Dark Matters Forum - Improve Access Times?

[stubbie 21]

For the past two days I have been having trouble with this forum loading very slow, even getting a timed out error message at times.

 

Other sites are working fine.

 

stubbs

[gogoblender 3,071]

Yeah Stubbie, I know what you mean. It's weird, because me and Brad share the same IP connection...but sometimes, like you, the forum takes a very long time to get through a link...and sometimes I even time out.

 

A few others here from here have also sent me pms regarding this issue, and I'm talking to the site hoster about it...I'm thinking it has to do with the way that some of us have our internet setup... Brad's must be different from mine because he never times out, or hits very long wait spikes.

 

Needless to say...

 

frustrating

 

 

gogo

[Arafinwe 0]

Stubbie, you and gogoblender are not the only ones having trouble with slow

loads. I actualy experience slow to very slow loading on many other websites.

So it seems to be a common problem throughout the entire internet.(Well at

least, that's how I notice it. )

[toret 0]

I'm having problems too. Haven't timed out yet, but it's very slow.

[bhj 24]

 

for instance it took 17 sec to load this post :D :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Genenut 8]

I have had problems both at work (t3 connection through the phone company) and at home (cable modem) so I'm not sure whats up and its not just dark matters. I think the internet is clogged and needs some liquid drano poured down it ...

[gogoblender 3,071]

Oooooooooooookay

I think last night we finally made a breakthrough on this. But before I get to that...let me tell you my story, and my symptoms.

First off, this is in direct relation to my experience with being able to access DarkMatters and SacredWiki.

For the last few months...the experience has been pretty horrible. And I mean that. Trying to click on new posts would sometimes take many seconds...and most times if I just left it like that, my connection would time out...

 

 

 

For DarkMatters, SacredWiki...always the same thing. Of course, this being the net...we quickly learn work arounds...and so my work arounds were the following. I would click again, re-click and then most times in fits of anger click ten or twenty times trying to bring up a link...and this problem wouldn't just stop there...it would also extend to posts. After spending some time on a post, I'd try to submit it... no good! I'd try over and over again, and then would go back wards on my browser, go fowards, backwards...sometimes I even copy my post, close the entire browser, and then try to submit it again...and after all that, I'm able to get a post through.

 

This is particularly frustrating for me because I like to post a lot, and on the wiki, where lately we've been doing a lot of work, it makes my posting and contribution experience a miserable one.

 

Now we go onto understanding when this all started happening.

 

Two things.

 

First, our hoster got new comps...remember when we were down for a few hours a few months ago? That was when Booyah Hosting changed servers. Now here's the thing... when I was on my old computer, I was able to access the sites fine...but when I switched to my new comp (one I"m using right now) Blammo! the bad times hit...and ever since I've been on my new comp trying to access the sites... the miserable factor is something I've been trying to live with.

 

Now, my position here on this site requires me to find solutions for members if other members say they're having problems...and for a few months now I was thinking I was the only one with this problem. Then Max became a member here...and after a flurry of pms, it became clear. Max hadn't made posts here for a long while...because of this problem! And after trouble-shooting with him for a while...it turns out he has the exact same symptoms as me.

 

And now Stubbie, after seeing your post here...I finally ended up talking to Brad about it...and we understood that we had to put some time into solving it as our members are suffering.

 

Now here's the funny thing...Schot/Brad's comp is in the next room over to mine...and we're on a network of three peeps...and NONE OF THEM HAVE THE PROBLEM I DO.

 

Weird huh.

 

So.... this isn't a problem necessarily with the hosting...but instead something more complex. It's actually about the relationship that exists between a singular computer (mine) and the site that's hosting DarkMatters and SacredWiki.

 

So we then scoured Brad's comp and setup...and tried to piece out what was dif between his setup and mine.

 

Turns out there was a number of things...but the most important thing was this. First of all, this problem with accessing the sites lies irrespective of whatever kind of browser used. Trust me. I've tried google, explorer, safari...all with the same hanging problems.

 

As it turns out, Brad's computer does NOT use the Vista Firewall. And...within his internet settings for Vista...he's written in DarkMatters as a trusted site.

 

It's a tricky little area of the software to get into...but we basically changed the settings on my comp to emulate what Brad has on his.

 

I dumped the Vista Firewall, and added darkmatters.org as a trusted site...

 

Presto

 

Problem solved...for now. I'm praying that this is indeed going to work. We did the changes last night, and so far, the computer has not hung once while trying to access DarkMatters or Sacredwiki.

 

Will this work...was that the problem?

 

I'm not sure, and after today, I'll definitely be able to come back with hard data, as I'll be working on the wiki all day long and making posts. If it turns out that this is what's causing the Hangs and Delays on this site...I'll then forward our discovery to Fernis, the guy who owns Booyah HOsting, and discuss with him what could be about the setup over at Booyah that is not allowing me to use a Firewall with no incident for his kind of hosting.

 

Hopefully this discovery will go somewhere, and we'll get more satisfactory answers.

 

But for now, I'm back with speed...and joyous!

 

 

gogo

[toret 0]

Right now the forum is loading just fine on my comp (2-4 seconds). In the last few days though, I've had really bad load times. Between 20 seconds and a minute. It never timed out on me though. I'm using Firefox 3 on a system with Win XP with SP3. And Norton Internet Security. Haven't changed anything on my system that would affect loading times since yesterday.

 

Would it be safe to add darkmatters.org as a trusted site in my firewall? Could anyone gain access to my computer through darkmatters.org if I did?

 

 

[Genenut 8]

sounds great gogo . I cant change the firewall at work (its a corporate thingy at the server not local on my puter) so firewall issues at work are really hard.

 

I have seen the hang ups and such at work and at home. If it helps here are my stats

 

 

At home I have xp w/sp3 and firefox3 and I made the tweaks to get faster service from firefox on a networked cable modem with just Todd and I on it. We both use norton Internet 2008 for our antivirus/firewall solution.

 

At work I have xp w/sp2 and firefox2 with no tweaks. We have a full network and servers and internet comes through dedicated t3/t1? (not sure the speed) phone line. We use the corporate edition of norton and have a custom firewall to screen out the "Bad" things on the net (some higher ups it was rumored were using the work internet to surf porn thus the netnanny was installed).

 

Darkmatters has never triggered the "you cant view this bad bad website filled with naughty things" screen at work but I have had many many time outs when trying to view darkmatters from work. If there is info lacking from the booyah servers handshake with our computers to allow firewalls to evaluate the security/safety of the booyah servers that could explain the time outs while our firewall try to figure out if its safe.

[stubbie 21]

Firewall setting is not the problem at my end as I don't use a software firewall at all.

I use the router as my firewall.

 

I am using XP SP2 (fully updated) so not a Vista issue either.

I tried using *cough* *splutter* IE, but the problem is the same so its not Firefox.

I can access other sites with no slow down so its not my ISP or computer.

 

No gogo, in my case its just Dark Matters.

and it has only started happening in the last few days.

 

stubbs

[gial 2]

I hit a couple speedbumps tonight, too. And I use Win 2k with no software firewall, either. Gogo, I remember when your hoster updated, and it seems to me that you went from

 

http://www.darkmatters.org

to

http://darkmatters.org

 

as well. There was an issue with several browsers automatically trying to stick in the nasty little www as well.

[Schot 407]

Might be time to chat with our hoster eh.

 

Strange thing here is that I haven't been experiencing any trouble from my computer. So far... I do know that our host provider had been doing some work yesterday and perhaps for a few days previous. At one point gogo had messaged him because gogo wasn't able to load darkmatters. Our hoster's response was to wait a couple minutes. Sure enough after a couple minutes darkmatters was back on so I guess he was doing some maintenance.

 

I'll try and dig deeper into this.

[bhj 24]

darkmatters was totaly gone for me about 3h ago so I tryed to bonce out from Houston but nope it was still gone

The hosting server was there and answering but no darkmatters

 

That pretty much killed the assumption that it was a settings problem and points as I see it to the host

 

 

as for adding darkmatters.org to your firewalls trusted list I would not recommend doing this

(iam not going to go into any details here as this could be used as a read-up for the darkside but let me say this much it has nothing to do with darkmatters or the two guys running it which I totaly trust )

 

feel free to send me a PM if you need anything more detailed

 

[stubbie 21]

Since the server changeover my speed with Dark is back to its old zippy self.

 

Seems like my probs were just associated with that

 

stubbs

[gogoblender 3,071]

Well, after hearing about the server change, I tried the following today by reverting the changes me and Schot had made:

 

1-putting myself back on firewall

2-taking my name off list of trusted sites

 

and....

 

dom dom dom dom....

 

 

success!

A whole day of of posts here and on Sacredwiki...not one single long wait for a link to process, post to go through, and not a single timeout.

 

Zippy is good huh

 

 

gogo

[Arafinwe 0]

I also noticed that Darkmatters pages load fast again, it could also just

be because I am trying out a different browser at the moment.(And no it

is not Google Chrome or the latest IE )

 

Nah just kidding, even with Firefox I noticed that the loading times have

returned to our favor.

[Katran 0]

Oh there was a topic about this problem?

Well the only reason I found it and am posting here is because Dark matters is back to its old fast load again.

From my point of view your "slow" load times of 20sec to a minute are a joke. Try my fastest load of over 210sec.

But Dark matters is now back to its old fast load time. You got to love our new host. Who knows next time they change something it may take me up to a year to load the forum front page.

[Arafinwe 0]

From my point of view your "slow" load times of 20sec to a minute are a joke. Try my fastest load of over 210sec.

 

 

What the...210 sec:)