Loading the SMF site locks up my browser for 10-15 seconds?

NoRad · September 30, 2005, 07:04:15 AM

The first time I hit the SMF site (I use this link to launch the site http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php) it freezes my browser for a good 10-15 seconds while it apparently loads? This is the only site that does it. It's been happening for about a month now at least, and I've tried it on Firefox, IE, and Opera.

Get this, it only happens if I'm "logged in". If I hit the site as a guest I have no troubles at all. Is this a cookie issue?

Trekkie101 · September 30, 2005, 07:37:45 AM

Are you trying from behind a proxy?

I know this happens in Internet Explorer behing a proxy, firefox is faster but you can still see the slowness, ive been trying to track it.

Ben_S · September 30, 2005, 07:53:50 AM

Works fine for me, could be random slow ads?

ComputerBob · September 30, 2005, 09:13:33 AM

I've seen the same problem on my computer, with a dial-up connection, but for me, it can happen with any page in these SMF support forums. Several times each week, when I try to visit these forums, there is a very short flash of modem activity, followed by no modem activity at all for up to 30 seconds, followed by either a browser time-out error, or by these forums finally showing up. It's as if the server that these forums is running on stops responding at all, or has incredibly high lag times.

There have been times that it's been so bad that when I've tried to post a message, I've had to wait up to 30 seconds to see that my post had been added to the thread, or I've gotten a browser time-out error instead of my message being posted. Other times, I've finally given up and hit my browser's "BACK" button to go back to the thread that I was reading, only to see that my message WAS posted.

I'm sure the powers that be understand that these support forums are basically SMF's "showplace," so any server problems that users experience here put SMF in a bad light.

And before someone tells me that the problems I've experienced here are probably a problem with my ISP, please note that I post messages on several different forums, and I visit close to 75 different sites every day, but this site is the ONLY one in which I experience server lag problems.

NoRad · September 30, 2005, 09:18:36 AM

It does seem to be specific to this site. I've tried it at many differen times throughout the day, but what doesn't make sense to me is why it happens only when I'm logged in to the forums?

Valodim · September 30, 2005, 10:09:11 AM

try saving the html and opening it from a local place - maybe it's some html element your pc doesn't like for some reason. unlikely, but heh.

dtm.exe · September 30, 2005, 10:14:25 AM

The same happens with the computers at my school. It's as if it's not loading...but then it loads, all of a sudden.

NoRad · September 30, 2005, 10:25:15 AM

I just tried it and for some reason the site loaded VERY fast. I'll keep testing.

ComputerBob · September 30, 2005, 02:35:55 PM

Quote from: Valodim on September 30, 2005, 10:09:11 AM
try saving the html and opening it from a local place - maybe it's some html element your pc doesn't like for some reason. unlikely, but heh.

Not even a possibility in my case. I've experienced what I described using Firefox 1.0x and MSIE 5.5 and MSIE 6.0, running on Windows 98 SE on my computer with a dial-up connection, and now also when running on Windows XP with cable Internet on a friend's computer in a completely different city, 50 miles from my home. So the problem that I've experienced is definitely here on the SMF server, but it is intermittent, which makes it very difficult to troubleshoot, and impossible for a normal forum user to replicate.

I wonder if the SMF server has cron jobs or other scheduled tasks that cause these support forums to slow down significantly. Either that or an intermittent NIC problem on the server.

deFain · September 30, 2005, 02:44:08 PM

Quote from: Radianation on September 30, 2005, 07:04:15 AM
The first time I hit the SMF site (I use this link to launch the site http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php) it freezes my browser for a good 10-15 seconds while it apparently loads? This is the only site that does it. It's been happening for about a month now at least, and I've tried it on Firefox, IE, and Opera.

Get this, it only happens if I'm "logged in". If I hit the site as a guest I have no troubles at all. Is this a cookie issue?

It loaded for me in...

Quote
Page created in 0.14 seconds with 7 queries.

NoRad · October 03, 2005, 12:31:07 AM

It is still doing it. Once the site has been hit for the first time all subsequent page requests load fine. I don't think the time displayed at the bottom of the page correlates to the problem we're experiencing.

dtm.exe · October 03, 2005, 12:34:11 AM

Quote from: Radianation on October 03, 2005, 12:31:07 AM
It is still doing it. Once the site has been hit for the first time all subsequent page requests load fine. I don't think the time displayed at the bottom of the page correlates to the problem we're experiencing.

Radianation, I know what you're talking about. It's nothing related to the creation time, but rather, erm, freeze time? I get this issue on any of my school's computers.

Amacythe · October 03, 2005, 12:35:23 AM

Radianation: You pointed out in your first post that it may be a cookie issue, have you tried clearing your cookies entirely?

NoRad · October 03, 2005, 12:17:39 PM

Selectively clearing the SMF cookies seems to have resolved it for now, but I'll test later.

NoRad · October 04, 2005, 01:28:10 AM

Nope. I still have issues even after clearing the cookies.

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Loading the SMF site locks up my browser for 10-15 seconds?