suspect the vBB is the problem.

I wish you the best of luck in figuring things out, Markos.

CYBERAmazon

[Asher]

NS 4.x is possibly the worst browser to view VBB in. NS 4.x is unbelievably slow when rendering tons of tables on the same page, and each post in a VBB thread is a table.

[tniem]

Tonight has been amazing. Best loads I have seen in a long time. And there are still a good 89 people on ACS at this time.

Sure half as much as usual but ten/twenty times as fast. I don't know if you have upgraded or what, but it is working tonight.

[connorkimbro]

My load times are, as always, pretty fast, and on a 56k only! too bad, so sad for you guys!! maybe you should go cry about it! or stop visiting the site or something!

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
So it seems that the bottleneck is at the CPU.

actually, it cant be the cpu cause load is never too high....

[Asher]

How much RAM does the server have?

[Spekter]

Time of day: 22:55 (PST)
Page Loading Time: 5.33 seconds
Page Reply Time: 3.79 seconds



This is about normal for me. My above post was exceptionally slow; however, when 'poly is running slow I normally get times in the 100-150 second range.

No, I don't run multiple windows at the same time. Why not use light style? I have a high bandwidth connection and a reasonably fast computer (750MHz w/128MB RAM) - I shouldn't have to. Besides, I like the pretty pictures, especially avatars.

My (uninformed) guess is that it is a combination of things at your end. There are probably a couple other sites with as much traffic and similar usage patterns as 'poly being hosted on the same server. UGO most likely has its peak usage at about the same time, adding a further slowdown. Also, I think that all the little graphics files on the post page add to the delay (this doesn't mean I want you to get rid of the smilies, maybe just the message icons ). Each one of those is another request being made to the server. If say 30 people all try to post at approximately the same time to threads that are of decent size, That amounts to about 3000 (30 people * ~100 image files) requests within about a minute. I think. UR? You seem to actually know a bit about networking. Care to confirm?

Anyway, even with the slowdowns, it's a great site. Keep up the good work and we'll try to be patient until you get the problems nailed down.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Spekter
I have a high bandwidth connection and a reasonably fast computer (750MHz w/128MB RAM) - I shouldn't have to.

haveing a fast computer has nothing to do with the styles

Besides, I like the pretty pictures, especially avatars.

you can still see the avatars using the light styles

[tniem]

Originally posted by Spekter
Also, I think that all the little graphics files on the post page add to the delay (this doesn't mean I want you to get rid of the smilies, maybe just the message icons ).

Using light eliminates these images and still allows you to view avitars if you really care all that much.

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by Asher
NS 4.x is possibly the worst browser to view VBB in. NS 4.x is unbelievably slow when rendering tons of tables on the same page, and each post in a VBB thread is a table.

Crap! Do you know where I can get NS *without* the Communicator junk they like to throw in for good measure? All I need is the app ... everything else in Communicator I've got as standalone apps. I hate bundling.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

CYBERAmazon

[Asher]

Originally posted by CYBERAmazon
Crap! Do you know where I can get NS *without* the Communicator junk they like to throw in for good measure? All I need is the app ... everything else in Communicator I've got as standalone apps. I hate bundling.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

CYBERAmazon

I really don't know, I'm an IE user.

If you really don't want to use IE, something like <a href="http://www.mozilla.org">Mozilla</a> is good. Netscape 6.x is actually based on old versions of Mozilla. And I think you can just install the browser part of Mozilla if needed.

[DanQ]

To see the specifications of the server Apolyton is on, see the "About: Network" page on GameStats' website (GameStats.com) and see the 'Technical Specs' section.

----------------
Dan; Apolyton CS

[TCO]

could we have a direct link on the thread pages to gamestats please?

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Is this it?

Technical Specifications


HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS
Below is the hardware configuration of our network server. If there is something that you feel should be added to our setup, please consult our Director of Technology.


Dual Pentium III 933Mhz
1GB RAM
Four 18GB SCSI Hard Drives
10,000RPM
Raid 5 Configuration
SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONS
Below is the software configuration of our network server. If there is something that you feel should be added to our setup, please consult our Director of Technology.


Red Hat Linux v7.0 (Guinness)
Full CGI Support ("/cgi-bin")
Full SSI Support
Full PHP Support
Up to and including Version 4.0
mySQL Server Access
Available upon request
SSH Account Setup
Available upon request