# Front Page Really slow to load



## Nonlethal Force

Iwas wondering if anyone else is noticing that ENWorld is really slow to load at first.  I'm using IE 7 (I believe).  No other websites I visitare slow, but when I want to come and visit ENWorld I can go make a pot of coffee before the page loads.  [Not kidding]  Just wondering if I'm the only one or not.  If Iam the only one, an ideas why?

I should also say that once it does load it navigates fairly well.  Perhaps a little slow, but nothing like the first page.

Anyway, thanks for your time.

NLF


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## Knightfall

I have IE 7 and what you're describing has happened to me. Usually what happens is that the site takes a while to load at first but then it moves along fairly well after that.

However, if I step away from my PC for some reason and then come back to it, then I have a heck of a time getting it to load again.

It is almost like it gets stuck. I usually have to close my browser, reload it and then visit other sites for 15 to 20 minutes before I can get EN World to load again. I'm not sure what to make of it since it almost always comes back.

And note that this isn't always during the "heavy traffic" times of day. Well, not unless you consider 10pm to 1am MST to be a "heavy traffic" time period. 

It's frustrating.


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## Michael Morris

MySQL is getting overloaded and resetting itself on 4-6 hour intervals. Looking for a solution.


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## Knightfall

Michael Morris said:


> MySQL is getting overloaded and resetting itself on 4-6 hour intervals. Looking for a solution.



That would explain a lot. Let us know how this situation develops. 

FYI...
For me, it's 3 a.m., and I'm definitely getting some lag. It is loading, and I can post but it takes a while, especially when posting on the blogs.


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## Nonlethal Force

Darn.  I just got on and it took no time to load.  I came right here to tell about my victory and then the log-in page took forever.  But, at least it was a different page to load slowly.  

Sorry I couldn't give you all the good news and compliments I had hoped to give.


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## Merkuri

I've gotten into the habit of having a sudoku window open in another tab.  I click a page on EN World, wait a moment, and if it doesn't load immediately I switch to sudoku and wait.  I'm not sure why my browser is willing to wait that long, but sometimes I think it can take 5 minutes or more for pages to load.


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## Michael Morris

Made a setting change - let's see if it helps.


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## Knightfall

Michael Morris said:


> Made a setting change - let's see if it helps.



Cool. I'll try punishing it for a while and let you know my results.


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## Michael Morris

Things seem better. I upped the max connections from 100 to 1000 and the keepalive timeout from 2 seconds to 4. I had lowered them because I thought they where bogging the machine down.


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## Knightfall

Michael Morris said:


> Things seem better. I upped the max connections from 100 to 1000 and the keepalive timeout from 2 seconds to 4. I had lowered them because I thought they where bogging the machine down.



It seems to be working a little bit better. I lost one post to the lag and had to reload my browser once while trying to switch between pages in one thread, but it seems to be running better, so far.

I'm going to punish the blogs a bit next and then check out the front page of the site. I haven't checked it in a while because of the lag.

Cheers!

KF72


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## thatdarnedbob

The front page took a few minutes for me to load this afternoon, so I don't think the problem is over yet.


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## lmyrick

Still VERY slow. Would love to spend more time on this site, but with the pages loading so slowly, I just can't do it.


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## Bialaska

Did anyone change something, because currently the boards run smoothly half the time and the other half it's taking like forever to do something.


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## Merkuri

Bialaska said:


> Did anyone change something, because currently the boards run smoothly half the time and the other half it's taking like forever to do something.




Mike said above that MySQL is resetting itself.  I believe that what might be happning is that most of the time the boards run fine, very fast, and then MySQL will reset which causes pages to slow down to nothing.

So I think at this piont EN World is either speedy or gone.


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## Michael Morris

I have backed up the databases and changed the mysql settings, nearly quadrupling the allocated memory to mysql processes and bumping the concurrect mysql connection count from 650 to just over 2000.  We're either going to be fine or the machine is going to melt a hole in the floor at about 1 PM tomorrow 

Well, I doubt it will do that - but it could crash and crash hard, such is the reason for the database backups taken this evening.  We'll see.


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## wedgeski

I'm sorry to report that site performance for me (Firefox 3 from the UK) is getting worse, not better. 

Edit: The weird thing is it's so erratic. I can clink a link at one moment and it loads lightning fast... two minutes later I'll click another and it can take literally minutes to load... then five minutes later I'll open 5 in a row in FF tabs and they all load almost immediately... ten minutes later, another slow one, and so-on.


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## Merkuri

I haven't seen much of a change myself (FF3, if it maters).  The site still seems to work fine for a while, then it'll seem to completely stop responding for a few minutes, at which point I usually go do something else until I see that my EN World tab has lost the "loading" symbol.


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## The_lurkeR

The site is still slowwwwwwwww tonight.


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## Rae ArdGaoth

ENWorld continues to be inconsistently slow/fast for me as well.  Sometimes the pages will timeout or the connection with the server will be reset.  I thought it was just me, but apparently not.  Thanks for working on this.


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## Thakazum

Are you on shared hosting? First step in fixing this is moving off that if finances can support it.

Have you checked your slow query logs? This looks like the result of some really slow queries causing subsequent queries to wait.

Disk access speed could also be a culprit.

I suggest moving the wiki to a different MySQL instance.

Another suggestion, which I don't expect anyone to take seriously - remove or significantly reduce the database access occurring on the front page. I'm assuming most of your traffic hits that page. Try caching that page or just make it static altogether.


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## Brown Jenkin

wedgeski said:


> Edit: The weird thing is it's so erratic. I can clink a link at one moment and it loads lightning fast... two minutes later I'll click another and it can take literally minutes to load... then five minutes later I'll open 5 in a row in FF tabs and they all load almost immediately... ten minutes later, another slow one, and so-on.




Same for me on both FF2 and IE7. I don't hit the front page that often, I normally jump right to the forums and I notice it in the forums moreso than the front page.


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## Michael Morris

Thakazum said:


> Are you on shared hosting? First step in fixing this is moving off that if finances can support it.




We own the box.



> Have you checked your slow query logs? This looks like the result of some really slow queries causing subsequent queries to wait.




Possible.  I honestly think I've been looking in the wrong place. File transfers where the database isn't involved at all have been slow as well - this is leading me to rexamine the httpd.conf settings.



> Disk access speed could also be a culprit.




Likely but won't be addressable until after the OS reinstall sometime next month or September.



> I suggest moving the wiki to a different MySQL instance.




I'm using MyISAM tables.  The database that the tables reside in is irrelevant.



> Another suggestion, which I don't expect anyone to take seriously - remove or significantly reduce the database access occurring on the front page. I'm assuming most of your traffic hits that page. Try caching that page or just make it static altogether.




It is.


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## Ricochet

Yep, website is very slow for me too on my 20MBps line, especially the front page it seems.

Using Firefox 3 in Vista if that has any relevance.

Forums seem fast.


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## Nonlethal Force

Wow.  At this moment in time, ENWorld is backto very fast.  I realize that this is a variable thing until the MySQL problem is determined.  But Iwanted to just let you all know that I appreciate your efforts.  I'm sorry I can't do morethan stand behind you all and say "I do believe you'll get to the bottom of this" and "Thanks."

But unfortunately, that's all I've got.

Oh, wait!  I have noticed that when I'm on a on a slower machine that ENWorld is fast until Ilog in.  Then it is slower ... much slower.  Don't know if that helps or not.

NLF


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## Michael Morris

Thakazum said:


> Are you on shared hosting? First step in fixing this is moving off that if finances can support it.
> 
> Have you checked your slow query logs? This looks like the result of some really slow queries causing subsequent queries to wait.
> 
> Disk access speed could also be a culprit.
> 
> I suggest moving the wiki to a different MySQL instance.
> 
> Another suggestion, which I don't expect anyone to take seriously - remove or significantly reduce the database access occurring on the front page. I'm assuming most of your traffic hits that page. Try caching that page or just make it static altogether.




Well let's try yet *another* setting, see what it does.  This time I'll dial mysql back on its memory requirements.


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## yu gnomi

As of time of posting, site is "zippy". All new tabs opening fast, no problems.

However, for past 3 or for days, I frequently get 503 errors (cannot connect) from my proxy. Have updated my browser to Firefox 3, and issue persists. 

Most of time, new tabs open fast. Occasionally, for about 5 to 10 minutes at a time, every ENWorld address gives 503 error.

Is this the same issue? or should I continue to monkey around at my end? 

I have been thinking about simply disabling my proxy (named Privoxy, if it matters) since I probably don't really need it.

Edit: It just happened again, but only lasted for a minute or so this time.


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## jeffh

Is this also why I get redirected to a blank white page about two seconds after the front page finishes loading? (Using Firefox 2).


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## amnuxoll

I'm glad I found this thread!  The main page has been slow to load for me since the switch to the new software.  (I'm using Firefox.)  I've taken to loading it in one window while doing other surfing elsewhere.  It takes (really) minutes to come up.  The funny thing is that it's a blank page for a long time and then suddenly you get all the content.  The other pages (while not always zippy) reliably load in, at worst, a tolerable amount of time.

*Puts professor of computer science hat on*  (A guy has gotta do something for a living.)

This smells to me of some sort of error in the code and not an error in the server setting.  I recommend you examine the server side code that is supposed to run when the main page is loaded.  Try creating a test page that's identical to main page (if that's reasonably easy) and then gradually removing bits of it until you figure out what the offending script is.  

If I were you, I'd also try to reduce the duration of your debug cycle.  I'm sure there are plenty of folks on this list who'd be happy to hit that page for you when you want to test something.  If you can get about 10-20 of them on a temporary mailing list you could email us whenever you've made a change and probably get a response from at least 3-4 folks within 5 minutes.

*takes professor hat off*  Also feel free to tell me to butt out of your debug problems.  I'm grateful in any case for your hard work!

:AMN:


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## Knightfall

Hey Michael, I'm just letting you know that the site has been slow (or down) for me all day. Thanks for all your hard work on this issue.

Keeping the faith,

KF72


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## Knightfall

Okay, the messageboards are currently FLYING FAST for me.


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## DarkKestral

I'm having similar front page issues as everyone else, in addition to random slowdowns, but I'm also having a fair number of issues accessing the forum as well, and my access is spotty, as well as speed. Typically, if I can't access one, I can't access the other, though there are cases where that may not be the case.

I'm on FF 2, WinXP, if that helps.


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## Ricochet

As for the front page slow loads, I get A LOT of "transferring data", "waiting", "transferring date" etc. over and over before it loads. Takes several seconds.

Are you using some sort of "load the entire page before displaying it" that might make it go way slower?


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