New EEVblog Server POLL - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 04:49:17 am
content: Ok, I've switched the entire EEVblog site from HostMonster to Sitecloud and am in the process of trying it all.If everyone could give me thumbs up or down on the performance, and note any issues they find, that would be appreciated.Anything from blog posts, comments, ads, searching, the forum, RSS feed, iTunes etc.ThanksDave.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 06:28:52 am
content: err well considering I got here by clicking on an email link for another thread not a lot, suppose it is just a little migration thing. will have to see how it works first

author: Kiriakos-GR
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 10:19:16 am
content: Currently looks to be faster in all , but i will vote in a week ..

author: orbiter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 10:30:13 am
content: Are we still on the new server today Dave or back on the old again now?

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 10:31:29 am
content: I think this is the new, I think really the only way to tell is if you have no issue with a large number of people online or your hosting some large files and see the difference there

author: orbiter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 10:38:25 am
content: Yep. Just checked. The Cloud's servers are showing up so I guess this is the new one

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 10:55:03 am
content: Yep, this is the new server.Dave.

author: orbiter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 11:07:52 am
content: I think the whole site definately feels snappier. I did notice that whilst routing around my account & profile info pages it's much quicker for me. Previously I was waiting for a few seconds before anything would happen following a click here and there, where as now it's instant!.

author: Kiriakos-GR
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 11:24:52 am
content: I agree that definitely feels snappier ...But this days , its all about bandwidth .. so if it keeps that way , every one will be happy.

author: MTron
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 01:58:39 pm
content: Quote from: shafri on August 05, 2010, 11:13:11 amThe site data is transferred from the server to you via HTML code and reproduced on your end...unless Dave changed the code then there should be no difference as the reproduction of the site is totally dependent on your system....so yea, i think its just youIts just like the audiophiles who say that they get better sound when they switch to a higher quality digital interconnect....unless you were getting significant data packet loss, a "better" digital data line isn't going to change anything.....not that i'm saying you're like that....im just talking here...that being said...its defiantly faster!

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 02:09:16 pm
content: We won't know how good the server response is until its pushed to its limits, and that means simultaneous users. I don't think there was a response problem with the old server at the current traffic level. Even then, the server response has to be separated from the network response.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 06:11:46 pm
content: If space and bandwidth are a problem, you could reduce the colour depth of the thumnails for image attachments, for example PNGs always get converted to 32-bit colour so some of the thumbnails have a larger file size than the original attachment.Here's an extreme example, the image attached is a monochrome PNG which takes just 657 bytes, the 32-bit thumbnail is 20,237 bytes, over 30 times the size. All right, 20kB isn't much but it mounts up, especially if bandwidth is restricted.Another thing you could do is get some of the site's images hosted on a free image hosting site such as imageshack, although then there's the risk it could go down.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 10:12:00 pm
content: Well I have a problem ! I am getting NO email notifications of replys even though this is set on my profile

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 10:22:30 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on August 05, 2010, 10:12:00 pmHmm, that's a problem. I'll look into it.Dave.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 10:40:05 pm
content: Quote from: saturation on August 05, 2010, 02:09:16 pmWell as it turns out I had my biggest day yesterday in terms of hits!6,459 hits, with over 5,000 the day before. That's about double the usual rate.It just so happens I got Ask slashdotted in the comments.Probably would have got more, but the migrations in progress.I need to get properly slashdotted to really find out though!Dave.

author: orbiter
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2010, 10:51:16 pm
content: I seem to be getting the thread notifications ok. Although I did have a little spell of notification problems when we we're on the old server, I had to keep remembering the threads I'd been in or putting them in my favourites so I didn't loose trackHave you tried disabling notification and re-enabling it again? I did that and it seemed ok afterwards. Just an idea.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 06, 2010, 12:55:12 am
content: Quote from: orbiter on August 05, 2010, 10:51:16 pmOk, so if email notification is working for others then it's not a server installation problem, i.e. some mail script not being installed or something.Dave.

author: logictom
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 06, 2010, 01:47:12 pm
content: I've noticed a few missing images, mostly peoples profile pictures. In this thread Simon, shafri and my own are missing, is this just me or is everyone missing the images?I think there were a few attachments to posts missing but I can't see any at the minute, will update if spot any more.Just noticed something strange, if in Google Chrome I right click on my image or any of the missing images and open in new tab, I either get the maintenance message "Sorry everyone, back on the old server again. I've disable the forum until the issue is resolved, otherwise any new post will not appear on the new server once I switch back again. Dave." or the download index.php problem. Again not sure if this is just effecting me or everyone.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 06, 2010, 07:23:01 pm
content: well I've been away all day and needless to say threads I've posted in have new posts but not one email I had also after the migration set the notification for any new threads appearing in all categories and after being away all day nothing ? something is screwy

author: logictom
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 06, 2010, 07:46:02 pm
content: Hmm everything seems to be fine now, email has been working fine and images are back up.Maybe it's taking it's time to propagate the the interwebs?

author: Kiriakos-GR
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2010, 02:46:07 am
content: Check the time ..of my post , the server cuts for 10 seconds , and starts up again .. it just started doing it .

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 08, 2010, 07:22:36 am
content: Well I'm still not getting any notifications via email, I have to keep coming to the board and checking the unread link

author: migsantiago
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2010, 08:00:47 pm
content: I visit the forums 5 or 6 times a day and on the old server I sometimes found lag on loading pages.Now, it's been working as silk for 1 week.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 08, 2010, 08:10:25 pm
content: but i still don't get notifications

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 08, 2010, 09:57:33 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on August 08, 2010, 08:10:25 pmTEST. Trying out the notify feature.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 08, 2010, 10:22:19 pm
content: TEST.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 08, 2010, 10:36:37 pm
content: Ok, I'm starting to see email replies to posts I've made.It doesn't email my own posts, because it's probably too smart to do that.I changed the server SMTP email settings (it was blank before, but that doesn't explain how I got email notifications of private messages without problem, or others had reports of the email notifications working)Dave.

author: Kiriakos-GR
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2010, 11:24:44 pm
content: Just tested the email notifications .. they work fine ....

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 10, 2010, 02:18:51 am
content: The EMAIL system has been fixed now I believe. All the mail server settings were wrong, and people were not getting their new account registration emails.I don't know how the new post notification emails worked at all! uses another system perhaps?Any more problems let me know.Dave.

author: DJPhil
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2010, 05:23:58 am
content: I waited to vote to see if I could spot a difference, and I haven't found anything I'd testify in court on.My usual use is to leave up the "Show unread posts since last visit." page and hit refresh when I'm up for a batch. I at least skim everything. Occasionally I get a long load time or a rare error (never stopped to see which, sorry), but a refresh always fixed it immediately. I'm fairly sure this is at least partly my end, as my internet connection occasionally drops out for a few seconds. It does seem to load just a bit faster, but that might be in my head.I'm no network expert by any means, but I've had to go to bat against my ISP twice now (two locations around town) about bad upstream connections. I've foundPingplotterto be very useful for tracking intermittent problems with a cable or dsl connection. They have a free version and a full function 30 day trial that's much more useful. I'd leave it running at 0.2Hz or so for a few days to a site like google and try to correlate the mess with something (temp, rain, time). It might be handy to someone, so I figured I'd mention it.Hope that helps.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 10, 2010, 05:52:39 am
content: Quote from: shafri on August 10, 2010, 02:25:24 amAnyone else getting this?Haven't seen it myself yet, just a few hiccups during the changeover.On my old server though it'd be down quite often for me (few times a week), not even an error message. Sometime it had been out for an hour or more.Dave.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 10, 2010, 06:45:07 am
content: well I still get no email notifications of replies, I'm considering start a new account but that would be a pity

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 10, 2010, 09:06:29 am
content: Quote from: Simon on August 10, 2010, 06:45:07 amSorry Simon, I have no idea what's going on. Works for me and others.Have you tried disabling and then re-enabling the alert feature?Nothing unusual in your profile settings that I can see.Dave.

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2010, 10:22:03 am
content: It happened this Sunday to me, just early in the AM, EDT.Quote from: EEVblog on August 10, 2010, 05:52:39 am

author: Kiriakos-GR
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2010, 12:52:54 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on August 10, 2010, 06:45:07 amSome email servers running "Windows Server" OS , they load automatically , one list of banned email providers,known as spam sources .Hotmail blocks all those servers too .If you can send one email , from your account at the hotmail server, and become accepted and delivered ,the above suspicion , does not stand.For the Hotmail test, you have to wait 24 hours as confirmation, because the mail servers does lots of retry s , before they return the blocked email as undeliverable.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 10, 2010, 04:27:39 pm
content: I regularly email hotmail

author: XynxNet
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 16, 2010, 11:41:52 pm
content: All of a sudden I get a noticeable delay, when loading the eevblog main page.The top element and the bar on the right are displayed almost instantanious, but the main content is delayed for about 1-3s, during which my browser status bar shows "connecting to twitter".It isn't a real problem, but it's definitly a new phenomen.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 17, 2010, 01:32:44 am
content: Quote from: XynxNet on August 16, 2010, 11:41:52 pmYes, I have twitter updates in my side bar. Unfortunately that delay is dependent upon the Twitter server.Don't think there is much I can do about it?Dave.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 17, 2010, 06:44:27 am
content: it is probably something like the content is loaded in the order it is in the code on the page, so if one bit mid page takes ages it will delay the whole page - so much for multitasking !

author: migsantiago
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2010, 07:36:29 pm
content: The503 Service Unavailableerror happened to me 5 or 6 times today.http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/2080/errorx.png

author: Kiriakos-GR
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 19, 2010, 08:14:53 pm
content: Quote from: migsantiago on August 19, 2010, 07:36:29 pmI got that too , but it fall apart for 20 seconds .Then worked again..Well Its not normal to fall apart that easy , I think that its not the server it self, but the interconnection with the WWW of it , the point is that the total quality of the service does not look as truly reliable.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 19, 2010, 08:20:02 pm
content: 5xx codes are server errors, so the client reached the server successfully, but it failed to fulfill the request. Not something caused by the connection between the client and the server, possibly an overloaded server / load balancer, or a communication failure between the front-end server (eg. reverse proxy) and the back-end server. Not much point is speculating, the hosting provider should be able to figure this out from the logs, and unlike us, they actually have all the information available.

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2010, 11:14:48 am
content: Yes, this code happens more than the previous server. As for speed, it seems about the same. However, its only for a few minutes, at least from access to my IP in the USA.Quote from: migsantiago on August 19, 2010, 07:36:29 pm

author: slburris
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2010, 03:33:18 pm
content: I've tried several times to post a new topic with 4 4.5Meg photos as attachments andeach time I eventually get a message that there was a timeout andthe posting failed.I can post the text without the attachments just fine.On the previous server, I was able to post with high-resolutionpictures like this, but haven't had any luck with the new server.I guess I can downsize the pics and try again.Scott

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 30, 2010, 03:44:42 pm
content: really posting bigger pics than necessary is not nice for many people and many reasons. We get confronted with huge pictures we can only see a small detail of when we just want to look at the thing normal size and it just generates a vast amount of unnecessary traffic that strains the networks involves hogging bandwidth from other net users, this also means the use of more power than really required to move all this data around and means that the server and any place the pics are temporarily stored has a higher load which again means more power. just because we can move large quantities of data and store it these days does not necessarily mean we have to.Being responsible helps everyone. if you were renting out a server to other people I'm sure you'd not like them storing 10X the stuff they really need to because they can't be arsed to be sensible and considerate. It would mean you would need more storage and have a bigger energy bill.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2010, 06:36:29 pm
content: Agreed.Most of the images I post are monochrome schematics which are under 2kB and actually take up less space than the thumbnails which use a higher colour depth.

author: slburris
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2010, 06:50:04 pm
content: Well, I've gotten feedback from others when I posted high-res pictures ofa power supply PCB that this was really useful.What I see when I look at the message in the forum is just downsizedpictures and a user can choose or not to click on them to get thefull size.However, you have a good point that this contributes to eatingup Dave's hosting space.So, what I think I will do is put the full resolution pics up on my ownwebsite, put small pics on eevblog with links to the full pics and peoplecan choose or not to fetch the big pics and Dave doesn't have to storethem. This should make everyone happy, no?Scott

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 30, 2010, 07:00:13 pm
content: well you can post a full sized pic when and where necessary but basically not much point in taking a few "product shots" in 10+ Mp and then uploading them straight from the camera with no editing, we have this problem at work too just for our resident server (misers!) but luckily i use my own DSLR camera at work that has a user custermizable setting set on it so I keep it set to 2 Mp and decent quality and so avoid having to keep manipulating pictures, when I'm at home i just go back to the aperture priority setting that i use as the norm

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 31, 2010, 07:35:05 am
content: Quote from: slburris on August 30, 2010, 06:50:04 pmMy new Sitecloud server has unlimited space and files, so there should be no issues.So did my previous host, but in reality there was a 50,000 file limit where they would stop doing daily backups! Apparently no such limit on the new server. Forums uploads now account for the most files of any directory across my entire server!So upload what you like, I'll let everyone know if I encounter any problems.Dave.