The SFN Server needs help

[iNow]

These 1-2 minute load times for pages are making the site unusable. I thought maybe it was a temporary problem, but it's been happening consistently for several weeks now.

[Sayonara]

These 1-2 minute load times for pages are making the site unusable. I thought maybe it was a temporary problem, but it's been happening consistently for several weeks now.

 

Agree.

 

Is it still @Dave who does all the servery stuff?

[studiot]

Personally I find it ideally paced. I just go for a nap between webpages.

 

I do like that icon.

Edited September 14, 2013 by studiot

[Sayonara]

Seems much faster on my iPad than it is via Firefox

[ajb]

It has been slow for me today also. I am using firefox. The blogs are also very tempermental for a while now.

[Ilex aquifolium]

It's been incredibly slow for me (on chrome) since joining too. Good to know it's not just my laptop as I had initially thought.

[EdEarl]

Same here, both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

[Unity+]

It takes 10 minutes to load one page for me. That is why I haven't been on much. Also, sometimes I get the 500 - server error, which really messes with my ability to use the site.

[Sayonara]

A few years ago when we were plagued by nuisance members we used a plug-in to set up a special user group. Any members in that group would have a horrible experience on the site until they gave up and went to troll elsewhere (long loading times, randomly incorrect pages, missing style sheets, broken images... you name it).

 

I wonder if @blike has put us all in that group

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

dave and I are supposed to have server responsibilities but neither of us has much time lately.

 

dave made some changes to the MySQL configuration recently, thinking he could tune its memory use. I keep records of every change made to the configuration, so I reverted the changes to see if that makes things better.

 

According to the counter at the bottom of each page, the site is currently taking five to ten seconds just to render a thread; that's clearly unacceptable, and I think MySQL has been choking. Hope this works.

[Unity+]

dave and I are supposed to have server responsibilities but neither of us has much time lately.

 

dave made some changes to the MySQL configuration recently, thinking he could tune its memory use. I keep records of every change made to the configuration, so I reverted the changes to see if that makes things better.

 

According to the counter at the bottom of each page, the site is currently taking five to ten seconds just to render a thread; that's clearly unacceptable, and I think MySQL has been choking. Hope this works.

It definitely sped up when you did this. Thanks for fixing it.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I'm still seeing pageloads taking four or more seconds instead of four-tenths of a second, so I'll keep looking. Something is hammering MySQL pretty hard.

[iNow]

Thanks for stepping in, Cap'n.

[StringJunky]

I don't know if this relevant to the problem but whenever I ping this site all packets are always lost and has done since I can remember.

 

[Sayonara]

I'm still seeing pageloads taking four or more seconds instead of four-tenths of a second, so I'll keep looking. Something is hammering MySQL pretty hard.

 

Possible that we are currently experiencing the lamest DDoS attack ever.

[EdEarl]

Response is very good at this moment.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I don't know if this relevant to the problem but whenever I ping this site all packets are always lost and has done since I can remember.

 

Science Forum Ping.PNG

 

I think dave has ICMP firewalled off, so there are no ping replies.

 

 

Possible that we are currently experiencing the lamest DDoS attack ever.

Possibly. We're probably being assaulted for our shameless defense of Einsteinian relativistic orthodoxy.

[Phi for All]

It might be my fault, I denied being a "Darwinian" to a creationist. He may have tried to use his intelligence to design this attack.

[John Cuthber]

Logically, all the anti darwinian ddos attacks would have died out with the first anti malware package.

They couldn't accept that they needed to change in response to a new environment.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Server load graphs are showing that it's running more smoothly today than it has been running for a couple weeks. I hope that means I fixed it.

 

(It's still taking over a second to make each page, which is very slow, but at least tolerable.)

[EdEarl]

IMO it is much better today than for the past few weeks, TYVM for fixing.

[imatfaal]

Nice one Cap'n.

[StringJunky]

At 4 seconds load time that's about 56 seconds faster than yesterday....nice one Cap'n. In practice it's now loading as fast as any other website I visit.

[studiot]

Gosh it's running so fast now my head is spinning.

 

Do we have to pay extra for the speed?

 

Oh it's free.

 

Well do we get paid extra for rushing about chasing pages at this speed?

 

Edited September 15, 2013 by studiot

[Unity+]

 

Possible that we are currently experiencing the lamest DDoS attack ever.

It would take more than all the anti-Einsteinians that there are to slow the site down this much.

 

Also, I think it is fixed.