New homepage design

[Blind Dragon]

It just started doing it again at 7:15pm EST

I took a screenshot so you could see - firefox almost completely loads the page within less than half a second (see blue bar on right side) but it gets hung up on tribalfusion the last sliver of the bar before the page is loaded

 

[gbhall]

Browsers and OS

gbhall and Blind Dragon,
What browsers and OS are you using? I'm definitely going to look into this but the easiest way is for me to be able to replicate what you are experiencing.

Thanks!

OS Windows XP SP2 + all relevant patch Tuesdays since. 512Mb memory
AMD-64 3000+ ISP plusnet nominal 5Mb/s never experienced problems with access or delays.

browser is Avant browser v.11.5. (uses a lot of IE7 internals). Will test with IE7 also

 

[Blind Dragon]

I tried using the IE7 rendering engine from within firefox and that didn't work either.

Also I am on 10down/2up dedicated line - I don't share. I download a song in about 15 seconds - which should take longer than a web page

 

[Julio Franco]

I just made a change with one of our ad providers that should have removed the a.tribalfusion tags to something newer and improved.

The change won't be effective until about 30 more minutes but I would really appreciate if you can provide me with further feedback of whether the problem was solved or not.

Thanks.

 

[Blind Dragon]

I haven't noticed a problem since checking yet - will post if that changes

 

[Boogityboo04]

Did the favicon just change back to the old version? I like the old one better anyway because it is clearer.

 

[gbhall]

As of 9pm yesterday (BST) there was a very marked improvement, but am today, seems bad again. Full load of first page 27 secs. To go from click of Forums to full activation of my posts link 8 or 9 secs.

A useful feature of Avant browser is a percent loaded bar, which lately during load of TechSpot goes immediately to 2%, hangs there for 15 seconds or so, then to 3% for a few more seconds, then failry rapidly completes the percentage.

I also tried (last night) browsers IE7 (no difference) and Opera (seemed faster) but, to repeat, my normal browser was fast too.

Update 9:30pm GMT. Avant browser now just as fast again as last night, whereas very slow all day....so you may be looking at a performance-under-load problem, probably from your linked services.

 

[gbhall]

From Friday pm to Monday am, response was excellent, less than 5 seconds, now it's over 25 seconds again 11am GMT Monday)

 

[woody1191]

I'm having no problems with the site (Quick As Lighting for me ), I'm using Firefox 3.0.1 on a 2Mbps connection.
Its about 1-2 seconds if that when posting a reply, 3 seconds max loading a Topic/Thread and about 5 seconds max loading the Home Page at any time in the day, any time of the week.

Maybe I can provide some info

Maybe the area you are in is busy try looking at how many Residential Properties use the Broadband Exchange in your area by using this - http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php
Typing your Postcode in it will give you all sorts of info about your Broadband Exchange including Broadband Providers for that area.

I do know currently that BT (British Telecom) is updating the Infrastructure of the Phone Network (This Includes Broadband Network as well but at a later date all work will be finished sometime in 2011), this will be throughout the Country and changing the whole network Digital (Info On Site Linked Above).

They are basically updating the Hardware at Exchanges, the Central Nodes and Main Network Line (Various Key Cities Have these Central Nodes including Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and about 3 in London), also i think they are changing the protocol in some way thats my understanding of it.

At the end of June they updated the Phone line in my area and i had slowed down connections for about 1-2 weeks so it may be caused by that, unsure though.

It will tell you on that site when your Area will be updated to the specific Digital Line as well.

 

[Blind Dragon]

double posted sorry

 

[Blind Dragon]

I started having a slow down again also - now it says waiting for engine28.woopra.com or transferring data from engine28.woopra.com

and good thought woody1191 but I have a dedicated line with 10MB down - I don't share any bandwidth with the neighborhood.

most sites load in about .005 seconds that have timers on them. This site usually does as well until recently

 

[woody1191]

Oh yes i should have mentioned the website i linked above is a UK website there maybe a equivalent website for USA and other Countries but i don't know. I have to say this new version of the site loads quicker for me than the old version.

I know Contention Ratio comes into how slow your connection is mine on estimates is about 20:1 upto about 30:1 (Busy Times) so i share my connection with about 19-29 people at a time roughly, not bad to say i get a 2Mbps connection at that when i'm about 3 miles away from the Broadband Exchange

But since Blind Dragon has a Dedicated line this won't apply, wish i had a Dedicated Line , but as i said our country is going through the Upgrade process as is the rest of Europe some parts of Europe e.g. Small Countries like Belgium and Holland i think are probably upgraded to faster speeds since they have less to upgrade. And also about another 1 billion people are expected to get on the Internet in the next 2 years so it will only get slower if they don't improve the current Infrastructure.

Oh to prove this 1 billion people joining here is a story on the BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/7535735.stm

 

[Blind Dragon]

what browser and version of windows do you have woody

 

[woody1191]

Windows XP Professional SP3 and Firefox 3.0.1, i also use Zonealarm, Spybot S&D and AVG as my monitoring programs if that is any help. I also clear my Browser Cache and other things using CCleaner about every 2 months sometimes more.

 

[gbhall]

Interesting woody1191 - it would appear my home exchange is fine, it may be the one at work is not so fine......

A point I would like to see Julio discuss is whether the interface to all the news and advertising happens at the client side, or from the server side? In other words, for me to see the home page fully built, do I have to wait for my browser to request things and get responses from the other side of the Atlantic (assuming that is where the techspot is hosted)?

A server side link would presumably be much faster if the server is doing the fetching and efficiently cacheing things.

 

[woody1191]

I would assume that the Work Exchange would be the 1 that is ok. I'm quite sure its the Work Router, Server or Modem which requests the Data be sent to it so the Browser can display the webpage.

So I'm guessing that the processing of the Packets Of Data is done wherever Julio hosts the Website. Since it is at work it may be slowing the website down because of the Filtering of the Packets Of Data and because there is quite a bit of Data it seems it must get blocked up and lost when sent to your Computer at work.

Thats my sort of Logical Explanation on it anyway.
Hope that helps in some way.