I have cable connection. My Internet surfing is fast. On weekends it is faster than during weekdays, but even on “slow” day most pages load instantaneously or within 1-3 seconds. But some sites sometimes become so slow that I lose my patience, quit and come back later. This site (SD) is a good example. Usually, clicking on a thread, or link (Search, Profile) brings a page fast. But every workday around 1-2pm EST everything slows so much, that I decide to visit other sites. I try to come back 2-3 hours later. Sometimes the speed comes back, sometimes it takes longer. I wonder, why it happens. Is there some kind of maintenance done in midafternoons? Occasionally, I see a page: “This site is temporarily unavailable, or closed for maintenance”. But I am talking about overall slowdown. I know, that when I click on Submit New Thread, in a few seconds, it may take a minute or two to bring the next page, then another minute or two to bring the main page after I click “Go”. What gives?
It might be general Web traffic – check out the Internet Traffic Report for more information. I certainly notice a different in speed and response times when I surf in the morning (during the night EST) and in the afternoon (when American surfers start waking up).
No, Matt. Read my OP again: THIS place is slowe now than it was 3 hours ago (and than it will be 3 hours later). I clicked on your link (ITR, it gave me the shortest time for N. America)) I was there in 300 milliseconds or so.I will believe you if the folloing is possible:
this site, frex, is inherently slower (large volume, uploads, whatever). If there is a general congestion, all sites slow down, say 5 times. A “fast” site will download on my PC in 500ms, instead of usual 100ms. Still fast, I, probably, won’t notice. But an “average” site will take 15 seconds, instead of usual 3seconds, and I notice it right away. Possible? Or utter nomsense?
I have a couple of netmeters installed and can neasure my speeds anytime. So far I have noticed than the metered speeds and actual surfing speeds are actually not related.
Fair enough, but isn’t is possible that some specific sites can receive more traffic at certain times of day? That may not be the case here – for all I know it’s a database backup of member details, or some limited post archiving – but I’ve seen it happen elsewhere.
peace
I think the problem is with the SD server. It is getting overloaded, not the Internet.
I use a dial up connection and have the same problem. Aroud lunch and around 3 pm, the SD server is very slow, overloaded I guess. I open two copies of the brouser. I use one for the SD, and the other to surf the web. The SD server gets so slow at times that I can check out a couple web sites waiting for a SD message to load.
The problem is not traffic at your end so YOU can not speed it up.
[It could be an intermediate server that the SD feeds through, rather than the SD server, but it’s still under SD control, not yours.]
Yep. It’s the SD site. We’re already almost using a full T-1, and every time we upgrade the server, traffic instantly increases to meet the new capacity.
We’re trying to keep up as best we can, but since the stock market didn’t give us a cool Billion before it went south, we’re at something of a disadvantage.
Thanks for your patience during our tough times, and I hope the easier times make up for it.
Manhatten,
You guys are much loved for putting the almost T-1 in. [geezer voice] Why, I remember how in the old days, we had to wait all day, walking up hill both ways, just to get a thread to load. Why them young’ns just have no idear…[/geezer voice]
Thank you, guys. At least, I am not alone. I’m not saying that it happens only at SD. I use Yahoo as my home page. Sometime (randomly) I get to my email account in a flash, at times I stare at the screen even after I hit “Back”! I just noticed (perhaps, because I spend hours here :-)) some periodicity on SD (diurnal cycles, STS). I wish somebody come with a SW, which would replace this little blue bar with some animation. I tried two frame browser trick, even opening IE5.5 and NS4.7 simultaneously. I realize, that the secomd browser probably slows the first (minimized) even more. And I had similar experience before, with POTS.
Once I asked a friendly compugeek about the Net traffic. I said that in my primitive head, I can imagine that if a thousand cars try to reach the same destination all at once, they will get jammmed. As a thousand PCs would on the Net. He smiled and said: “No”. The Internet does not work this way." Whatever. The important part is that I can’t do anything, when it happens.
Man, what did you say about the stock market? Do you guys need a free advice? Does the fate of SD depends on the SM? The way things are going, do I have to look for a new BB? BTW, how this place is financed? I do not see any commercials here?