help!!!

[MSP Ret]

Third request for help, the others have not gone through, hope this gets there!! I just lost my last post to GB because I had not entered a topic, it was gone when I hit the back button, it happens sometimes I know. The gist is this site lately has been and continues to run slooow. Much slower than anyother site I go to and it is the only slooow site or loadup on my computer. Have we been hit by a hacker again? Everything else on my computer is fast. This site is not. My "in detail" post yesterday never got posted, it must have "timed out" if that is possible, possibly because this site is running so slow (most of the time). Some forums (posts) are slower than others also. I get a screen "this site unavailable" or something like that. Please help if you can and Merry Christmas to all...(my posts and requests for help get shorter each time I retype them after they get lost or do not post!!!)....<><.... :grin:

[quickdtoo]

I've had the same thing happen many times, not just here, but a lot here, also. It has taught me to copy my text before I hit the submit button so if it is lost into cyberspace, I can quickly paste it back into a post window and try again, gets a bit frustrating when it happens multiple times in a row, but I live with it, after all, we're getting what we pay for to use this site and I'm still happy to come here.

On the same subject, I wouldn't mind providing financial support for GBO if Matt or Bill could set it up, lots of web sites have a donation program for financial support, I'm sure there are others that would help out, too.

[victorcharlie]

I've noticed times when the site is slow.....I don't know what Matt did, but after the last hacker attack it seems to be somewhat better.....there for awhile it got painfully slow, and yesterday and early this morning it seemed slow.......

You don't mention what operating system your running, and what browser you are using.   If your running windows XP have you installed the latest updates?  If your running I.E, download and install Mozilla.  Also, do you have spyware detection and cleaning software installed and have checked to see if there are updates to it and have you ran it lately?

You can also try deleteing your temporary internet files and cleaning up any unneeded cookies.......

Have you rebooted your PC, and performed a power on reset of your cable modem and router if your a broadband user?

You can launch a dos window and enter the command tracert graybeardoutdoors.com

This will show you every router hop and the time in it takes to respond back......so you can see where the slow down is occuring......

Looks like I make it through the cable company ok and slow down a few hops before completion with the last four router/servers giving me a 67ms response time......this probably isn't a problem and looks like it's ok right now.......

I really enjoy the site, and guess that as popular as it is, that the number of users trying to get here might be using all shared bandwidth available so some of us have to wait.

Not knowing about the hardware, network connection, and not being an administrator, we can only guess.........there are lots of things that can cause a slow down......things like running a full backup, being short on disk space, running out of bandwidth, memory creep...other process on the server competing for cpu cycles.......etc, etc........it's really somewhat involved to make a determination and there are many, many things that can cause it........make sure things are as good as they can be on your end......because that's about all you can control......

Either way, it is what it is........

[Graybeard]

I've responded to this so many times I've lost count. The problems are many.

First:

Third request for help, the others have not gone through, hope this gets there!! I just lost my last post to GB because I had not entered a topic, it was gone when I hit the back button, it happens sometimes I know.

Hitting the back button is inappropriate in that case. Just add the subject as it will give you the form again below the message. Then click submit. Don't back up. I've done it too and that has always worked for me. Never lost a post because of it yet.

We've set this up so the search engine spiderbots use every word in every post rather than  a page of meta tags. Good and bad. We get higher ratings in the search engines but it takes so long now that the databse is so huge it really slows things down. We will address this issue WHEN Matt can make the time.

We switched to the newest version of this software some time back and that was a mistake as it is slowing us down. Again we'll address this when Matt can make the time. He needs to shut the site down for 24 hours or hopefully less to dump the current software, replace it with the newest update and then add back the mods we use. This should speed things back up. When he does this I've asked he also change us to use meta tags like other sites do for the spiderbots. That way they will finish in seconds rather than days.

Until then it's gonna be the way it's gonna be.

Session length is set to the maximum of 20 minutes. That gives you 20 minutes to type and post or to move data one way or another. If you don't you're timed out and have to log back in. So either have two windows open and move data in the other or compose off line and come back and post. I use the two window approach. I've changed it to 20 minutes due to the complaints about 15 not being enough. BUT that too slows down the site as compared to 15 minute sessions. Guys I can't work magic and I can't give you every thing you want.

As long as I'm in control here there will be NO DONATIONS. I'd rather shut it down completely. As soon as folks start paying they expect to have a say in the way it's run. That's NOT gonna happen.

I do expect to possibly make a major announcement by the first of the year but am not in a position to discuss yet as it may not happen. If it happens you'll see a lot of changes no doubt.

We are aware of the problems but until Matt finds the time to fix them we are the way we are. It's not like he gets paid to do this job. He has to actually work for a living and do the stuff on the site as he can. He has been hampered of late because neither of us have a high speed connection at this time for him to use working on the site. He is moving and will have a high speed connection again in the new place. Then hopefully he will be able to address more of the problems.

[victorcharlie]

That's fine Bill, don't worry about it.....it's not that bad......Having been in the IT business all of my adult life, I am fully aware of the challenges you face.  This is my favorite site on the internet......that says alot.......That's the biggest problem with this country today, everyone wants it bigger, faster, and cheaper.......You should be proud of what you've built......I would be......

 

[MSP Ret]

Thanks GB, I am one computer illiterate who is not afraid to ask a question, the problem comes when I get an answer, I read it and go Huh? What did he say, is that in english? Oh well, I will reiterate what others here have said, this is my favorite site and you do a great job, I hope you don't me asking if there was a problem because it seemed slow at this end. Merry Christmas, and thanks!!!....<><... :grin: