Delayed Posting Issues

[welshdog]

I've asked this in the SMF support forum and am getting some serious support... but I thought I'd add a revised query here in case there is some issue that might be looked at as a possible cause of my problem.

Basically, my site isn't able to post messages quickly. In fact it usually takes in the region of 64 seconds for new messages to leave member's desks and be visible to others.

For a couple of years the site worked well enough, but I recently updated both TP and SMF (to 1.1.9) and since then the posting speed has slowed and it's now driving people crazy.

Initially I thought it might be the server but I've nagged the hosting service who say the server is experiencing heavy loads but nothing that would cause a tiny site such as ours to experience such delays... therefore (they say) it must be software.

I've removed every installed mod except TP and I really do *not* want to lose the added functionality.

Wondering really if anyone else has has a similar experience and if so how did they fix it.

Also wondering if I uninstalled TP to see if it made a difference would it pick up the old settings and dats (e.g. shouts) when I reinstalled it??

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url: http:/australianopinion.com
TP: v1.0 beta 3 Ã,© Bloc
SMH: 1.1.9

[Lesmond]

not sure what could be causing this welshdog! the page loads are fast from here in the UK, do you have any rss feeds running at all, or any other code added to your themes, does this happen with the default theme?

not saying I can help, just trying to look at possible solutions 

[welshdog]

not sure what could be causing this welshdog! the page loads are fast from here in the UK, do you have any rss feeds running at all, or any other code added to your themes, does this happen with the default theme?

not saying I can help, just trying to look at possible solutions 

There's nothing obvious that could be causing the problems as far as anyone can tell. We've a small membership... 82... with only a dozen or so active and even then we don't post much really. Very few images in posts... no excessive overheads as far as I can tell... and most of us use the default theme.

It just started to take 64 seconds to send messages after the upgrade.

[JPDeni]

Also wondering if I uninstalled TP to see if it made a difference would it pick up the old settings and dats (e.g. shouts) when I reinstalled it?

It should. The settings and data are stored in the database and uninstalling doesn't touch the database. However, I would make a backup of both the settings.php file and the database before uninstalling, just to be on the safe side.

The only time I've had problems with slowness is when I was using a reseller type hosting company.

[welshdog]

Also wondering if I uninstalled TP to see if it made a difference would it pick up the old settings and dats (e.g. shouts) when I reinstalled it?

It should. The settings and data are stored in the database and uninstalling doesn't touch the database. However, I would make a backup of both the settings.php file and the database before uninstalling, just to be on the safe side.

The only time I've had problems with slowness is when I was using a reseller type hosting company.

Thanks - if push comes to shove I'll give an uninstall a go and see if speed improves. If it does it might help sort out what's going on.

As for the reseller comment... the site *is* on my own reseller account but I have Gb's of capacity spare (both space and bandwidth) so I couldn't see such a small site being a problem. Having said that, the last time I looked the server was running at 94.5% capacity.

The hosts suggested I rent/buy a dedicated server but I don't have the technical ability to be able to run a server on my own... and I'm told costs are prohibitive.

[JPDeni]

Actually, I used the wrong word. I meant an *overseller* company, not a reseller. Sorry. I had slowness problems when I was at Dreamhost and at HostMonster.

Narrowing down the problem is a good way to go and there really isn't any other way to narrow it down than to start uninstalling and see what happens.

[WillyP]

Keep in mind bandwidth and space you pay for is not "reserved" or in any way set aside for you... If you are paying for, say 600gb, that only means you can use that much without paying more. The extra space and bandwidth is pooled amongst all the customers who happen to be on that equipment. So the fact that your site is small and doesn't get much traffic is irrelevant. If there are many, or some large sites bogging the server or connection down, yours will bog too. This is the nature of sharing. Some hosts run better than others, but they are all there to make a buck and more hardware cost money. Keep complaining, or switch hosts. There's nothing wrong with your software. If you are clean, that is. Check your files and make sure you didn't get hacked. (search: "krisbarteo" on SMF.)

[welshdog]

Keep in mind bandwidth and space you pay for is not "reserved" or in any way set aside for you... If you are paying for, say 600gb, that only means you can use that much without paying more. The extra space and bandwidth is pooled amongst all the customers who happen to be on that equipment. So the fact that your site is small and doesn't get much traffic is irrelevant. If there are many, or some large sites bogging the server or connection down, yours will bog too. This is the nature of sharing. Some hosts run better than others, but they are all there to make a buck and more hardware cost money. Keep complaining, or switch hosts. There's nothing wrong with your software. If you are clean, that is. Check your files and make sure you didn't get hacked. (search: "krisbarteo" on SMF.)

Perhaps I should also add that of the 20+ domains/sites in the account this is the only one that shows any excessive lag. There are two other (also small) forums and they all post within 5 seconds.

One of them is a 'plain' SMF 1.1.9 install but the other is a similar SMF + TP install. Just for info I 'timed' posting on a sister forum (www.gastricbandits.com) and it took just 2 seconds whilst the wwwaustralianopinion.com install still takes over a minute!

[ZarPrime]

I just looked at your site for the first time and it loads very fast for a guest ...
Page created in 0.129 seconds with 26 queries.

Do you have any blocks of anything else that are shown to members but not to guests that might be causing a slowdown like you are describing?

ZarPrime

[welshdog]

I just looked at your site for the first time and it loads very fast for a guest ...
Page created in 0.129 seconds with 26 queries.

Do you have any blocks of anything else that are shown to members but not to guests that might be causing a slowdown like you are describing?

ZarPrime

I've looked thru the SMF site for possible causes and I can't think of anything. Any suggestions??

Navigating the site, using the Shoutbox etc are all fine. Even writing edits to messages is fast... it's just *new* messages that are taking the time.