AK really slow page loads now

Grog

Loot Galoot
Subscriber
Hi Folks,

Just trying to figure out what's up. I run Firefox 9.01 and lately I've been trying to load AK with Internet Explorer 9 - 32 bit and 64 bit.

For the last month or so on all three browsers any page load from Audio Karma has taken anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds. This is making it really tough to enjoy browsing the site.

Whenever I close out my browser, it is set to delete all session content so that nothing remains in cache that can mess with subsequent visits.

I always double check and try other sites to see if there is something wrong with my settings or connection, but all sites load almost instantly with their usual speeds.

Because of this recent development, I've started running two browsers so that when I click on an AK page I want to see, I read the other browser and enjoy content there while waiting for AK to load. Either that or I enjoy a sitcom or movie on VLC media player while waiting for AK and pause it when the page is finished loading.

It shouldn't be that way.

I am running high speed Telus DSL and when downloading anything I usually get between 600 to 900 kb/s.

Is there something that has changed with the site?

Thanks!
 
Here's some more info that might help you:

Using Google Chrome, page loads are running well under one second, consistently.
Using FireFox, page loads are running 2-3 seconds.
Using Internet Explorer, page loads are running 25-30 seconds.

Hope that helps.
 
If you want to perform some more in depth info I can help you run a traceroute to get more info. If AK alone is exhibiting the issue, chances are your connection just might be running into a bottle-neck somewhere along the way, depending on where you are.

It appears AK is running on a dedicated server with NEXCESS.NET so if the problem were with AK themselves a lot more people would know very quickly.

Cheers
 
Here's some more info that might help you:

Using Google Chrome, page loads are running well under one second, consistently.
Using FireFox, page loads are running 2-3 seconds.
Using Internet Explorer, page loads are running 25-30 seconds.

Hope that helps.

Your IE is seriously hosed in some way. Really, it's broken, not just that it's IE. Mine loads AK pages roughly on par with the speed you list from Chrome (more or less no delay) and faster than FireFox.
 
Hi Dosto233,

I think you may be on to something. I'm going to run a traceroute.

Firefox 9.01 is my main browser and I never use IE, the only reason I've been trying IE for AK is because I thought maybe there was a change whereby that was the browser it was optimized for or something.

I'll settle back with Firefox and run a traceroute and see what's up.

I should have thought of that.

Thanks for the reminder.

Cheers!
 
:lurk: interested in what you come up with.

What speed are you paying for with your ISP? On a Cable internet connection? Does it happen at particular times of the day, or all the time?
 
Your IE is seriously hosed in some way. Really, it's broken, not just that it's IE. Mine loads AK pages roughly on par with the speed you list from Chrome (more or less no delay) and faster than FireFox.

You know, that wouldn't surprise me. I sure don't remember it being that slow back when it was the only browser I used. Of course that was years ago, before I discovered FF, and now I'm Chrome exclusively. I'll have to fiddle around with it. I might just delete and reinstall it and see if that makes any difference.
 
Loads fine for me - Mac with OSX Lion and Firefox 7.0.1

Cox cable /HS Internet/wired ethernet
 
Traceroute results

Well here is my traceroute and ping results to AK at IP address 207.32.177.8.

Can anyone extrapolate and diagnose the data? :D

Cheers!
 

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Interestingly enough, I am on my laptop at work and the site is loading fast like normal.

This problem has to do with my home DSL connection/ DNS thing maybe.
 
Well here is my traceroute and ping results to AK at IP address 207.32.177.8.

Can anyone extrapolate and diagnose the data? :D

Cheers!

I get ~50ms ping times to the AK server but you're more than 3 times as far away. 150ms isn't great but it doesn't explain the slow load times.

Clearing the cache can't be helping. 90% of a typical AK page load comes from the cache. Every time you load a discussion page with avatars that you've cleared from cache, you're forcing the browser to request them from the server. Even though the browser loads many things at one time, the request times do add up.

To get a better idea of what's happening, install the firefox extension called Firebug.

Open an AK page, then open Firebug: Tools->Web Developer->Firebug

Go back to the Firebug menu and select Firebug UI Location->detached

You should see a window with rows of tabs. Select "Net" in the top row of tabs and "All" in the second row. Then reload the page <F5>.

Firebug will draw a timeline of the entire page load with details for every request it makes. This should give you some idea of what's taking so long. If you can't figure out what it means, post a screenshot and I'll try to help. It should look something like this:

attachment.php
 

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Interestingly enough, I am on my laptop at work and the site is loading fast like normal.

This problem has to do with my home DSL connection/ DNS thing maybe.


In the screenshot I just posted, each little colored block shows the load process for a single HTTP request. If you put your mouse over one of them, it will show how long the DNS lookup took.
 
Hi Adam,

Here are the results. There was so much I had to scroll and it is 2 and a half screens so I did three screen shots. The third one starts where the item is highlighted.

Cheers!
 

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Hi Grog,

The screenshots are all a blur but it looks like most of the delay is "waiting". In other words, the browser quickly does the DNS lookup and sends the request but it takes a long time before it starts to receive data from the server. Once the data starts coming, it seems to flow at a normal speed. The very first request "showthread.php" exhibits the problem so it's not worth even looking at the rest.

This usually indicates a slow web server. Is the AK server actually taking 10-12 seconds to start sending data? I doubt it unless you have some unusual options set in the control panel that cause the server to do extra work for you. It seems to work fine for most people.

Are your browsers using a proxy? If so, try disabling it. If not, read on...

You have tried multiple browsers and they work fine for other sites so I don't think it's a browser issue.

I think it's a network issue on one of the links between you and AK. The ping times are reasonable but a simple ping isn't a great test. Try loading http://www.nexcess.net/. That's the company that hosts AK. If it's also slow then it will help confirm that it's a network issue.

You can try the traceroute again with the "-d" options. I'm hoping that it will show IP addresses for each hop. If that works, then try pinging each of the addresses it shows using ping options "-l 1000" and "-n 20". That will send 20 ping packets each 1000 bytes in length. See if any of them show any packet losses or unusually slow times.

For comparison, I can ping each address along the route to AK with zero packet loss. Each group of 20 takes very close to 0.5 seconds.

If these ping tests reveal a problem, you should try doing the same thing with another distant web site that works well for you. Then, if you're confident that you've isolated a network problem, report it to your ISP. Hopefully they'll be able to take it from there.
 
Count me in on the slow page loads.

Like the OP, something happened "a month or so ago" causing AK to have 16-22 sec. load times. I use Chrome mainly but regardless of what browser AK just drags in the door for me.

Fairly certain it is not a device problem as I've tried on 4 different rigs including iPhone, iPad, Win 7 PC, and Ubuntu laptop.

The requests go out lickity split then it sits and spins.... "waiting on www.audiokarma.org".

Puzzling (some) network specific issue indeed. :saywhat:
 
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Well, going by my relatively limited troubleshooting skills, that most folks don't appear to have a problem with page load times on AK, it's probably not something that resides in AK's corner (pages for me load pretty quickly, almost instantaneously, though I haven't thought to time it as I haven't felt the need to test times). Granted, as measured by www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/, I'm downloading data at around 23 Mbps and uploading at about 1/10 that. Pretty typical for me.

Some pages, especially those with Flash content, seem to load more slowly for me than others. It seems more or less random.

I find that pages load more slowly on IE than on Chrome (the main reason why I switched). Now I find more and more pages refusing to run on IE. Those are pages, though, like Webex conference pages.

Anyhow, back to my original point: I don't believe AD is the culprit, or everyone who comes here would have the same issue.
 
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