19-06-2001 16:58									#31
	Got spare money?

quote: Originally posted by Infatuation Yeah it's slow..and the ads (www.apolyton.net/bannercode.html) never ****ing loads on my computer, making it go to an error message, at which I must go back to read the thread.

well, that's ugo, not us

	19-06-2001 22:20									#32
	Suffering from ads?

I have encountered both good and bad responsiveness seemingly independent of the time of day. Naturally, the amount of use is a factor, but my observations would suggest that it is not the primary culprit in this case.

(Throwing out a few observations in hopes it will turn on an idea bulb for you)

When things are slow, it seems that there is a significant delay (multi seconds) between when I click to xmit and when there is an incoming response (based on watching the flashing lights). Once the response starts, it seems to come in at pretty much max speed; sometimes the incoming will be broken up into several batches with major delays in between.

I have occasionaly "pinged" the site (with whatever the default ping parameters are) and experienced time-outs a significant portion of the time; losing one of the 4 pings is not unusual. Sometimes the DNS lookup will fail also.

If you are not being attacked by some outside agency, I would wonder if your server is maxing out in some department.
-Memory would be a possible chokepoint, although I imagine you have already considered that.
-Some database activity may be an excessive resource hog; perhaps you have a highly inefficient Query built into some of your basic lookup code.
-Perhaps there is an obsolete web address referenced in a frequently used module causing many delays while it times-out. There is sometimes glitching in the advertising routines also.
-Is the CPU utilization reasonably low?
-Is there a hangup in any security/firewall routines you have running?

	19-06-2001 22:21									#33
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

I have been spending less time at Apolyton because its so slow, which is actually quite good as I am getting more study done...

	20-06-2001 00:22									#34
	Suffering from ads?

johndmuller,

as i have posted before, the database calls do not create increased load on the server.

	20-06-2001 01:19									#35
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

quote: Originally posted by MarkG as i have posted before, the database calls do not create increased load on the server.

Are you saying that both the web server and the database server are humming right along with capacity to spare while users are experiencing degraded response?

	20-06-2001 01:37									#36
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

quote: Originally posted by johndmuller Are you saying that both the web server and the database server are humming right along with capacity to spare while users are experiencing degraded response?

server load has small importance when bandwidth use is maxed out, no?

	20-06-2001 02:11									#37
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Mark, will it help if I do more tracerts?

I set up a program to ping you guys as often as possible. (found it on a hackers board).

Hope this helps!!

	20-06-2001 05:49									#38
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Have any of you gone to the rest of the site (you know the non-forum part)? That is kind of slow too... funny how switching to vBB would have done that .

	20-06-2001 07:07									#39
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

the only thing I have left is Avatars, and I'm already viewing 20 posts per page, and still it's slow. the other parts of the site are slow as well.

Could it be that PHP creates greater load than CGI? I thought not...

As the ping and trace are quick it seems indeed like a bandwidth problem.

Maybe you should enforce some light settings on everyone...

	20-06-2001 07:29									#40
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Well, I've stripped my options down to as light as I can get and I'm still getting a very slow response from the board. The funny thing is that this wasn't much of a problem the first week after the change, but in the past week the problem has gotten very severe. I've noticed that I get a slight increase in speed of response if instead of just left clicking I right click and then click on "Open". I don't know why that would be.

	20-06-2001 09:44									#41
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

Yes . . . it has been very slow, especially the last few days.

Is it really because of heavy traffic? I doubt it only because I don't recall ever seeing it this slow before. Surely Apolyton has had busier (if not as busy) days than the last few . . . no?

Well . . . anyway, all the best to you, Dan and Mark, in figuring this out.

	20-06-2001 10:55									#42
	Suffering from ads?

Personally I've not had a problem since going back to DSL a few weeks ago (although when I was on dial-up during the switchover.....well, lets not go there). On the other hand plenty of people with even high speed access have complained that the site is almost unusable......including long-timer Tecumseh who just posted to the Scen League that he's ready to bail.

I saw MarkGs earlier post and it's good to know that you guys are looking into this. Whatever the source, this is clearly a serious problem and I truly hope you can come up with a solution.

	20-06-2001 22:24									#43
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

The page load speed is highly variable for me at different times. any where for less than 1 second to more than 1 minute. This is not occuring at my end since other sites are not so affected.

	21-06-2001 02:26									#44
	Inflate your Upload Space

quote: Originally posted by GP Mark, will it help if I do more tracerts?

sometimes, if the server does not seem to send anything to you, doing a ping "wakes up" your connection to it



btw, if you have the light style look at the bottom of the page...

	21-06-2001 03:24									#45
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Mark, glad to know that I'm helping to fix the problem by hitting your server with thousands of pings/minute.

I don't know how to turn on the light style. I have whatever is default.

	21-06-2001 03:30									#46
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

quote: Mark, glad to know that I'm helping to fix the problem by hitting your server with thousands of pings/minute.

actually, you are not fixing other people's problem....

quote: I don't know how to turn on the light style.

options page
http://apolyton.net/forums/member.p...ion=editoptions

quote: I have whatever is default.

well, what i was referring too now shows up on the default style as well

	21-06-2001 03:45									#47
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

It's fairly quick again today

	21-06-2001 03:59									#48
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

The light style may not help you very much. I suspect that most of the slowness is when the server in is dealing with someone else or or cause unrelated to the size of the page and widgets you are loading. Commonly it appears that the delay is not even at Apolyton but at the advertising sever.

	21-06-2001 22:03									#49
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

I saw it last night when you pointed it out Mark. I would have replied but the pageviews were too long. Looks cool.

	25-06-2001 22:59									#50
	This is getting ridiculous! Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Well, it's certainly nice to see the site back up and running again.

Now then, if it wasn't taking 5 minutes to load a thread that yesterday took less than 10 seconds . . .

What is with these slowdowns? Is it the ads? It sure is infuriating sometimes.

Exile