Is the Forum running really slow for anybody else?

[pitchleague]

For about a week now, the forum has been incredibly slow for me. I am running firefox. I also checked on IE (yuck), and chrome and they, too, ran reallllllly slow. I went back to firefox and tried to clear my cache but this was no help. On the other browsers as well as firefox, all other sites load quickly on my 6 mbps high speed internet. But not Brewerfan or LambeauLeap.

 

I checked my laptop, and it's the same problem. My wife's laptop--same problem. My ipad--same problem.

 

So, I'm just wondering if this is a global issue and it's being worked on or if this just a unique issue to me. And if so, I'm not sure what else I can do. It literally takes over a minute (sometimes longer) just to load a page. It's almost like back on dial-up.

 

EDIT: I seem to have fixed things for now. I completely rebooted my router and now the forums seem to open fine. Although the larger threads (What's Bugging You, for instance) still take a while to open.

[hawing]

Although the larger threads (What's Bugging You, for instance) still take a while to open.

That the longest threads take a while to open is not your imagination, or "just you." We may have to split them (or some of them) at some point to preserve the content while keeping the load time manageable.

[support]

I'm hoping that you should find some improvement from here on. Much has been checked and a likely cause "removed". The status will be monitored over the next few days (as will this topic).

 

Large topics have been identified, leaving staff with the task of finding an appropriate point to split.

 

This board is a little on the large side (& growing) and can be quite well frequented at times. I think it is to be expected that occasional slowness will happen at popular times. If this is persistent though, please do bring it to someone's attention. (If you are that person, please also bring it to my attention.)

[lcbj68c]

I came here to mention it as well and found there is already a thread. Its absolutely ridiculous, especially over at LambeauLeap. Sometimes a good 45 seconds to load a page. It's like mid-90's dial up bad. I realize there is no financial incentive to improve it, but good Lord. I left LL after 2 pages tonight.... ain't nobody got time for dat!

[support]

Yeah, I am seeing that myself and it was not even that busy.

 

I made some suggestions and recommendations earlier today. My gut is saying that some of you guys are either unable to access or are giving up trying.

 

Something has to be done. I am more than willing to do it. I need the OK though.

 

I had not been checking Lambeauleap but I will now. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

For those unaware (as yet), some processes have been taking 20 or more seconds to complete. In the early hours, this board was inaccessible for around an hour.

 

You are quite right: this is not good enough. It will also get worse if nothing is done.

 

Please, by all means more of you post your thoughts and feelings. Let staff know your experiences.

[support]

Just updating this topic:

 

Yes, we are aware that this board has been incredibly slow and throwing 5xx errors for since approx 1AM your time. Another issue has been identified and is being brought to the attention of the host. When there is a "fix" it may not be all that seamless and there may be another spell of issues as a result of this.

 

Rest assured that I am regularly monitoring and want this board the best it can be for you guys. I also have a very recent database backup sitting on this machine, so do not wory about your data. This is in addition to other backups we have available to us.

 

I would hope that today anything noticed in the last 10 days should be resolved. That still leaves longer-term plans to be addressed, which can only make things even better.

 

Hang in there!

[support]

For about a week now, the forum has been incredibly slow for me.

 

This also seems to coincide with a database server reboot on: Aug 08, 2013 at 11:38 AM

 

My earlier request was for a Database server move (but they might be able to fix it). The main reason for my request was the last 10 days showing increasing slowness without reason.

 

Still awaiting response.

 

Lousy morning but things do appear better at the moment. It changes and with no pattern.

[support]

I have received the following response from your Host. While I will respond, I wish to hold back and observe. I'd also like more feedback from you all.

 

The response would seem quite positive but the bottom line is: Is it working?

 

We have been dealing with an issue where the current process limit

(FCGID) was causing the Apache web service to become semi-responsive;

sites would become slow or unusable. This was a difficult case to

investigate due to many red herrings and the fact that the web service

would be online, just not fully functional.

 

As of now, we believe we have found a solution to alleviate this problem

by raising the process count limit, but only to a point where it won't be

adversely affecting server performance. This adjustment has been applied

to the Apache services that host your sites, and when I tested the sites

I did see an improved loading time.

 

Regarding your backups, I see no issues with slowness or poor performance

on your MySQL server. Instead, frequently the gzip process has been

addressed by the web server's procwatch daemon which monitors and

implements limits on resource usage.

/var/log/procwatch.log.2.gz:Thu Aug 29 01:30:55 2013 procwatch3 INFO: PID

26829 (gzip) bu4bflldb:pg4971460 - 0.7MB ram, 90.01 sec cpu: reniced to

+10

/var/log/procwatch.log.3.gz:Wed Aug 28 01:30:14 2013 procwatch3 INFO: PID

31335 (gzip) bu4bflldb:pg4971460 - 0.7MB ram, 90.10 sec cpu: reniced to

+10

/var/log/procwatch.log.4.gz:Tue Aug 27 01:13:45 2013 procwatch3 INFO: PID

13495 (gzip) bu4bflldb:pg4971460 - 0.7MB ram, 90.28 sec cpu: reniced to

+10

 

We do have a new datacenter in Virginia that I could move your account

to, if you feel the distance to there would be better than the distance

to Irvine California.

[support]

Both your Host and I have been monitoring and bouncing a few emails and things do seem very much improved as well as stable. They voluntarily made one further alteration, directly related to my initial findings as they could address the issue in a much more efficient manner than was available to me. I have to say that I was impressed with that.

 

We've also been chewing over the thought of changing data center and on balance it looks best to stay where you are.

 

From purely the board aspect, things do still need to be addressed. We need these long topics split. Addressing the increasing difficulties that are inevitable with a growing database needs done sooner rather than later. Neither of my suggestions include pruning, so do not worry about losing your posts.

 

Please do provide feedback, whether positive or negative.

[logan82]

The speed is a lot better but now the site lost all it's formatting.

 

Had the same problem last night. Now it's better.

[support]

Thank you very much, logan82. I was unaware as I was being served from cache. A quick refresh (F5) should set things to rights for you.

 

Apologies for that. It was caused by trying to gain as much from the server as possible and obviously something was wrong. I may/may not dig deeper as it is only a small saving.

 

Thank you also for the feedback on the speed. Things do look much better now and I think little more can be done without major changes.

 

ETA: Same issue found elsewhere using a similar method. This too has been removed, so you should be fully functional.

[1992casey]

Thanks, support for what you've been doing. I know that this has taken a lot of time on your part, and we'd be in much tougher shape without your help.

 

As support knows, I haven't been readily available to pitch in the past few days. My schedule should improve later in the week.

 

As support says, he's been in contact with DreamHost. Our bandwidth usage was about ten times what our hosting plan is designed to handle. While upgrading to a a higher plan is an option (that wouldn't be all that costly), we've been given some time to maneuver before we make a decision to do that.

[1992casey]

Just to update, Bing has probably been the biggest contributor the (ab)use of our board's resources. support has been working hard to rein it in, including sending a nastygram to Microsoft. Google hasn't been all that well behaved either, although it's apparently been nothing like Bing. Obviously, we want the search engines to crawl the site, but we don't want them wearing out their welcome either.

 

You've probably noticed that some large topics have been split. There are more on the list to be done. Splitting seems to have the immediate effect of causing the new smaller topics to open faster. And it should help overall, as too many large threads drag on the system as a whole.

 

We're still discussing some other measures that we might take. We'll let you know more as things become relevant.

 

I'm noticing a positive difference. Is anyone else?

[logan82]

Things have been a lot better this week. Even on my home computer where the site has been slow for the last couple months. Dial-up slow.

[support]

Thanks again logan82.

 

Just to clarify, this was not a bandwidth issue as bandwidth is unlimited; it was a connection/resource related issue. Connections alone were over 10 times what is recommended as a maximum for the hosing. A great many things have been done since my inadvertent discovery and these have been handled in priority order. Initially Bing was small-fry but as other matters were resolved, it soon became a much bigger one (1/8 of total resources being used).

 

Currently, I have your connections alone down to 30% of what they were on discovery. This is still 300% above what is recommended though.

 

Bing has been ignoring robots exclusions policy directives, which have been here since day one. These were placed to avoid unnecessary crawling by search engine spiders. Bing is the only offender. In short, Bing has been repeatedly and unnecessarily crawling only a very small percentage of your content. It also does not deliver visitors.

 

Over the last few days I have removed some extraneous links from the "eyes" of Bing (as well as other search engine spiders, who ignore them anyway). I then reduced the content visible to Bing to only include more recent and relevant content.

 

I have been in contact with Bing and honestly, I fear I would cuss if I discussed "responses". This is ongoing but from what little I have heard, there is little more can be done. e.g. Even if Bing were made to crawl more efficiently, the speed that it would try to do this is unacceptable for this site. Consequently, last night bingbot was temporarily blocked from this site. This morning, the logs look great!

 

Bing have been fully informed of this and I await their next "response". Pending that, I may allow it again. Failing that, I will allow it again in a week's time for 24 hours and see what it gets up to.

 

Things should not be this hard!

 

Incidentally, you may have noticed the bots disappearing from the whosonline. This does not mean they have been removed, I simply changed their state to "hidden". Google is still crawling, albeit at a reduced rate. Others will come and go as normal. Bing will be around too, only wearing different "clothes", so it thinks it is incognito.

 

Remaining slowness is not server related. There is a "lag", when opening pages. Once they start, they are as fast as they should be. This is down to DNS issues and the round-about manner in which these have been set up. This is currently beyond anyone here's control but please take note that we know about this (now) and hopefully will be able to improve this with more distant future plans.

 

On the matter you originally reported, this was indeed revisited 2 days later as it became a top priority. This time I got it right and results are great. (Originally I used a method this server did not support, so I found one that it did.)

 

In conclusion, we are close to the best you are going to get for now. Instead of me spending all day every day checking and optimizing, I have backed off a bit. It may take me half a day to respond to a post here now.

 

This board, along with Lambeauleap.net really requires daily monitoring to help prevent a situation like this recurring. The whole situation will never recur but the symptoms may and could do at any time. Until something better is set up, feel free to bookmark this contact page and use it, should there be any sign of slowness or 5xx errors that persist for more than a period of 10 minutes. I'll be on the case just as soon as I can (and probably will not reply until after resolution).

 

You have a great board here and it needs to be kept going.

[pitchleague]

Site has been back to the crawl for me for the last 2 days. Even cleared the cache and other stuff. Anybody else?

 

edit: Nevermind, it appears to have cleared up this morning with a router reset and a few other things that I tried overnight.

[1992casey]

Just now, for about a minute, I experienced a situation where I couldn't access pages at all. After that, everything started working happily again.

 

Is this the kind of slowness you're talking about, or are you finding that the site drags for you most of the time?

[support]

appears to have cleared up this morning with a router reset

This happens to less than half a percent of people. The IP address never changes, therefore neither should DNS. It is not ISP specific. Next time, just pop your router off for 30 seconds and back on again.

 

Do you mind me asking what make and model of router you are using? This might help others, who find themselves in a similar situation.

[pitchleague]

the router is a Netgear 7550 that is issued through our phone company.

 

The slowdown happened again yesterday and, after a reboot of the router, it's back to normal.

[AZBrewCrew]

Ive noticed on Tapatalk I can only connect via Wireless Fidelity. Even with 4G LTE it times out.

[Yaz]

I have a solution for those of us who are having issues w/ the dial-up type speed we are getting when entering forum.brewerfan.net.

 

A FREE PROXY SERVER. Just Google that and there will be plenty to choose from.

 

Time Warner decided to change my DHCP IP address over a week ago. Since this happened they have given me a dynamic IP based out of Herndon VA. This change has diverted my route to the forum through a suspect Chicago RR T-Bone server and Cogentco. There is some major fighting going on between the last of >4< steps from Chicago RR to Cogentco. This causes a lag.

 

So now with my proxy I am cruising around Brewerfan at breakneck speed again.