# site really slow



## Crothian (Jul 26, 2006)

This has been really slow all week.  And with the constant on and off of slowness ever since the crash I was wondering if this was just something we need to get used to or is it ever going to go away?


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## BOZ (Jul 26, 2006)

it's pretty bad at the moment...


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## Jdvn1 (Jul 26, 2006)

It was really slow yesterday, too.


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## Pinotage (Jul 27, 2006)

Crothian said:
			
		

> This has been really slow all week.  And with the constant on and off of slowness ever since the crash I was wondering if this was just something we need to get used to or is it ever going to go away?




It's only you, Crothian. It's an subversive attempt to undermine your post count!   

Pinotage


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## Piratecat (Jul 27, 2006)

Pinotage, shhhh!

We're aware of it. We've cleaned out logs and tackled the problem, and we're better - but maybe still not where we should be. Some of it is ENnies traffic, but not all of it.


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## Twin Rose (Jul 28, 2006)

The folks down at the server are working on it now, I don't know all the details but they'll have it fixed soon.  It's actually SLOWER than it was while they are working on - which at least we know they're doing something.

By the way, for the time being there won't be any emails going out from EN World - this should be corrected soon.  They're deactivated as the mail host is what's causing the problems


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## Mark CMG (Jul 31, 2006)

What are the "folks down at the server" telling you this time?


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## Morrus (Jul 31, 2006)

Same problem - there's an exploitable script which is sending out thousands of emails from "Chase Manhattan" every hour.  We're being used to send spam, basically.

We thought it was due to a hole in CM's chat script, so we killed that but the problem continued.  We've now closed down some other things, hoping we've got it.


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## Twin Rose (Aug 1, 2006)

Morrus said:
			
		

> Same problem - there's an exploitable script which is sending out thousands of emails from "Chase Manhattan" every hour.  We're being used to send spam, basically.
> 
> We thought it was due to a hole in CM's chat script, so we killed that but the problem continued.  We've now closed down some other things, hoping we've got it.




That appears to have been the original insertion point.  We're trying to track down the script itself now and get rid of it.  We've locked down the folders that the script tries to use to create PHP files that send out the spam, so it won't happen again as long as we're diligent.  Once the scripts are purged we should be okay.


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## IronWolf (Aug 1, 2006)

The Apache log files would most likely help you track down exactly what script is being used to do this eliminating most of the guess work.


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## BOZ (Aug 1, 2006)

man, good luck fellas... the forums are inching along.


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## Crothian (Aug 14, 2006)

Really slow again


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## Jdvn1 (Aug 14, 2006)

It's been inconsistent for me. Sometimes it's snappy, sometimes it crawls.


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## Morrus (Aug 14, 2006)

Should be OK now, was just trying something.


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## BOZ (Aug 15, 2006)

it's been perfectly fine after gencon, oddly enough.


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## Mark CMG (Aug 15, 2006)

Morrus said:
			
		

> Should be OK now (. . .)





Nope.




			
				Morrus said:
			
		

> (. . .), was just trying something.





Why?  Have you learned nothing from the nuclear incident?


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## Twin Rose (Aug 15, 2006)

I am pretty sure what is going on is we're exceeding the max number of SQL connections occasionally, which is the reason that it's sporatic and not constant.  I refreshed the store page, for example, while running a benchmark.  4 of the 8 were under 4 seconds, 3 were under 15, and one was like 45 seconds.  But completely random, and the 'hitch' was always in a different spot, which suggests it's not the SQL.  I am waiting for word from Spoony on the status of his DB backup, so I can increase the maximum number of connections.


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## Mark CMG (Aug 15, 2006)

Twin Rosannadanna said:
			
		

> "Well, Jane, it just goes to show you. It's always something. If it's not one thing, it's another. Either you smoke or you have a sweat ball hanging off your nose. It's just like a song we used to sing on Thanksgiving when I was a little girl. Everybody would come over to my house all dressed up pretty and everything, and my mother would make the turkey with stuffing and for dessert, we'd have the traditional Banana Rosannadanna cake. Before we ate, we'd bow our heads, bow your head, Jane, come on, bow your head. Bow it. BOW YOUR HEAD!! And we'd all sing: 'We gather together to ask the lord's blessing. Please love down upon the Rosannadanna folks. Bring peace to our fathers, good health to our mothers, and please don't make me sweat like Dr. Joyce Brothers.'"





You don't say?


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## Bront (Aug 15, 2006)

Twin Rose said:
			
		

> I am pretty sure what is going on is we're exceeding the max number of SQL connections occasionally, which is the reason that it's sporatic and not constant.  I refreshed the store page, for example, while running a benchmark.  4 of the 8 were under 4 seconds, 3 were under 15, and one was like 45 seconds.  But completely random, and the 'hitch' was always in a different spot, which suggests it's not the SQL.  I am waiting for word from Spoony on the status of his DB backup, so I can increase the maximum number of connections.



I've been getting a database error off and on all day today.  That why?


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## Jdvn1 (Aug 15, 2006)

Is the Recent Reviews sidebar gone now too?


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## Twin Rose (Aug 15, 2006)

Morrus experimented with removing a couple of database connections off the main page - it's the most active page on the site.  Yes, the sporatic database errors were because of the same problem.  The benchmark tests I'm running right now, with close to 2000 users on, are showing everything running really fast - is this true for everyone ?

We'll add more stuff back to the front page as we get this stabalized.


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## cybertalus (Aug 16, 2006)

Twin Rose said:
			
		

> The benchmark tests I'm running right now, with close to 2000 users on, are showing everything running really fast - is this true for everyone ?



This is the fastest I've seen it in ages.  I get page load times in a popup bar in Opera, and right now pages are loading so fast the bar is disappearing before I can even read it.

By comparison, page loads of 30 seconds(occasionally) to several minutes(frequently) were the norm before the "Recent Threads" feature was removed, and 10 to 15 seconds was the norm after it was removed.  I'm guessing right now it's in the 1 to 3 second range, because any longer and I'd be able to read the bar before it went away.

Good job to you, Morrus, and everyone else who's been working on this.

EDIT:  I spoke too soon. It took 16 seconds from the time I submitted that message until the thread with the new message in it loaded.


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## BOZ (Aug 16, 2006)

actually, it seems to be going slower and slower all day...


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## A'koss (Aug 16, 2006)

Yeah, it's to the point where it is excrutiatingly slow right now for me...


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## Twin Rose (Aug 16, 2006)

I'm doing an optimization of the post database right now that could cause some slow down.  Since "recent posts" and such things were causing slowdown, then it's entirely possible that it does in fact have something to do with the post database.  Will know more soon.

As you guys can see though, we're definately working hard on this, and we're going to get it ALWAYS running fast if we can!


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## Twin Rose (Aug 16, 2006)

As of the time of this writing, with 1472 people on, I'm getting benchmarks for almost all pages under 1 second!  The shop front page, with it's multiple cover images, under 2 seconds.


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## A'koss (Aug 16, 2006)

It definitely feels like it's back to "normal" this morning - kudos.


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## Crothian (Aug 16, 2006)

afternoon though finds it slow again.


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