Forums performance erratic? - Montana Owners Club

Ozzie · 07-29-2006, 02:43 PM

I'm here at home with a cable connection, and have noticed quite often the forums here won't load for me. Are you guys noticing this?
Is it the forum software, the server, or ??
Not complaining, just curious...

CountryGuy · 07-29-2006, 02:51 PM

We are on Satellite, and as much as I am NOT a fan of the system, we are not having any out of the ordinary trouble on the forum. Sometimes a graphic will not load, and sometimes that is cause the graphic is stored at tinypics.

What kind of load trouble????

Carol

Ozzie · 07-29-2006, 03:02 PM

I've been trying to figure out what it is. It doesn't seem to be specific to any certain page that I can see. Just very erratic, sometimes a page loads, sometimes it just sits there and I'm waiting for it to time out. I have actually noticed this for a long time, not just since I started posting.
It just happened to me again - I hit submit to enter this reply over a minute ago and got no response. Had to copy my message (to keep from losing it), and refresh the page to hit post new reply.

CountryGuy · 07-29-2006, 03:05 PM

OK, lets get some of the computer brains in here, that is way beyond my non-techy brain function!

Carol

Ozzie · 07-29-2006, 03:09 PM

All of this has been happening using Firefox. I'll try IE to see how that runs. Usually Firefox is a very fast browser, but it may also be keeping something from loading.

Ozzie · 07-29-2006, 03:17 PM

Ok - this must be something with Firefox. IE is working much better here. I don't get it 'cause I've been using Firefox a long time and this hasn't happened to me before.
Sorry about getting techy...I wasn't expecting Firefox to be doing it.

CountryGuy · 07-29-2006, 03:27 PM

I know some other forum members use Foxfire, that may or may not be the problem, some of the ones I know that use it are sorta in the middle of a few things and may not be on reading and posting right now, but they will happen along at some point.

Yep, you are way above ole Carol now! HA HA

Carol

Ozzie · 07-29-2006, 03:31 PM

We all have our talents Carol...

Firefox hs started a self update thing, and it's possible a recent update is at fault. It would be nice if we had a Firefox guru onboard (it isn't me).

c5racer · 07-29-2006, 07:10 PM

I am running a 3mb cable modem with IE and some of the pages are slow to load. Don't have any problem with other forums. Think the server gets overloaded once in a while.

**Carl n Susan** · 07-29-2006, 07:50 PM

I have noticed the occasional stall too, particularly earlier today (around 4-5 PDT). I am using Firefox with a 6 MB cable connection (although, I usually connect to the network using wireless at 11 Mbps).

It sure looks like the problem is with the server for the MOC. I can open other tabs (or even instances of Firefox) while the slows are occurring and surf away will no performance problems. I even had IE up (to another site) during the same time without a problem.

The problem (slow to respond) doesn't seem to happen too frequently. When it does occur, it appears to be site related as Firefox will load what it can regardless of what tinypic.com is doing. You get all of the text from the MOC, the pics from tinypic.com just get replaced by the "broken frame" icon.

I haven't had any updates to Firefox for several weeks, so I don't think that is causing the problem. I would switch to IE but the problem appears to be intermittent and I don't know if I can stand using IE for too long.

Carl (& Susan) Youngren

Glenn and Lorraine · 07-30-2006, 01:50 AM

Right now I am using IE and a hi speed wireless connection and have had very few problems. Quite often a slow load can be caused by the amount of traffic a site is receiving. The weather can also effect the signal. In fact there are so many causes it's nearly impossible to place the fault on any one thing.

When you are having a particularly slow load click the refresh button. I find when the tinypics are taking forever if I click the refresh it will load almost immediately.

I believe Steve (sriegle) uses and understands Firefox. I would think he'll be along soon.

Driftwoodgal · 07-30-2006, 02:29 AM

I have dial-up with a maximum of 48000bps and I haven't had any problem with the forum loading. The only time I have had problems is when I try to use the search and try to go back any real length of time. When I try to do that it times out on me. I use AOL as my ISP.

Colleen

CountryGuy · 07-30-2006, 02:45 AM

Colleen, that is very interesting, how far back are you trying to go when you get time outs?? Got to say, I have not had THAT happen

YET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carol

richfaa · 07-31-2006, 04:31 AM

We are also on a high speed DSL connection and on occasion the forum will slow down.My guess is that it is the forum server being overloaded. The same thing happens on other forums (RV net) and is a common problem with servers.

sreigle · 07-31-2006, 02:49 PM

I am relatively new with Firefox and am not an expert but do use both FF and IE.

Keep in mind between you and the forum the message makes a lot of hops. It travels through multiple servers (to keep this simple). A bottleneck at any one of those hops will slow things down. Also, it won't necessarily take the same path, the same exact hops, each time. That's why sometimes it seems that if FF or IE is slow and you start the other it does better. I sometimes find when it's very slow if I just hit the Reload/refresh button it suddenly gets better. It's just taking a different, faster path this time.

If the servers used by forumco are overloaded then it's going to be slow for all of us. Period.

There are folks here who can take this farther than I can. I've just about exhausted my knowledge of it in this post. Already.

I find Firefox to be generally faster than IE, in general, although I'd be hard pressed to prove it. It's purely subjective on my part.

In this park we are on a very fast wifi via a cable connection. Things can still slow down, as others have already said.

See another Montana or Mountaineer on the road? Flash lights twice, it might be one of us!
Steve Reigle (pronounced Regal)
Fulltiming since 3/21/03
'03 3295RK
'05 Ford F250 SD Lariat CC SB 6.0L PSD/TS FX4 4x4

Our RV Travels (now Firefox-compatible)

Ozzie · 08-27-2006, 04:22 AM

After some period of time, there has been no change with Firefox on my machine. Using IE and even Opera, I don't have the issues that Firefox does at this site. It could very possibly be that Firefox is so aggressive when it comes to security (that's why I like it).

Ok...an update...I used another machine at home that has never been to this site before. Using Firefox I noticed it was very snappy viewing the forum until I hit around a dozen or so pageloads - then it practically stopped. It must have something to do with how Firefox stores information.

I recall an admin of another forum saying he made some changes to make his forum more Firefox friendly. I think I'll have a chat with him to see what he has to say.

327RKS

sreigle · 08-27-2006, 06:19 AM

Ozzie, I use Firefox constantly with no problems on this site. I would be interested in what you find out, however.

See another Montana or Mountaineer on the road? Flash lights twice, it might be one of us!
Steve Reigle (pronounced Regal)
Fulltiming since 3/21/03
'03 3295RK
'05 Ford F250 SD Lariat CC SB 6.0L PSD/TS FX4 4x4

Our RV Travels (now Firefox-compatible)

Ozzie · 08-27-2006, 07:24 AM

Thanks for the reply Steve...since it is working for you, I am wondering if this might have something to with a combination of the forum software here and my routers, firewalls, blockers, etc.
I have no issues at all with other sites, so I'm trying to sort out what it could be.
It sounds like I need to start disabling things and see if I can narrow it down.

327RKS

5rvers · 08-27-2006, 07:28 AM

I use Netscape 7.2 as my browser. Once in a blue moon I will have difficulties getting on to the MOC. It might be like Rich said that sometimes the server is being overloaded.

Lou, Judie & Gang
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Ozzie · 08-27-2006, 07:46 AM

Well...after turning off my anti virus, software firewall, etc., the forums feel much more responsive (so far).
My hardware firewall is still in place, so whatever doesn't like this forum is software based.
I'll keep looking into it as times permits, and let you know what I find as the culprit.

EDIT - now that I tried to post, the message sat for 90 seconds and it wouldn't go. Shoot...thought I was onto something.
I had to copy the message into an IE window to post this.

327RKS

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