waiting game

[Reverdin]

Hi Pete... every time I log on I have to wait 30=90 seconds for each screen change, and it is frequently "expiring" me from the site.... internet explorer is the browser, it takes yonks to add a topic, and as I write this I'm going to have to copy it in case I get kicked out again.... is it something I've said !!, or am I the only one...help!!!!>
regards PK

oh... and I too have to log on every single time even if ticked the stay logged on tab,

[Pete Eeles]

Hi Paul - I know the site's been running quite slowly recently, but haven't looked into this (but will now!). I'd appreciate others' feedback.

As for the timeout and getting kicked out, this could be an IE limitation. I use Firefox and Safari and haven't had a problem.

The ability to automatically login works for me - I know that clearing the browser cookie cache can help.

Chers,

- Pete

[Pawpawsaurus]

For some time I've also been experiencing long delays when loading pages, but I've kept quiet about it for fear that the problem was either my connection or the network rather than the site server. Firefox is my usual browser but when things become unacceptably slow I often try IE. There's never any difference between them.

With Firefox, I see 'Connecting...' in the tab and 'Waiting for ukbutterflies.co.uk' in the status bar. Usually there's no data transfer happening while I wait; it seems to be a connection issue, though image-rich pages often also load slowly. I've never been timed out, as I don't wait that long. It's got to the point now where, if pages consistently take more than ten seconds or so to load, I give up on the site and go somewhere else, which is a shame.

Paul

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks Paul - this definitely needs fixing. Let me contact the hosting provider to see what's up - although they usually tell me there's no problem! I'll also see what options there are for paying for improved performance (although I upgraded just before Christmas for this reason!). In the meantime, I've creating a minimal page that does nothing:

http://ukbutterflies.co.uk/speedtest.php

The response should be instant (it just contains a few HTML tags) - but is taking 2 seconds right now for me, which is appalling. If you could let me know how this particular link performs when things are running slow I'd appreciate it.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pawpawsaurus]

If you could let me know how this particular link performs when things are running slow I'd appreciate it.

No problem. I've just loaded that page a dozen or so times, and response times ranged from 5 to 13 seconds. The average was around 7 seconds, I'd say.

Before clicking Submit for this post, I clicked Preview. That response took 41 seconds.

Paul

[CJB]

Hi Pete,

Sorry to fan the flames, but I have noticed significant delays just navigating around the otherwise impeccable site.

The link is lightening fast so I hope you have got to the bottom of the problem.

flutter on!

CJB

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks all. Having done some investigation, there is some serious "CPU throttling" going on - essentially a restriction to prevent UKB hogging the server it's on. Fortunately, there are some things that can be done to reduce the CPU time being used which I'll look at tonight. Thx for your patience!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

Hi all - I've implemented several changes that should reduce the CPU usage significantly and hopefully see less "throttling" going on. I'll be monitoring this on a daily basis and keep tuning things until we're back where we should be!

Due to the extensive changes, please report any bugs - although all of the automated tests have passed.

Cheers,

- Pete

P.S. You may not see any noticeable effect for 24 hours.

[Pete Eeles]

Hi all - I've tracked down a bottleneck with the help of the service provider. Some code for creating a nice "shadow" effect has been hogging the processing and I've now removed this entirely. The shadows are now gone (and the images don't look as good) - but the website should now be running a little quicker (and I'd appreciate feedback either way!). I'll look at other ways of getting the shadow effect back

In summary - ugly but fast (I hope!)

As ever - please report any bugs. Thx!

Cheers,

- Pete

[FISHiEE]

Hi Pete,

I'd noticed the site had become quite slow for the past week or so. Seems pretty good today though so looks like the problem is cured

[CJB]

I'll second that Pete; it has sped up enormously.
Flutter on!
CJB

[Pawpawsaurus]

Hi, Pete.

It's now 24 hours after your initial changes and response times have fallen drastically without any ill effects that I can see.

I don't know what 'shadow' effect you're referring to; all images look the same to me now as they always did, but they load an order of magnitude faster and the site is usable again.

Paul