A Server Issue
A frequent visitor sent us an e-mail advising that “[our] page takes a long time to come up”. I have noticed that the server seems to be consuming a bit more memory than usually; but, as far as I can tell, everything is normal. Unfortunately, I can’t really tell how it is for everyone out in blogland since everything always seems the same speed to me because of the way that I connect. So, my question is, if you visit regularly, how does our page load time seems to you? Does it appear slower than usual? Did you notice anything before this post, and, if so, when did it start? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I connect from two different locations and have not noticed any lag time at either locale. I would think the page load time would be more impacted by the user’s connection than your server. The additional memory usage could be due to additional user activity.
I have noticed episodes at times, but not consistently. I always assumed it was an issue with quantity of people viewing the site at the same time… Tonight it loaded quickly
Page load times seem to have increased since mid/late Dec. Videos that were slow-ish to load a few weeks ago are now pedestrian in the extreme. I just assumed it was due to the popularity of the site. Just tried one, still very slow.
Mr. Manic Depressive: I think a lot depends on the time that you connect and when you visit. There are a LOT of graphics in our “2008 A Year In Review” post. So many, in fact, that it makes the main page twice as large as usual. Plus we uploaded some videos over the Christmas holidays, so we are using a lot more bandwidth than in mid-December. I expect page load time to speed up in a few days once we don’t have so many graphics on the front page.
So far as the additional memory goes, I think I’ve found an add-on that is leaking memory in some situations. I’m testing now so we’ll see.
DisappearingJohn: The number of people visiting (and whether or not they are frequent visitors) has a lot to do with it. Frequent visitors are more likely to have most of the graphics in their browser cache and only need to download 2 or 3 new ones; whereas occasional visitors will need to download 10 -14 days worth of graphics all at once. So one new visitor need as much bandwidth as 10 regulars.
Drakken: with the videos and additional graphics, bandwidth utilization has doubled since mid-December for a slight increase in visitors. And, since the New Year, 11-12 PM (2300-2400) local time is the busiest hour of the day. (Usually usage is evenly spread excerpt for a lull in the early hours of the morning.) So you were doubly cursed when you were checking the download speed of a video.