site is very sluggish

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paw broon
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site is very sluggish

Post by paw broon »

The last few days it has been very difficult to access the site. When I do eventually get in, it takes a long time to load up a section. At times, I get the timed out notice but today, after being unable to sign in, the site speeded up. This isn't a complaint, just thought it should be mentioned.

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paw broon
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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by paw broon »

As a follow up, I just lost a big post re, grading British comics. That is annoying. I clicked to post it, thought it had been successful and when I came back a few minutes ago, it wasn't there.

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paw broon
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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by paw broon »

Sorry to be a nuisance. The site is still proving difficult to access. It hangs and often takes 2 or 3 tries to access it. This happens on my pc with both Firefox and Opera, and on my android tablet. Is it only me having the problem?

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Al
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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by Al »

Is anyone else experiencing Paw's problems?

The site is and has been working fine for me.

Thanks,

Al

Phoenix
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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by Phoenix »

I'm not having any of Paw's problems of access at the moment, Al, but the Timed Out issue is really irritating.

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Al
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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by Al »

I've just checked the "Maximum time to submit forms" setting on our boards and its currently set to 14400 seconds (4 hours).

I've also been reading that this setting may get overridden by an ISP to whatever they deem is a safe security setting. Usually 3600 seconds (1 hour). I don't know if this is what is occurring with our boards, or what the setting actually is if that is what is occurring.

All I can suggest is that if you are taking a bit of time when composing a post, is that you copy and paste the post into something like Notepad (Windows) before you send it. Or better still, compose these long posts offline and paste them into the Forum when it's ready.

Is the time-out that you're experiencing shorter than the 4 hours (or even 1 hour) setting?

Al

Phoenix
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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by Phoenix »

It is always shorter than one hour.

AndyB
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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by AndyB »

The site is fine from home, but from my work, which uses a proxy, it is painfully slow - more so than other phpBB sites.

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Al
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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by Al »

Thanks Andy.

Okay, Paw and Phoenix, when you get that 'short period' before time-out occurs, are you accessing the Comics UK Forums from your home computer (which hopefully, isn't going through a proxy server), your works computer or internet cafe-type connection? If you are accessing the site away from your home computer, then the problem might have something to do with the imposed security-settings of the works/cafe interface.

I've just googled "What is a proxy server?" and here is the reply:

A proxy server is computer that functions as an intermediary between a web browser (such as Internet Explorer) and the Internet. Proxy servers help improve web performance by storing a copy of frequently used webpages. When a browser requests a webpage stored in the proxy server's collection (its cache), it is provided by the proxy server, which is faster than going to the web. Proxy servers also help improve security by filtering out some web content and malicious software.

I think we've done everything that we can do via the PHPBB3 forms admin interface. Maybe there's something that can be done with the site .htaccess file or maybe my hosting company's setting is the problem (which I'll check after this post).

When you next receive the 'time-out' message, will you copy and paste the text to me via this topic or via email please (or even a screen-shot of it)

If anyone else can offer assistance, please do so.

Al

Phoenix
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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by Phoenix »

I am accessing Comics UK from my home computer, Al, using Mozilla Firefox. However, asking me to do things like copy and paste text, or take a screen shot, is going to be about as successful as a stone age individual will have been on asking his three-year-old daughter to invent a rifle.

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stevezodiac
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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by stevezodiac »

All you do is write your message onto a word page then, when its finished, you copy or cut and paste it onto this forum.

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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by Phoenix »

stevezodiac wrote:All you do is write your message onto a word page then, when its finished, you copy or cut and paste it onto this forum.
Thanks for your suggestion, Steve, but it does all sound like too much bother. To be fair, I did experiment with Word relatively recently but after several days of failing to make it do what I wanted it to do I kicked it into touch.

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paw broon
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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by paw broon »

The problem I was having with the site hanging etc. has disappeared and I now find that it loads quickly, in fact it seems more responsive than before I had the problem. :) Haven't a scooby what caused it, nor why it has gone away. :oops:

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stevezodiac
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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by stevezodiac »

In work I prefer to use Word, its Excel that I have Barney Rubble with, too many bells and whistles.

Lew Stringer
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Re: site is very sluggish

Post by Lew Stringer »

I haven't even been able to load Comics UK for a few days. All other websites were fine. Tried several times, on computer and iPad, but eventually just received a white page with the message that the server wasn't responding. Tested the URL on those online website test sites and received mixed results. Some said the site was down, some said it was up.

In the end I cleared my cache (again) and turned my router off and on (again). I'd already done this a couple of times and it made no difference, but this time it worked! Seems fine now, although I know I'm not the only person to have had this problem over the weekend, and even if the router was the problem it doesn't explain why some of the test sites said Comics UK was "down for everyone".

I don't know anything about the technical side of stuff like that but I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation. If not, we'll blame UFOs.
The blog of British comics: http://lewstringer.blogspot.com
My website: http://www.lewstringer.com
Blog about my own work: http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/

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