Site is slooooow

[Scott Greczkowski]

Here is mine from work...

3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 9 ms 8 ms 8 ms be2236.ccr41.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.45.5]
6 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms be4985.ccr21.cle04.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.162.165]
7 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms be2717.ccr41.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.6.221]
8 28 ms 28 ms 28 ms be2349.rcr21.stl03.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.80.182]
9 28 ms 28 ms 28 ms be8131.nr61.b003211-0.stl03.atlas.cogentco.com [154.24.15.210]
10 28 ms 28 ms 28 ms 38.104.163.242
11 30 ms 30 ms 114 ms speedy.satelliteguys.us [154.38.162.185]

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok... our ISP has done a complete check of our server and say there are no issues, nor are there any issues at our datacenter.

They did say that they did have a "fiber channel issue" which was repaired that was causing speed issues for some host.

They suggest that I optimize the web server, the database server and php services. They believe it could be a software caching issue. Which I guess is possible.

I have gone through the server head to toe. I have had a friend who is a Unix junkie take a quick look and he didn't find anything wrong but hes not into PHP, APACHE and NGINX stuff nor does he know our Xenforo software.

I have talked with Xenforo support and they suggest hiring someone who knows Xenforo to optimize and gave me a list of recommendations.

In looking at these services, it appears doing this could cost as much as $400.

Two very kind members donated $200 last week. So I am thinking of doing it.

I talked to my wife about this and she told me to turn the server off and call it a day. I told her she has her hobbies and I have mine... and her hobbies cost as much as mine if not more and I was keeping the site opened. She said "yeah I guess so." and rolled her eyes.

In addition SatelliteGuys runs two beta programs for the two satellite companies... and I would like to see them continue on uninterrupted. (No they don't pay us for it.)

So...

I am thinking of hiring someone to come in and give the server the full treatment.

Will it fix the issues? Maybe not. But again maybe it will. Just because I am monitoring the server stats and the numbers all look good, thats not to say a program is having an issue somewhere that I haven't caught and is causing the issue.

So what say you? Shall I give it a try?

 

[raoul5788]

Ok... our ISP has done a complete check of our server and say there are no issues, nor are there any issues at our datacenter.

They did say that they did have a "fiber channel issue" which was repaired that was causing speed issues for some host.

They suggest that I optimize the web server, the database server and php services. They believe it could be a software caching issue. Which I guess is possible.

I have gone through the server head to toe. I have had a friend who is a Unix junkie take a quick look and he didn't find anything wrong but hes not into PHP, APACHE and NGINX stuff nor does he know our Xenforo software.

I have talked with Xenforo support and they suggest hiring someone who knows Xenforo to optimize and gave me a list of recommendations.

In looking at these services, it appears doing this could cost as much as $400.

Two very kind members donated $200 last week. So I am thinking of doing it.

I talked to my wife about this and she told me to turn the server off and call it a day. I told her she has her hobbies and I have mine... and her hobbies cost as much as mine if not more and I was keeping the site opened. She said "yeah I guess so." and rolled her eyes.

In addition SatelliteGuys runs two beta programs for the two satellite companies... and I would like to see them continue on uninterrupted. (No they don't pay us for it.)

So...

I am thinking of hiring someone to come in and give the server the full treatment.

Will it fix the issues? Maybe not. But again maybe it will. Just because I am monitoring the server stats and the numbers all look good, thats not to say a program is having an issue somewhere that I haven't caught and is causing the issue.

So what say you? Shall I give it a try?

How about setting up a targeted fund to pay for it? I'm happy to contribute.

 

[TRG]

I'm no expert but it sounds like paying for an optimization may not get much for your money. My experience in the last few weeks or so is that there is a general slowness for anything going through the internet. That includes three points of reference. My home ISP (DSL) my work computer (Fiber) and my phone (5g). I personally think it is an internet problem since not only SG is affected.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

How about setting up a targeted fund to pay for it? I'm happy to contribute.

Not yet. Lets get things fixed first.

And right now this thing is zooming for me again.

Also Before I have anyone work, I am going to reinstall the old search again, as one the plugin for it has been updated (finally) to support Xenforo 2.3 which means the predictive text when searching should work again... and two part of the optimization these guys does is on the Elasticsearch software. So might as well set it up and have them tweak it for best speed too!

Got some things to take care of here in the office and then I am going to jump in and install it.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I'm no expert but it sounds like paying for an optimization may not get much for your money. My experience in the last few weeks or so is that there is a general slowness for anything going through the internet. That includes three points of reference. My home ISP (DSL) my work computer (Fiber) and my phone (5g). I personally think it is an internet problem since not only SG is affected.

For most of us however the slowness is happening at the same time.

But yes I agree the internet has been strange as well. And not just to here.

 

[primestar31]

Scott, two things: Can you ask Dish Network and Directv to cover some of the ongoing monthly costs? I know that doesn't keep you totally independent, but since for some reason ad's no longer cover the monthly costs, you must consider all angles.

Also, how about putting up a "Donation banner" like LegitFTA has at the top of their page?:

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Scott, two things: Can you ask Dish Network and Directv to cover some of the ongoing monthly costs? I know that doesn't keep you totally independent, but since for some reason ad's no longer cover the monthly costs, you must consider all angles.

In my 21 years of the site, I have never asked either company for anything. And I don't feel comfortable now doing so as so many of my friends working for both companies are getting laid off.

With that said if they are watching and can help I would be grateful. But I don't like asking for Handouts. I am still embarrassed you guys sent me to Team Summit a few years ago and there was nothing really to report. I still feel bad about that.

I have looked at the donation bar before, but honestly do not like begging for money. And I also know with such a bar there are a few members who would always send money which I don't think is fair to them.

So for now we continue on with Pub Memberships... and as I mentioned in another thread I am looking to expand things including a new domain name that lets people know we are more then just satellite. As we are, from cooking, to sports, to electric cars we have a lot to talk about here.

 

[FTA4PA]

The site may be slow at times but not horribly so and it does seem usable most of the time. My two cents would be to save the $400 for a rainy day - you never know when one might happen.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Point of clarification for my sake, please. What is a "supporting founder" and what is the responsibility behind that? I've been a member of the site since late 2011, so obviously I'm not a "supporting founder." But for those who are- perhaps they could chip in a little extra or something?

If the annual deficit for this site is only $4,000, are the members here really willing to let it fail over $333 a month?

 

[primestar31]

I have looked at the donation bar before, but honestly do not like begging for money.

Personally, I certainly do NOT think of it as "begging for money". It's a free-will thing, NO different that a "Gofundme". You have a need, and that banner allows anybody to 'spur of the moment' donate even $1.00-$5.00 at a time here and there. I'd be willing to bet there's a LOT more people willing to throw a $1 now and again towards it, then are willing to pay for an entire "Pub Membership" at a single throw.

It's like found couch money no-brainer, versus really thinking about a larger amount.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Supporting Founders are our original Pub Members, before we moved to a yearly Pub Membership fee.

I have no intention of letting the site fail even if it means paying out of my pocket. In fact the only thing that makes me want to cry and turn the power off is for crazy issues like this one we are having now with the server.

In fact loading this page again took about 10 seconds so I could see your reply... THAT is driving me nuts. I want everything perfect for you guys and I am sorry its not.

All my UNIX knowledge I have is by learning and doing on my own. In the good old days when Satellite was mainstream I actually used to pay people $400 a month just to run and maintain our 3 servers. Over time as ad revenue went down I started learning to do things myself... and the technology got better so that we went from 3 servers down to one.

I want to see us running at full speed. And that is my goal.

I am going to start installing the new search software in a second.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

BTW it took about 15 seconds for that last post to be posted.... grrr...

 

[primestar31]

Can us posting Tracerts at all different times maybe help track it down? This was done back to back just a few minutes ago, during the extra slowness:

C:\Users\menge>tracert satelliteguys.us

Tracing route to satelliteguys.us [154.38.162.185]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 4 ms 4 ms 5 ms TP-SHARE [192.168.1.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 17 ms 15 ms 14 ms int-0-0-1-2.dtr01bycymi.netops.charter.com [96.34.42.13]
4 16 ms 12 ms 12 ms lag-428.crr01sgnwmi.netops.charter.com [96.34.35.6]
5 15 ms 15 ms 16 ms lag-5.crr01aldlmi.netops.charter.com [96.34.34.242]
6 28 ms 20 ms 19 ms lag-807-10.bbr01aldlmi.netops.charter.com [96.34.2.8]
7 19 ms 20 ms * lag-905.bbr01chcgil.netops.charter.com [96.34.0.193]
8 21 ms 21 ms 20 ms lag-801.prr01chcgil.netops.charter.com [96.34.3.9]
9 22 ms 20 ms 24 ms lag-5.ear4.chi2.sp.lumen.tech [4.68.127.133]
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 29 ms 30 ms 29 ms giga-hostin.ear7.chicago2.level3.net [4.1.49.166]
12 61 ms 54 ms 32 ms speedy.satelliteguys.us [154.38.162.185]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\menge>tracert satelliteguys.us

Tracing route to satelliteguys.us [154.38.162.185]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms TP-SHARE [192.168.1.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 14 ms 13 ms 15 ms int-0-0-1-2.dtr01bycymi.netops.charter.com [96.34.42.13]
4 14 ms 15 ms 14 ms lag-428.crr01sgnwmi.netops.charter.com [96.34.35.6]
5 16 ms 18 ms 17 ms lag-5.crr01aldlmi.netops.charter.com [96.34.34.242]
6 19 ms 20 ms 19 ms lag-807-10.bbr01aldlmi.netops.charter.com [96.34.2.8]
7 19 ms * 62 ms lag-905.bbr01chcgil.netops.charter.com [96.34.0.193]
8 20 ms 38 ms 21 ms lag-801.prr01chcgil.netops.charter.com [96.34.3.9]
9 20 ms 31 ms 32 ms lag-5.ear4.chi2.sp.lumen.tech [4.68.127.133]
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 30 ms 28 ms 29 ms giga-hostin.ear7.chicago2.level3.net [4.1.49.166]
12 40 ms 76 ms 39 ms speedy.satelliteguys.us [154.38.162.185]

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have been doing them (tracerts) and like yours the numbers all seem good. Nothing 100MS or over. In fact way below that.

I have also been running pings out of the server and had one ping going for over a day... and have had ZERO lost packets.

 

[primestar31]

I have been doing them (tracerts) and like yours the numbers all seem good. Nothing 100MS or over. In fact way below that.

I have also been running pings out of the server and had one ping going for over a day... and have had ZERO lost packets.

Have you considered that somebody might be ddos attacking the site? Maybe even inadvertently in some way?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Have you considered that somebody might be ddos attacking the site? Maybe even inadvertently in some way?

It IS possible. Although we are "supposed" to be protected by our host.

But normally for a DDOS attack, the server load goes up greatly. Ours is not going up at all, in fact during the last slowness a few minutes ago the server load went down... not up.

 

[Bobby]

Point of clarification for my sake, please. What is a "supporting founder" and what is the responsibility behind that? I've been a member of the site since late 2011, so obviously I'm not a "supporting founder." But for those who are- perhaps they could chip in a little extra or something?

If the annual deficit for this site is only $4,000, are the members here really willing to let it fail over $333 a month?

Um, I am a Supporting Founder having been on this site since day one. Yes, I am not required to pay anything as a thank you from Scott. However, I chip in something at least annually and often more than that. I personally chipped in $200 to get Scott to that Summit a few years back. I know many of my fellow Founders chip in all the time.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Um, I am a Supporting Founder having been on this site since day one. Yes, I am not required to pay anything as a thank you from Scott. However, I chip in something at least annually and often more than that. I personally chipped in $200 to get Scott to that Summit a few years back. I know many of my fellow Founders chip in all the time.

Thanks. I meant no offense. I just wasn't sure if there was some sort of additional financial responsibility behind it.

 

[primestar31]

Scott: Maybe you can add some "Premium" forums, (or convert some to that) that have a slight monthly fee to participate in them?

Just trying to brainstorm ways of covering the costs. If we throw out enough ideas, might be a few good ones in there.