Forum performance - like a slug

[Patrick Brown]

I'm not talking about the shills but the fact the forum has just got slower and slower over the last week or so! Quite often I get 'page not found'. Perhaps it's just the server load.

[kbo234]

I have been experiencing the same difficulties over the past couple of days Patrick. Inexplicable, regular malfunction....delay, eventually 'page not found' etc.

Makes you paranoid alright.

[ian neal]

Likewise. I will ask JHR to investigate

[flamesong]

The forum and website actually vanished altogether in the early hours of this morning.

The slowness could be a result of the sheer size of the database and/or the number of users/requests it is dealing with.

[Roger the Horse]

This afternoon it has been unbelievably slow and has cut out a few times.

[Patrick Brown]

[chek]

Not only on this forum - some other sites including quite harmeless
non-political ones seem to be having the same probs since yesterday.

[freddie]

I heard that the entire BT broadband service (I realizes I know nothing about how the system works) went down on Monday night until early hours Tuesday morning for most, stretching up until Tuesday night for others.

I certainly experienced this black out and I know of 3 other people in 3 very different parts of the country that experienced the same. I know of at least one other service provider ( I think they're called 'MY') that were going to have a scheduled disconnect for service work this week, so maybe something big has been taking place and things aren't totally back to normal. I don't mean anything dodgy, just some big technical thing...

Anyone work in the industry or follow such things? - My knowledge of computers and the internet is comparable to somebody 4 times my age

[Jim]

Hi peeps ... sorry about delay.

Powweb have confirmed that there is a problem at their NOC - might be network, server, db or "system" in general. Since the site is hosted in a load-balanced environment it is more likely to be either network or network storage related (or both.) We had a slowdown problem a few months back which turned out to be network related - probably something similar again ... should be fixed soon.

PW also had a power surge yesterday and a few PSUs went down. Maybe the surge affected other systems in some way.

The database is ~130MB so nothing to worry about. It gets optimised regularly so that probably has nothing to do with the slowdowns experienced.

Hang in there ...

[iro]

cheers JHR

[numeral]

[Rabbie McM]

There was definately a problem with BT Broadband earlier in the week one evening.

[A Sharp Major]

I have to drop my firewall to log on. In the seconds it's down my computer receives spyware, a different one each time. Fortunately the firewall detects as the spyware trys to connect with the internet. I can also monitor it and stop it running in Task Manager, then delete it. Anyone else?

Who is playing games then? It is enough to drive a critic away, or is that the plan?

[ian neal]

Not at all

unfortunately I'm an IT novice so I will see if those who do know more can assist

[Jim]

A#

Check your firewall rules are not blocking this site. There should be no reason that you cannot gain access unless:

1) Your IP or proxy is blocked/banned here
2) Your firewall software is blocking this site
3) Your browser is using a non-standard header when making requests

Since you connect through the same IP when the f/w is on or off it looks like there is an issue with your firewall and/or firewall rules. (3) would also affect you with or without your firewall ... unless your f/w also acts as a proxy for your internet traffic.

If you're not using the Windows built-in firewall then disable the f/w software and enable the Windows f/w. If that works then your 3rd party f/w software is the prime suspect - check the current f/w rules.

If you are using Norton or McAfee Internet Security suites or then I would recommend complete removal and install AVG Free Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware. The suite packages usually end up causing all sorts of trouble. When you install the AVG products run complete scans with both, after updating the definitions. You may want to do this in Safe-Mode.

See: http://www.nineeleven.co.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=1436 for more info.

[Patrick Brown]

[Jim]

AVG Anti-Virus is free (get the free version) - it's better than most non-free versions. AVG Anti-Spyware is partially free - you can and should buy a licence for it if you want full-time, background guarding against incoming spyware. Use the Windows firewall if you remove the security suites - you don't need anything else. Make sure you have all the latest windows updates and service packs installed. If you can afford one, also buy an ADSL or Cable hardware firewall/router and use network adapters and cables to connect your PC to the router. This ensures that the Internet "terminates" at the router and not your PC which reduces the likelyhood of getting spyware and viruses.

[A Sharp Major]

Thank you for taking the time to give advice on operating/ setting up the firewall and spyware. I've not set anything up that would block the site and cookie handling is as advised in another 'Admin' post. I'll investigate it further. Yours isn't the only site blocked but it's the only place that 'someone' is hanging about waiting for my firewall to be disabled so that spyware can find its way onto my computer. Odd. So if it isn't you guys (my apologises for hinting at such a thing).......who is it?

I sometimes leave the spyware on (but stopped in 'Task Manager') and run Windows Defender to see if it will notice the spyware. It doesn't. Some of the programs I've been hit with delete XP restore points. Be aware.

[iro]

access problems due to firewall could be if the user enables (by default or accident) stealth mode browsing... as is the nature of these forums registering and recording your IP it will block your attempts to engage here.

peerguardian has also blocked this site once for me - odd... but i reversed the block.

[chek]

[TonyGosling]

The site is performing like a dying slug.
Again.
Even at 9am on Sunday morning.
Will Ian Neal, 5up3radmin and JHR who have responsibility for these things please sort it out pronto with PowWeb (who could clearly do with an injection of at least 10,000 MW up their collective posterieurs).

1. Could this have something to do with the large size of the moving banner at the top?
2. Are we with a rubbish ISP?
3. Or are darker forces at work?

We don't want to become victims of our own popularity as people will quickly get pissed off waiting for pages and go elsewhere. As the dark forces know only too well.
I was waiting a full 7-8 minutes yesterday for a short comment to upload and my fiance was getting mad with ME as we were supposed to be going out.
"It's okay I'm turning it off now"
The clock is ticking but nothing's happening and it's getting rather tense after what seems like ages.
"Will you get off that computer NOW!" she quite rightly shreiked
It took nearly ten minutes for the article to finally upload.
And I'm on a 300kb/s broadband connection.
What's it like for dialuppers???
Are they now divorcees?

[Rowan Berkeley]

now ya talkin

[eogz]

My interest in this site is causing friction with my marriage.

However waiting for pages to load for so long prevents:

An affair.
Going to the pub.
Looking at porn.
Dressing in ladies clothes (actually you could don an outfit or two while waiting, corsets may prove more problematic).
Wating for pages to load gives an opportunity for me to chat with my loved ones, until it loads that is.

I find if i do the tab trick, then once seven or so are up and running the speed comes back again, eventually

Is there anyone out there still using dial ups?

[TonyGosling]

yup I do sometimes and at least one other mod

[xmasdale]

[TonyGosling]

Seems a lot quicker now

Somebody probably sorted it

Thanks whoever you are

[eogz]

It was my ignorance, I just assumed nearly everyone was on Broadband.

[TonyGosling]

oh no

maybe I spoke too soon and tempted fate - it's slowed down again


Interersting to see a comment on another thread about Alex Jones' site that person found this site the slowest one he ever visits

it needs to be sorted man

[TonyGosling]

Going fine now - but this is like a roller coaster
Might check back to see the times

That server of ours must be getting hot
Does anyone know where our servers are?

[Disco_Destroyer]

Today 17:10ish