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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),....

I've been having the same issue on both my phone and my laptop.

So it wasn't just me after all, @GasBandit. I'd brought it up a couple of nights ago on discord.

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.

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 ".

Hrm, I'm seeing some SQL errors in the admin panel. Cursory research tells me this means we need the host to change a parameter for us. I don't know if that's what will fix this or not, but either way, we'll have to get @Dave to open a ticket :/

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

I know it doesn't help you guys, but I haven't been having a problem.

Ticket opened.

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.



--Patrick

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?

GasBandit said:

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

Click to expand...

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

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+.

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

—Patrick

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.

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

GasBandit said:

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

Click to expand...

I'm using Shades of Grey (blue) 2.2 as well.

XenMinimal here, the bog standard one.

XenBlue here.

XenBlue (the default)

—Patrick

The default

XenBlue

I've never touched the themes..so whatever is default

Well, clearly it's not theme-related then.

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.

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.

Bubble181 said:

So hey, anything been done with this?

Click to expand...

No, it's still doing the same thing for me, too.

--Patrick

Once the ticket is opened, we're kinda at the mercy of the hosting company.

I will ping them again. I have gotten 0 response from them.

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...

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

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.

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

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.

And yeah, when this happens we'll have temporary DNS issues. Because of course.

VPS purchased. I do NOT know when they will make the move. They state there will be 0 downtime, but I'll have to update the nameservers so when it happens I'll have to go to another site & update. Then the DNS will have to propagate. So you might get some time-outs.

And I have NO idea when it'll happen so I'm going to give the information to Gas in case I'm not around. One of us will be. When we go down, please let me know on Facebook or Twitter. Or if after 4 PM CT you can message me on Twitch or Discord.

Looks like it's happening SOON!

What will this get us, exactly? Just faster load times? Or are there more benefits coming along for the ride?

—Patrick

Mostly this is the only way I could address the timeout issue.

Ok, but...does it come with any... additional benefits? Or have you not explored that?

—Patrick

Other than root access that I won't use, no. This is entirely to make it so that the site is usable by people. The first person we lose to a crappy connection that I could prevent is one too many.

Well, looks like the new server now has the DNS pointing to it... and that means that everything rolled back to where it was when the new server copied the data from the old server.

...which was a little after 1pm EST Dec 10th.

—Patrick

Rescued from the latest forum hiccup:

Dave said:

By the way, they have made the move and gave me new nameserver names...but they don't work so I turned everything back on. I'll probably be sending the email to Gas because I'm not going to be around until later tonight thanks to a Thanksgiving party at my mom's home.

Click to expand...

PatrThom said:

[Note that this does NOT actually apply here, as we are on the new forum]
Just a warning, if you are seeing this message, then you have probably stumbled onto the old "zombie" forum at IP address 68.65.123.68 because your DNS information is old/outdated. The new forum IP address is 192.64.115.225 and unless you refresh your DNS cache, you run the risk of having any new posts lost once the old forum/database is shut down. Gas would've frozen it, but his DNS has updated and he's not motivated enough to use alternate means to access this old forum.

In other words, if this is the newest post on the forum, you're probably still going to the old one.

...unless new posts are being sent to both new and old fora simultaneously? But that'd be weird.

--Patrick

Click to expand...

Just wanted to say:
a) Thank you
b) the forum is loading much better again and quite a bit faster
c) it's still slow and producing the occasional time out, but loading 12 tabs now results in maybe one or two time outs, which are solved with a simple reload. This is pretty much the situation from a few weeks ago, and while not perfect, at least easily workable.

I also haven't updated the server to the correct settings, thanks to not seeing this board at home yet. Once I do that ti SHOULD clear everything up.

Thanks @GasBandit for putting up the alerts. It’s still a bit of a minefield as far as DNS propagation goes, especially since the version that loads for me can flip back and forth based on something as simple as my current WiFi v cellular strength.

—Patrick

Going to the old IP now gives a big “ACCOUNT SUSPENDED” message, so that should certainly cut down on any confusion.

—Patrick

So has this issue been fixed since the change?

It seems unchanged to me, but I don't know how things are acting from Bubble's neck of the woods.

--Patrick

It seems like it got better for me, I think. I did notice a difference, but I want to say I still have occasional slow down, just not as bad as before.

Well I have yet to make the change to the server code. I was waiting to see if a VPS would help out before I tinkered.

Here's what things still look like for me whenever I visit a new page.:

Revisiting pages I have already viewed is noticeably faster (even if they have added a new post or two), but I don't know if that is due to caching on my end or the VPS since I don't have a way to disable my local browser cache.

--Patrick

I need to go into the SSH shell to make a change to the definition file, but I'm reading up on exactly what to do before I make the attempt.

Complete time-outs are very rare to non-existent, but slow-downs, lots of them.

A possible explanation for the hiccups/slowdowns people have been seeing: BGP disruptions.

--Patrick