Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

...or have the number and quality of posts here at VC diminished in recent weeks?

Don't get me wrong, there are still some good ones, but when I joined back in December there seemed to be several dozen new posts in each category daily. Now, with membership approximately 1,000 more then it was back then, only a handful of posts in total appear daily. Granted, many of the posts back then were "complaints", but even they have been significantly reduced.

Are we all too busy using our new toys (without many problems) or what?

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MarkEagle - Ice is nice!

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 106

Site speed might be a factor. I go thru 3 (yes, three) other BBS, email and new/updated apps on PalmGear in the time it takes to just get the daily list of topics up. (I'm on a cable modem, all other sites running fine). I usually wind up giving up on the site.

Registered: Aug 1999
Location: Inverness, FL
Posts: 428

I am hoping that all the speed issues will be resolved tommorrow

Marcus

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 4

Any word on when it may be fixed? I'm about ready to give up on this site.

Registered: Aug 1999
Location: Inverness, FL
Posts: 428

Please go to this page if you have connection problems.
http://www.visorcentral.com/test.php3

Thanks

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: "Children are a gift from God, they are a reward"
Posts: 1049

I'm still experiencing problems with the site coming up r a t h e r s l o w. I tried the test link you put up, and it came up FAST. I'm not going to give up on the site, but I do not post as much and I kinda lose the sponteniety of the moment often. Technology is funny. I'm sure you're laughing a lot Marcus!
In my opinion (totally untested and so forth), its' all the banner ads (that have movement in them) that are sucking up the sites bandwidth and causing the slowdown. I hope you guys have an alternate plan for revenue for the site. Banner advertising does not produce revenue for the advertiser, it just annoys the consumer. I'd rather pay 5 bucks a month straight to you guys so I don't have to deal with that cr*p!
Hope you figure it out soon!
Michael Walters

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

Ok... 6 minutes and counting trying to get to the test page. I'd say the problem's not yet resolved. VC has been extremely slow for me today... both at work (128k FRC) and now here at home (56k @ 46667 bps).

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MarkEagle - Ice is nice!

Registered: Aug 1999
Location: Inverness, FL
Posts: 428

My upstream just told me they are still waiting for the new DS3 connection to go live... I will keep you updated on its status.

Currently it seems like most of the traceroutes I have received (over 200 thanks!) looks fine, so it is now a bandwidth issue as we suspected.

Marcus

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

As mentioned, the banner ads are still a problem as well. I don't mind banner ads at all...hell, they pay for the site. HOWEVER, several of the ads are JAVA-ads. For a lot of people (myself included) these SLLLOOWWWW down the entire process. It first loads a Java VM, and then it attempts to render the ad, sometimes with errors, sometimes crashing the browser.

Please, kill the JAVA ads!

Registered: Aug 1999
Location: Inverness, FL
Posts: 428

Good news!

We have now blocked all the Java banners on the discussion board pages. Hopefully this will speed things up. We are still working on the bandwidth issues...

Marcus

[This message has been edited by marcus (edited 02-25-2000).]

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 170

quote:

---

Originally posted by homer:
As mentioned, the banner ads are still a problem as well. I don't mind banner ads at all...hell, they pay for the site. HOWEVER, several of the ads are JAVA-ads. For a lot of people (myself included) these SLLLOOWWWW down the entire process. It first loads a Java VM, and then it attempts to render the ad, sometimes with errors, sometimes crashing the browser.

Please, kill the JAVA ads!

---

Registered: Aug 1999
Location: Inverness, FL
Posts: 428

Update!

Here are the current connection speeds from various ISPs in the US.

WatchWise 10.4 KByte/sec
InterWorld Communication Inc. 6.9 KByte/sec
Intra-Connect 136.1 Byte/sec
SwappersAndCollectors.Com 10.4 KByte/sec
Web Dimensions 349.1 Byte/sec
Canadian Web Hosting 10.4 KByte/sec
MCM Systems 51.2 Byte/sec
Hypermart 4.2 KByte/sec
Internet Young Polonia 608.4 Byte/sec
Quantum Internet Systems 6.9 KByte/sec

Some of these are normal speeds, others are very slow. Still trying to narrow the problem down.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Posts: 2682

The site seems to be smokin' this morning... back to the VisorCentral I remember not so long ago. Thanks... let's hope it stays this way.

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MarkEagle - Ice is nice!

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: San Francisco, CA
Posts: 431

Yeah, Visorcentral's speed today is great. It's better than I've seen for months. I hope that it lasts.

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

Marcus:

Thanks for killing the Java ads...very nice.

I'm in St. Paul, MN and I use two different ISPS. One (PCONLINE.COM) connects to VisorCentral with no problems the other (ISD.NET) can hardly download the logo banner before giving up (the site is inaccesible through that ISP).

I wasn't able to click on your Tracer route link with the bad ISP as you had taken it down at that time.

Registered: Aug 1999
Location: Inverness, FL
Posts: 428

Homer,

Have you tried ISD.NET today? We worked all night on some issues, and the site should be accessible quickly throughout the net now.

Please let me know the status with ISD.net.

Thanks,

Marcus

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: "Children are a gift from God, they are a reward"
Posts: 1049

Thanks guys you're back up to speed! You was s l o w this AM, but you are back to what I remember!Thanks for cutting the JAVA ads off the discussion site also.
Great job, and thanks for all the posts responding to everyones questions!
Michael

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Sydney Australia
Posts: 1883

MMM, isn't it Ironic that I'm probably physically further away of the VC-server than everybody who has slow speeds and never experienced any problems....

So it's not the site or the distance, It IS the pipeline that connects your ISP to VC...

Hopefully things will improve for you guys soon...

Greetinx from amsterdam to all...

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 434

While things are back up to speed for the most part, I'm still getting the stalls during page loads (probably one out of five pages). I'm talking 15 to 20 seconds where there is no progress made at all in loading the page.

FWIW, I ran marcus' traceroute link from 2/25. I'm on a DSL connection with GTE as my ISP. It is 11pm PST, so net traffic shouldn't be all that high.