• Got the Contributing Memberships stuff finally worked out and made up a thread as a sort of "How-To" to help people figure out how to participate. So if you need help figuring it out, here's the thread you need to take a look at -> http://www.corvetteflorida.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3581 Thank you, everyone! Rich Z.

Doing some work on the server

C5Rick said:
Rich said you're a Hired Gun in metaphor world, would that be why you're brasscannon :lmao:
Everything still running fine
Click to expand...
"A man had a job polishing the cannon in front of the county courthouse -- a political patronage job that let him put a little money aside, but he wasn't getting ahead in the world.

"So one day he withdrew his life savings, bought a brass cannon, and went into business for himself."

-- Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
 
"L3-ATL-14-g0-2.gnax.net" = handoff from Level3 to GNAX, which is in Atlanta.

No need to look for black helicopters just yet.
 
Coming at it from the other side of the country, I'm getting few hops (good; it means your provider is "close" to the Internet backbone) but they are a bit slow.

Raw throughput (KB/sec) concerns me a bit less than your latency, at least at this point.

6 te-0-0-0-0-cr01.sacramento.ca.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.84.38) 33.804 ms 34.618 ms 39.748 ms
7 68.86.85.78 (68.86.85.78) 42.374 ms 46.361 ms 42.070 ms
8 64.215.30.201 (64.215.30.201) 39.412 ms 38.717 ms 41.352 ms
9 64.209.99.62 (64.209.99.62) 90.436 ms 92.177 ms 88.663 ms
10 L3-ATL-14-g0-2.gnax.net (65.254.48.106) 91.442 ms 108.048 ms 91.876 ms
11 ayk.faunanet.com (216.180.243.154) 87.183 ms 89.879 ms 87.926 ms
 
If the fault is at the data center, then if need be I will move the sites (ALL OF THEM) out of there. As I mentioned, at first I got exceptionally good throughput and response from the server this site is on. Then SOMETHING changed, and not for the better.

I would hate like hell to change server hosts right now, but if that is what it takes to fix the problem, then I really don't see another option.

But before I do that, let's grad all the config files that are pertinent so we don't have to rebuild them again.

Damn...... where's my valium....... :banghead: :banghead:
 
BTW, if you go down to the bottom of the page to the left and change the viewing to DEFAULT STYLE, nearly ALL the problems seem to go away.

Figure that one out....... :crazy03: :crazy03:
 
Rich Z said:
If the fault is at the data center, then if need be I will move the sites (ALL OF THEM) out of there. As I mentioned, at first I got exceptionally good throughput and response from the server this site is on. Then SOMETHING changed, and not for the better.
Click to expand...

Let's not throw out the baby with the bath.

I just "groomed" the entire database on this box and that went very fast indeed. Plus I got none of those "The table is usable but ought to be fixed" warnings. Confirmed that it's not a bad little box, and we've ruled out another source of problems.

I've told apache to stop throwing away a child process after every 100 hits; that's a holdover from older versions on a different architecture, and a bit of overhead you don't need.

If we see spotty performance tomorrow I'll turn on monitoring from several different directions and record server performance; if it's the network, you'll have some numbers to use to flog your ISP. Worth giving them a chance to make it right before you cut and run. (And if it DOES come to that, the world is full of hungry service providers.)
 
Rich Z said:
BTW, if you go down to the bottom of the page to the left and change the viewing to DEFAULT STYLE, nearly ALL the problems seem to go away.

Figure that one out....... :crazy03: :crazy03:
Click to expand...

Could be a bad vBulletin skin; they do put in everything but the kitchen sink.

(I don't see that option on this board.)
 
I figured if I gave you admin rights you would be able to see it.

Notice the difference?

But that won't explain the slowness over on FaunaClassifieds. I didn't use a skin over there, just modified the color scheme in the default skin.....
 
RichZ,

For the last few weeks I have had a number of issues with the site. I did not want to mention anything because I know you are busy taking care of all those worms!

I found the site to be very slow and would get blank pages as well. If I refreshed the screen I would get a blank page and wait for sometime before it loaded, or it did not load at all and I would get an error message that it could not connect. When I would get this, I would check to see if I had the same problem on Corvette Forum or the Z16 Forum, and did not experience the issue on either of those sites.

This morning it appears to be running faster and I assume that has something to do with the efforts of "Brassballs".:rofl1: :rofl1: Just a note, the color scheme has changed this morning to a white background and I am assuming that this is being done as part of the diagnostics that you guys are running.

Good luck!

Rich
 
Rich427 said:
Just a note, the color scheme has changed this morning to a white background and I am assuming that this is being done as part of the diagnostics that you guys are running.
Click to expand...
Yup, RichZ flipped that switch and says it seems to be helping. That's yet another data point.

Above a certain size, you have to bite the bullet and pay for "forum" software. RichZ picked one of one of the best-selling examples - vBulletin is a fascinating beast of a program but it can also break in lots of subtle ways.

The chap who introduced me to RichZ is a vBulletin guru, a sharp cookie. If I can give the servers and the network a clean bill of health, he can build on that solid foundation and really put a shine on the vB install.
 
C5Rick said:
Everything seems to be flying smooth tonight. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...
:iagree: and I like the color scheme. Altho, I also liked the other one.....:shrug01: Guess I'm easily pleased :D
 
**Expletives deleted**

I sent an email to the owner of the company who is hosting my servers, stating that I have pretty much reached the end of my rope with the slowness problems. Basically telling him that I see no other alternative but going back to my last server hosting company as things were not great there, but they were not THIS bad at all. I have filed multiple trouble tickets with them, asked my programmer to dig into the problem, hired a consultant, made my own changes to config files on the server, hired another consultant, changed the method that DNS is handled, and banged my head onto my desk numerous times. All to no avail.

So I get this as a response...
Rich,

I apologize for not replying sooner, things have been pretty hectic
here. Thank you for your patience.

I completely understand your concerns. I believe that you should see
considerable improvement in performance here starting right now as a
matter of fact. The DC just did a huge upgrade, or rather has been doing
a rather large upgrade to their core equipment which routes internet
traffic to our customers' servers, yours included. This has been going
on slowly but surely throughout this past month. I believe that is where
the issues for you arise and which will be resolved with the upgrade
done last night. I believe that you will see vast improvement over this
coming week with the overall speed of the network and it will return to
what you have experienced in the beginning with your first server. We
have been working closely with the network engineers to alleviate these
issues as fast as possible and I am positive that with these latest
upgrades to our overall network and core routing gear we have done just
that.

Aside from the above instances, we have experienced some unfortunate
ddos attacks. The technicians and core software mitigated them quickly
but unfortunately users still experienced some packet loss. These
attacks will also be mitigated by applying the aforementioned network
upgrades.

I thank you for voicing your concern and opinion on this. Believe me, we
are fully, 110% aware of this issue and have been working non-stop to
bring the network level to what it was a month and a half ago. I would
like to reassure you that we take this very serious as your well-being
reflects not only on XXXXXXXXX as a whole but on every one of our
employees, myself especially. I encourage you to stay in touch with me
should you continue to feel unsatisfied this coming week. You are more
than welcome to email me directly at this address or phone me at
XXX-XXX-XXXX. If I do not pick up, leave a message and I will return
your call as soon as possible.

If you have any other thoughts you would like to discuss, please do not
hesitate to contact me.
Click to expand...

So why the hockey PUCK didn't he tell me this RIGHT AWAY??????? :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

So, the question is, was he lying when he said he didn't think the problem was on their end when I first notified them about the problem, or am I being lied to NOW? Or both?

One week, people, one week. If this doesn't substantially improve in one week, I'm doing a server move again. I really don't need this sort of crap at this time of year, but I really won't have any choice. I can't have you all getting pissed off an frustrated with the slowness here and leaving because of it. We've all worked too hard to try to get this site going without some goofy server problems deep sixing the entire thing.
 
Hey Rich,

I understand your frustration but just wanted to let you know that I appreciate what you are doing! I am not pissed, and I am not leaving the forum! I left CF to come here for a number of reasons and internet response time was not one of them. Yes, I have been frustrated by some slowness at times, but that was more tolerable than the things I did not like about the larger forums. I also know that I may be an exception and that you want to appeal to the masses. Just my opinion!

Rich
 
Hey Rich Z, I know that some of the users have experienced problems on the site but I have not found it to be a problem. I hope that a few slow page uploads or having to reload the address is not so much that anyone would leave this outstanding forum, not me anyway. Keep up the good work and I think I like the new color format.

Joe B.
 
Actually this color format is the plain vanilla default that comes with the message board software. I switched to it thinking the problems might be coming from the skin I was using for the previous color scheme.
 
I believe I post the most about issues with the forum. I do this not as a threat to leave, but to let Rich know their's an issue either with the forum or on my end. I just believe Rich would like to know, after all he's paying for a service and I for one, expect what I pay for.
Yes the speed does concern me. There have been times when I could move about the forum or make posts. There were times when I couldn't get on the site at all and yep, this concerned me. I applaud Rich for going out of his way during his busy time and get a hired gun to help resolve this issue.
No I wasn't complaining and I don't think spied would chase me away, but being able to get on is important. I just don't believe some have never experienced any of these issues. Sorry for ranting on. Again thanks to Rich for doing whatever it takes and to Cannon for his efforts.
Running smooth today.
 
You guy's can't get rid of me that easy!!! I'm here to stay......Unless somebody buries me Knee deep in snakes!!!
 
I switched back to the original color scheme (skin). Please let me know if it has an adverse effect on the speed of page displays for you.

Thanks.

Rich Z.
 
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