Speed of PPRuNe Website

[RDRickster]

Lately, I've found the performance of the PPRuNe website to be sorely lacking. Is it just me, or is anybody experiencing extended upload times? I have a T-1 at work, and I'm still getting a lot of "Server Busy" errors from PPRuNe.

I hope they upgrade the database and do something about the through-put soon!

(otherwise - what a great and informative site - Kudos to Heliport for a superb job of moderating)

[Practice Auto 3,2,1]

Yep, its pretty slow here too RDR, even with Broadband!

Probabily due the server getting all excited because its nearly Christmas :O

[PANews]

A victim of its own success, I had two rejected sorties today but its quieter now so I guess we will just have to choose our times!

[B Sousa]

Im also on Broadband and glad to see Im not alone. Certain times its really dragging........

[RDRickster]

Wow! For the folks on dial-up, they are probably leaving out of frustration. Typically, the patience level of Internet user is maxed out after about 8 seconds. If PPRuNe doesn't give this consideration, they will lose some of the user base... which will affect hits per month... which will affect their advertising revenue.

[DeepC]

I'm a dial up user at home and I think that any other website I would not bother with. Trouble is, PPRuNe is totally addictive. I normally click on the Helicopters Around The World Photo Thread and then go and make myself a cup of tea.

I do find though that it is not slow speeds generally. It takes a long time to find and switch pages but after that it loads the pages quite fast (28.8 BT Line notwithstanding!).

At work is a different matter. Broadband leased line work access. Tends to speed things up. Though there is still the same delay in finding the pages.

DeepC

[Wozzappenin?]

Yes,
I'm on line to PPRuNe right now and I've had 3 server busy errors already. It's very frustrating and getting worse. I hope something can be done about it because it's the best aviation forum around.

[RDRickster]

I've struck out twice in the last few minutes. Understandably, the server will be busy at peak times. Nevertheless, this doesn't sound like a peak time issue... looks like a trend concerning lack of performance. I hope the PPRuNe Gurus are paying attention to this!

[Practice Auto 3,2,1]

Just to give a current SitRep, all seems fine tonight speed-wise. Not a single sight of the 'Server Busy' message.....yet

:ok:

[Lost_luggage34]

RDR - good & very valid points.

Strange, we used to do our annual stress testing in Gaithesburg ! Any connection (if u excuse the pun) perhaps ?

[PPRuNe Towers]

Quick brief is this: victim of its own success sums it up. When broadband users are having problems it gets our attention very quickly indeed and we've been working on this for a couple of months. Finance is the problem.

We're tweaking on the technical side - you may have found the search engine shut down to offload the server. We've also brought another server online to place the ads for the same reason.

The server is not an old 386 simmering gently in the bowels of the Towers. Twin processor, 1 gig of memory and raid disk set up linked to multiple T1 backbone. It runs entirely on unix, the web server software isn't some freeby like Apache but a full commercial package called Zeus and the forum itself is actually a high speed commercial database with a pretty pastel veneer. It's not a toy and nestles in a 24/7 server farm in the States.

The reason it's not coping is simply this - of 30 plus million websites worldwide PPRuNe comes in at number 12,000. You might want to play with the percentage function on your calculator after reading that. We are on a traffic par with major world corporations, governments and large software companies.

This is the longest we've ever gone without upgrading the server - April last year. The spec and cost of a significant and noticeable improvement for you the user is that of a very nice car. We're working on raising the finance but there is no PPruNe office, no staff, just a core of three us us flying the line and paddling like hell in our spare time. Without our superb mods offloading us the place would have gone under several years ago.

While you wait for us to get the extra capacity needed there's a couple of self help ideas I'd like to pass on. Try to avoid the 10 - 14 z period but much more importantly and especially those of you on dial up stop using Internet Explorer:sad: :sad:

We get a very clear view of exactly how you're viewing the site and through which browser. I cannot recommend strongly enough that you switch to a lightweight, tabbed browser. While you're viewing a page you've got another couple loading on other tabs - simple and effective it also masks the speed problems as you've always got a page to read.

Apologies for the problems - we're working at it on several fronts and you're not being ignored. Believe me, I run the site while downroute, often from internet cafes, and experience every single frustration you do and then some.

Perhaps a few of you would like to chip in with some info for your fellow rotorheads regarding the modern, tabbed browsers. A huge improvment is out there just a free download away.

Regards
Rob Lloyd

[RDRickster]

Rob,

Thanks for the update. I think everybody here agrees that PPRuNe is an awesome place to visit! Sounds like you are definately on top of things, and offer some excellent advice.

If there's anything I can do to help the continued success from my neck of the woods (Equinox Data Center or other OC3 backbone collocation site nearby), I'd be happy to offer up a few hours of free consulting...

Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer + Internet (#1296661), Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (#1296661), Microsoft Certified Trainer (#1296661), Citrix Certified Administrator, CompTIA Certified Technical Trainer+ (#COMP10606076), CompTIA A+ Computer Service Technician (#CDADTT5359), Adjunct Professor for George Washington University’s Solution Center, Committee Member for the Department of Defense Health Affairs PKI Initiative (serving in 2000), Voting Member of the Information Technology and Innovations Committee for the City of Gaithersburg (active since 2001). Honor Graduate of the U.S. Army System Administrator Security Course (#07E-F66/531-F21), Honor Graduate of the U.S. Army Network Manager Security Course (#07E-F67/531-F22), and Distinguished Honor Graduate of the DoD DISC4 Information Systems Security Manager’s Course. Currently, I serve as the Director of Network Services for a local training and network integration firm (since 1999).

Just a thought... you may want to consider a web caching device in front of the server (especially for images). They are not too expensive, and it wouldn't require any new soft coding (pretty much plug & play). Without knowing more, my knee-jerk reaction is that a web caching device or appliance will offload a lot of processing and disk reading actions from the main server(s). Even if you are running BGP with failover, some kind of pre-cache aparatus should serve you well.

Please forgive the back seat driving (and my arrogance)!

*****************************

Oh, and I'll put in a shameless plug for a job while I'm at it. If anyone works for a medium to large aviation company, I would love to work as your Chief Information Officer or Manager of Information Systems. I like what I'm doing, now; nevertheless, since I'm also a helicopter pilot, I'd rather use some of my limited skills for an aviation company! :ok:

[Av8r]

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

...check the big brain on the 'rickster!!!





:=



Mack

[B Sousa]

Rickster
Next time your in Vegas at COMDEX or one of those big conventions. I will buy Beer while you clean up my Puter....
Ha Ha

[Thomas coupling]

RD: you dark horse, you :O
Way to go!!!

Bet you can't pull though:) :D

[Dantruck]

For those of us without a GCSE in 'advanced-rickster,' what's a multi-tab browser thingy, and where do I get one?

I could ask my son, but he'd only laugh at me again!
:ugh:

[Evo]

I like Opera (http://www.opera.com), but Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org) is also good :ok:

(edit: both are free downloads, although Opera displays a banner advert downloaded from Google until you pay €30 or so for a licence)

[RobboRider]

PPrune Towers (Rob Lloyd)
I'm keen to do my bit especially if it'll speed up my access. But I afraid I'm a bit slow and I'll need specific instructions.

What's a lightweight, tabbed browser? Where do I find one and what named one do you recommend.
Is there any special way of setting them up etc. I really need a dummies guide to do it.


Cheers

[Robbo Jock]

I've downloaded and installed Mozilla. Nice and painless - even automatically sets up your favourites from Internet Explorer. Apart from a rather irritating T-Rex style logo, seems fine.

Only time will tell whether it's any quicker, though.

Problem is, now I've got two browsers to use, I'll probably spend more time deciding which one to click on than actually on the 'net ! :uhoh:

[RDRickster]

B Sousa, if I'm in Vegas I'll look you up for those beers (fixing computers makes me thirsty). I haven't decided wether or not to go to the Heli-Expo in March, yet.

Thomas coupling, weeeee... bppppp <stomp, stomp... snort>

Av8r, Internet forums are great because you can make up anything you want. Besides, it doesn't cost me much to put all those initials at the bottom of my business cards! :8

[PPRuNe Towers]

RD - as it happens I'm in DC for the next three days - wouldn't mind a chat if we can swap numbers by pm - do it on my nickel.

However, for now I must hie me away - the Air and Space museum beckons. Footsore and knackered I'll pop back in later today and, if no-one else has chipped, in I describe what a tabbbed browser is and why you need one.

Regards
Rob

[PPRuNe Towers]

OK - tabbed browsers. Assuming most of you are Windows sufferers, sorry, users you have a tabbed system on board already. Usually something like the control panel or video card section. As you'll know you have a single window on screen and switch areas in the form of tabs at the top.

As you click on them you go to different sections but always remain within the single open window.

Tabbed browsers work in exactly the same way. You open a single browser window and your page opens as normal. However, you can use a menu or a shortcut (control + t) to open another 'tab.'. You can do this three or four times and load different sections of the site or threads.

Read the page you're on and when finished click on where you want to go next. While it is loading you just click on the next tab and you have another page to read and so on across all the tabs. No fuss, no muss - even on dial up you always have a loaded page to read or select a thread from.

We ensure the site works across all browsers even going to the lengths of running Windows emulators on our Macs to check out all PC software. Regretably we aren't able to advise you to get rid of the Internet Explorer bloatware altogether as some web designers, especially in finance and banking, are in the thrall of Microsoft's dark forces :{ :{ :{

These tabbed browsers are free downloads and appear on computer mag cover disks. They're a fraction of the size of I.E. and much faster - strongly recommended for this site. I'll leave it to the rotorheads to pass on names and links because I want to stress the time and care we put into ensuring a service whatever browser you decide to use. Give it a go - I think you'll find it transforms using PPRuNe.

Regards
Rob

[RDRickster]

Since nobody has mentioned it yet, you can try using Netscape. It's almost as fat as IE, but Netscape seems to favor Unix-based systems much better than Uncle Bill's products (gee, I wonder why that is). One of the main benefits is that it won't be so tightly integrated into your Operating System... that independance can be beneficial at times.

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp