Slow loading

[salibandy]

Hey everyone.

Lately the loading of this website has been very slow for me. I don't know if it's because of my computer settings or because the website has a lot of traffic. But it's been very slow since the shift and upgrading. I don't know what to do to make it run faster. Help, anyone?

[Pastor]

Same here, I'm getting a few timeouts, it's really annoying!

[trux]

From what I understood, there are at least three major issues:

1. The new server, although being run apparently on a superior hardware, does not seem to be as well tuned up as the old one. The speed of the connection link between the visitor (you) and the server (the new Internet host) may play a role too. On my side, when trying to load the home page of the new host (Dedicated Servers | Managed Dedicated Servers | Web Hosting | VPS | Liquid Web), it loads pretty slow, but it may be also a problem elsewhere on the route between me and them. The host seems to have a good reputation. It would be interesting to know if the DB forum runs on a dedicated server, co-located server, virtual private server, or a shared server. I suppose that it is a dedicated or co-located server (the entire hardware box used only by DB), anything else would not be powerful enough for a site like DB.
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2. Stephan wrote that the traffic significantly rose up. Quite possibly a big part of the traffic increase may be attributed to diverse bots and agents (re)visiting this domain, after noticing it changed the location. If it is that case, the situation would calm down after a while.
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3. There are long delays (around 5s) caused by redirects after some page calls - for example it is the case after posting a message, for all searches, or for the New Posts page. These redundant redirects can be removed in the forum configuration, and I hope Stephan will do so soon, since they are indeed quite annoying. I do not know if there is a simpler way in the new v3.7, but there was a hack for older vBulletin versions allowing to remove the redirects, here: [Release] remove redirects. - vBulletin.org Forum

[Stephan Whelan]

I'm still trying to track details of when and where people are experiencing problems. The website is actually performing faster for me and i'm based in the UK.

Can people let me know the exact time the site performs slowly for them (with timezone), where they are based (country and/or region would be good, city better) and what they were doing whilst the site was behaving slowly.

[salibandy]

Hey Stephen, it's running smoothly at this time. However yesterday and the day before, it took ages to load, regardless of the time. My timezone is GMT +8. Country and city, Singapore.

[Stephan Whelan]

Okdokey.

Can you give me an idea of when you might have accessed the server (and what pages, just the forums, homepage, news, etc...).

[Stephan Whelan]

Ivo,

To answer some of your questions:

Originally Posted by trux

It would be interesting to know if the DB forum runs on a dedicated server, co-located server, virtual private server, or a shared server. I suppose that it is a dedicated or co-located server (the entire hardware box used only by DB), anything else would not be powerful enough for a site like DB.

We run on a dedicated, managed server

Originally Posted by trux

Quite possibly a big part of the traffic increase may be attributed to diverse bots and agents (re)visiting this domain, after noticing it changed the location. If it is that case, the situation would calm down after a while.

We specifically remove bots and agents visiting the site. The traffic spikes i'm talking about are specifically due to real people visiting.

Originally Posted by trux

There are long delays (around 5s) caused by redirects after some page calls - for example it is the case after posting a message, for all searches, or for the New Posts page. These redundant redirects can be removed in the forum configuration, and I hope Stephan will do so soon, since they are indeed quite annoying.

The redirects have now been removed.

[salibandy]

Well nowadays I use the 'New Posts' search function, so anywhere I go is from that page. Basically the whole site, sometimes.

P.S. I've always wondered how Stephan/Stephen is pronounced. Is it Steven as in Stephen King or Steffan?

[Stephan Whelan]

salibandy,

OK - starting to get a better picture. However is it just the forums, or is it the editorial side (DeeperBlue.net - Fanatical About FreeDiving, Scuba Diving, Spearfishing & Technical Diving etc...) they are different scripts so have different effects on the server.

Also still need to understand rough timings of when you would be accessing the server (8am, noon, 14:00, etc....) so I can tie it to server logs.

As for my name - officially it's pronounced "stefan" but most people call me Steve or Stephen. From my side I don't care so long as it isn't rude!

[salibandy]

Ok, at least I've been pronuncing your name right all this while. Haha.

Well, I log in as I please, mostly when I get email notification that someone has replied to a thread I had subscribed to. Mostly in the forums, but sometimes I read articles posted by the NewsBot. But that side (DeeperBlue.Net) is fine, it's only the forums that have been bugging me. But now it seems all fine. You must have done something. Happy me! Now I can read and reply faster.

[trux]

Originally Posted by Stephan Whelan

Ivo,

To answer some of your questions:

We run on a dedicated, managed server

We specifically remove bots and agents visiting the site. The traffic spikes i'm talking about are specifically due to real people visiting.

The redirects have now been removed.

Yes, I was assuming it would be on a dedicated server.

As for removing bots - you may be removing some of them, but a huge part of bots are not distinguishable from human visitors. Many of them mask the fact that they are automates, so you can (sometimes) recognize them only by carefully analyzing their visiting patterns (I know it, because I wrote many bots too, and some tasks you can achieve only in this way). So I still believe that a part of the visitor increase may be coming from them (although I trust you that the real traffic climbs anyway too).

The removed redirects are an excellent news. It was really annoying. Thank you for that, Stephan!

I noticed several times that when having a problem to load a page, accessing the forum by my bookmarked URL worked flawlessly and immediately. This loading problems (browser window remains blank for ever) happen to me sometimes for example after submitting a new post, or when trying to refresh/reload already loaded page). Even repeating the refresh or forcing the full refresh of the page (Ctrl-F5 instead of F5) mostly does not help. Since the bookmarked URL then works, I suspect there may be some problem either with the Apache server configuration (refusing some POST HTTP requests, while accepting GET HTTP requests), or with the vBulletin session handling.

I already saw other servers behaving oddly when accessed through POST requests (what happens when you submit a post or use most of the buttons on the forum pages), while working flawlessly when accessed by the standard GET request (that happens when you use a bookmark, external link, or type the URL into the browser).


So if anyone gets a timeout, it would be helpful if he tries the following:

1. Hitting the refresh button in browser (or hitting Ctrl-F5 on keyboard) to reload the stalled page
2. In the same time (better told just shortly after) opening a new browser window and accessing DB forum through a bookmark or by typing the URL

Then tell us if both pages remain stalled or slow, or if both load immediately, or if one of them remains stalled while other loads quick.

[trux]

OK, I had a stalled page again just now (00:35 CET = 23:35 GMT) and tried what I suggested above - both reloading the current page, and opening a new page in another tab. Both pages took about a minute before starting to load. It means, it was not caused by the difference in processing GET and POST HTTP requests as I suspected.