Lots and lots of time outs

Bubble181

Bubble181

I know I seem to be the only one complaining, but the forum is sslsllllllooowwwwww.
The home page, new posts page, and forum overview are all fine. Loading a thread is horribly, horribly slow, though. "new" threads are still slow but a lot faster - it's mainly the longer threads that either take a minute to load, or, more and more often, simply return time out errors. It's become impossible to read the forum at work because literally 3/4s of my attempts simply result in a McAfee "Server took too long to respond" error. On my personal phone I get "invalid response" errors after a minute of waiting.
It's not exactly conductive to desired behaviour if half the time I can't even manage to get anywhere.

Same issue across systems (work, home, phone), browsers, different proxys (work used to be based in Germany, now it's a Dutch proxy; my personal proxy is in Belgium),....
 
mikerc

mikerc

Huh. I thought that my problems were due to the shit Wi-Fi at work which barely reaches into the break room.

Also did anyone else read the thread title & think Bubs was making a thread about all the times @Emrys sent him to the corner to think about what he'd done.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

mikerc said:
Huh. I thought that my problems were due to the shit Wi-Fi at work which barely reaches into the break room.

Also did anyone else read the thread title & think Bubs was making a thread about all the times @Emrys sent him to the corner to think about what he'd done.
Click to expand...
That would've been "Lots and lots of time-outs :unibrow:". :awesome:
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Weird. I've never had an issue. I'll reach out to the hosts. Not sure if they are around today or not, however.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

I've been having long load times, too. In Discord, I suggested perhaps this is just the server taking a loooong time to retrieve database records, meaning that the server might need more RAM or to be moved to an SSD. But I don't know what the RAM or HDD utilization looks like, so that was just my guess.
But lately I also wonder if the forum leaves open sessions hanging around for those times you clear your cookies or check in from another location but don't actually log out of the forum. I don't know how long XenForo waits to finally expire a session key.

EDIT: Here's a trace of a page load. Notice how the delay is almost 100% front-loaded, 10.5s waiting for that first response, and then a flurry of activity.

Trace report.png


--Patrick
 
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GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
PatrThom said:
Notice how the delay is almost 100% front-loaded, 10.5s waiting for that first response, and then a flurry of activity.
Click to expand...
That would seem consistent with a SQL database problem, if you ask me. I haven't been experiencing it myself, though, so hard to say for certain. When the host company addresses the SQL issue, we'll see if it clears up.

It's odd how it only happens to some people and not others, though... which makes me wonder if DNS propogation isn't involved?
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

GasBandit said:
it only happens to some people and not others, though... which makes me wonder if DNS propogation isn't involved?
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It would still have to be pretty widespread, since it happens to me from my home Internet, my cellular, my work, and even from the various public WiFi providers I’ve used. People like Tin are probably the exception, not the rule.

—Patrick
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
For a while now any time I click on a link for a sub-forum or a thread it takes 5 - 30 seconds for the page to load. The main forums page loads quickly though. I always assumed it was my computer being weird, since the delay isn't nearly as long on my phone. Wait, I'm not logged in on my phone..... Okay, logged in on my phone and started having the same problem. Goes from taking like 2 - 5 seconds to open a thread, to 5- 20+.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

That’s the behavior that makes me think it’s a RAM issue, since it could easily be explained by caching behavior.

—Patrick
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

figmentPez said:
For a while now any time I click on a link for a sub-forum or a thread it takes 5 - 30 seconds for the page to load. The main forums page loads quickly though. I always assumed it was my computer being weird, since the delay isn't nearly as long on my phone. Wait, I'm not logged in on my phone..... Okay, logged in on my phone and started having the same problem. Goes from taking like 2 - 5 seconds to open a thread, to 5- 20+.
Click to expand...
I just tested it, and, yeah. The same device where page loads regularly take 30+ seconds (but I've been having slowdown issues for years), and suddenly everything is lightning fast (2 seconds or so max loading times for the larger threads).
Huge difference.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Here's a thought... what theme style are you guys using? Maybe it's a particular theme. I'm on "Shades of Grey (blue)."
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

And while I first thought it might be DNS related too, that doesn't jive with it only affecting logged in users, or only threads and not the forum.
I also notice some threads are way faster than others. Smaller threads tend to be faster, though it quickly shows down, but the Trump thread it's still pretty fast for me, for example.
Maybe it's some plug in or other; it might be waiting on those remembered concepts for replies for example? Even if you never use it, it still looks to see if you do, after all.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

So hey, anything been done with this? I've been mostly off line for a few days, but I just logged in, opened 12 tabs, and 9 of them timed out, so...yeah.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Take that back. I DID hear from them and it went into Gmail's spam folder, which has been catching a LOT of false positives lately.

I am unsatisfied with their response. Kind of a "no fucking shit" thing. They say it takes root access. No fucking shit. That's why I opened a ticket instead of doing it myself. And then they say that the level of server we have precludes custom settings. So. I either have to up the service, move again, or we just put up with it.

Checking to see if the next upgrade - to a VPN server - would allow them to make the necessary change. And it's only a couple bucks more a month so no breaking of the Dave would happen.

Your thoughts, all?


Hello Dave,

Thank you for contacting Namecheap support!

According to the provided URL, to change the table_definition_cache in MySQL, root access is required. Unfortunately, it is not possible to add any custom settings on Shared hosting servers to MySQL configurations.

Though we will need some additional information to check the issue you are facing.

Please clarify whether exactly the error appears and whether it appears after some changes are performed.

Also, specify the exact error message that is shown.

We are looking forward to hearing from you.
Click to expand...
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Something to keep in mind: 20 Low-End VPS Providers Suddenly Shutting Down In a 'Deadpooling' Scam
what happened this weekend is often referred to as "deadpooling" -- namely, the practice of setting up a small web hosting company, providing ultra-cheap VPS servers for a few dollars a month, and then shutting down a few months later, without refunding customers. [...] ZDNet provided this alphabetical list of the 20 companies: ArkaHosting, Bigfoot Servers, DCNHost, HostBRZ, HostedSimply, Hosting73, KudoHosting, LQHosting, MegaZoneHosting, n3Servers, ServerStrong, SnowVPS, SparkVPS, StrongHosting, SuperbVPS, SupremeVPS, TCNHosting, UMaxHosting, WelcomeHosting, X4Servers. However, "A user who was impacted by his VPS provider's shutdown also told ZDNet that the number of VPS providers going down is most likely higher than 20,"
Click to expand...
--Patrick
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Dave said:
Take that back. I DID hear from them and it went into Gmail's spam folder, which has been catching a LOT of false positives lately.

I am unsatisfied with their response. Kind of a "no fucking shit" thing. They say it takes root access. No fucking shit. That's why I opened a ticket instead of doing it myself. And then they say that the level of server we have precludes custom settings. So. I either have to up the service, move again, or we just put up with it.

Checking to see if the next upgrade - to a VPN server - would allow them to make the necessary change. And it's only a couple bucks more a month so no breaking of the Dave would happen.

Your thoughts, all?
Click to expand...
Honestly, I feel I can no longer take part in this forum the way I used to. It's been slow and bad for a while now, but I could still *eventually* access any thread - so I opened 15 tabs and waited for 10 minutes, then read all in one go. Even less posting, even more reacting, but fine.
Now, even that won't work - if I want to read a thread over 10 posts in length, I'm more or less forced to open them in incognito mode, which means no "last unread", no reactions, and no replies. Not only is it a chore, it's a frustration, since I have to reload a thread 4-5 times to get anywhere. If I close any tab that failed to open, it still registers as "read", which means I've lost literal pages of unread posts and then have to go hunt up to where I've read like I'm in a '90s-era chat board.
I don't know if my presence is worth a few bucks a month, I'm inclined to say no but I may be in a bit of a depressive episode at the moment. Anyway, whether it's rehosting or upping this host, the current way isn't viable for me.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Seconded. Of course we want our Bubble around. I just need to make sure we get the right one.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Just opened a ticket for a VPS level account. It's a whole $3 more a month. And it allows me root access so I can make the necessary changes. I'll let everyone know when this happens. Not sure if it'll require a DNS propagation again, but I assume it might.
 
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