Browser dependent site "hangups" of strangeness

[Brugg]

The following problem quite strange, and it may not be related to this particular site at all. That's why I'm wondering if anyone else experiences anything similar. It goes like this:
When I've been navigating around the jPod site for a while (usually the forum), the site has a habit of "hanging up". To be more precise; if i try to click any link, or reenter the main welcome page, etc, the browser just waits and waits, and the new page never shows up. It's sort of like when you try to enter a page that does not exist, and the browser searches for half a minute or so before finding that out, only in this case this never happens - it just keeps searching/trying to download the page. This only happens when i've been using the page for a while. Once, i've also been presented with a totally white page after a few minutes. The strangest thing about it, however, is that it only happens when i'm using firefox, and it's only ever happened on this page.

So the question is, are firefox and jPod actually enemies (who hates who?), or is it just the random incomprehensible faults that strike again?

[Jason]

I'm using Firefox 1.5 with no problems.

[Eran]

Hmmm.... This one is indeed a strange one. I haven't been able to reproduce it here. I am using FF 1.5. Is this still hapenning?

[Jason]

The fact that it starts fine and starts to degrade over time makes me think memory leak, maybe from a bad plugin or extension. But the fact that it does it only here kinda blows that out of the water. Do you have a lot of plugins/extensions installed? Themes?

[Eran]

Yeah, initialy my fears were a memory leak as well but after closely following the memory consumption and our swap file on the server, I am convinced that is not the case.

We only have a handful of carefully selected plugins and extentions on our entire site. In the forum, we only have one mod installed and it is harmless (SmartFeed).

Nevertheless, I will check our quickly depleting budget and see if I can squeeze some additional memory out of it. This should result in better performance all around.

[Jason]

Well, actually I was thinking it might be a memory leak somewhere in Brugg's Firefox. Since it seems to only be doing it for him, my first thought wouldn't be that it's a server problem.

[sophie]

Hello,

I am also having trouble using the forum, with the same endless browser delay on page load. I think it's worse once I've authenticated, so I think it might be a bug about session handling rather than a memory leak.
I use Camino (think Firefox for Mac Os) and I can't contribute to the forum. I'm now using Safari to browse, it's better but not perfect.

Another issue : I never get any posts when I click on 'see new messages since last visit' on the forum home page.

I hope this helps you locate the problem. I visit other phpBB forums without any trouble, with various modes of authentication...

[Jason]

Why not just use Firefox? It runs on MacOS, too. That's what I'm posting from right now.

[Jason]

Just a test post using Camino 1.0.1 on MacOS X 10.4.6, Intel DualCore 2.16GHz, 2GB RAM.

[edit] Seems to be working fine for me. You should try Firefox and see if it does it with it too.

[Bueller_007]

Just a test post using Camino 1.0.1 on MacOS X 10.4.6, Intel DualCore 2.16GHz, 2GB RAM.

[edit] Seems to be working fine for me. You should try Firefox and see if it does it with it too.

I'm having the same problems. I had initally put it down to crappy Asian Internet cafe connections, but if at least one other person is experiencing this problem, then I'm guessing it's not me.

I have these browsers on Mac OS 10.4.6:

Firefox 1.5.0.4 (Japanesepod101.com homepage is viewable, forum will not load whatsoever)
Safari 2.0.3 (All pages are viewable, often with considerable delays on the forum. Pages have a tendency to load up half-way and then just hang forever. After a few minutes of browsing the forum, I'm guaranteed a problem. While the browser is waiting for the jpod page, I can successfully browse other pages in other tabs, or renavigate to a different page in the same tab. However, I cannot view a Japanesepod101 forum page again until I have closed & reopened my browser. At present, I have been "remedying the problem" by copying the japanesepod101 URL to the clipboard, closing the browser, restarting and pasting the URL back in. The page usually loads instantly when I do this. Then after a couple of minutes, it hangs again. Rinse, Lather, Repeat.)
Camino 1.0.1 (Japanesepod101.com homepage is viewable, sometimes the forum works "okay" (i.e the same as Safari), sometimes it will not load whatsoever)

I have none of these problems on any other webpages. I do have webpage acceleration enabled on both Firefox and Camino (not exceeding RFC specs), which I thought might be causing the problem, but even when I disable this, I still cannot access the forum properly through these browsers.

This problem started about two weeks ago.

In addition, iTunes has had a lot of problems downloading the MP3s lately. At least half of the time I click "Update", iTunes sits there and tries to find the server, but can't. Then a little exclamation mark appears on the left hand side that tells me that there was an error connecting to the server.

I don't subscribe to any other podcasts, so I can't say if the problem is global or not.

[Eran]

Bueller_007,

Thank you for the in-depth post and my apologies for the hang-ups / slowness associated with the forum. This one is a tough one because it appears to be intermittent and not easily duplicated on our end. Also, there have only been a few people who have been experiencing these issues, so I don't think the problem is wide-spread.

I have just checked the loads, memory/cpu usages, and a few other vital signs and things appear fine. I will continue to work with our hosting people to try and see if there is a problem on our end. I will keep you posted here if I have any news.

Thanks for your patience,

Eran

[Jason]

Right now the only thing I can think of is there's something weird going on between you and the jpod101 server. Since it's working fine for me and most everybody else, I don't think it's a simple problem with a browser or the server.

[Eran]

We have just completed a memory upgrade on our dedicated server (we doubled up the RAM). This will reduce the load on the server (which was within acceptable range to begin with) and hopefully result in an overall better performance of the site.

I am not certain that this will resolve the sluggishness of the forum that some of you have been experiencing but it certainly cannot hurt. Please let us know if things have improved or if they continue. The more details you can provide the greater the chance we can isolate the problem and fix it.

Thank you as always!

Eran

[Bueller_007]

We have just completed a memory upgrade on our dedicated server (we doubled up the RAM). This will reduce the load on the server (which was within acceptable range to begin with) and hopefully result in an overall better performance of the site.

I am not certain that this will resolve the sluggishness of the forum that some of you have been experiencing but it certainly cannot hurt. Please let us know if things have improved or if they continue. The more details you can provide the greater the chance we can isolate the problem and fix it.

Thank you as always!

Eran

The site was working fine for me when I first logged on about an hour ago (on both Camino & Safari; not Firefox w/ browser acceleration). iTunes downloaded one of the new beginner MP3s and I didn't even notice. But since then, the Internet cafe has filled up, and the problems have returned on all browsers. The second MP3 that was in the process of downloading quit on me.

Perhaps you guys aren't experiencing the problem because you are on high-speed connections? The second the Internet here gets bogged down, jpod (especially the forum) gets hit HARD. Much more so than any other site.

Also, on the rare occassion that another page (i.e. google) won't load, I get a browser "could not connect to server" or "server timed out" message. Then I can just reload the page, and I'm good to go. But I never get this option from jpod. It just keeps chugging away trying to load the page, forcing me to close my browser in order to continue.

EDIT
I just noticed what was said about the problem being worse after you authenticate. So I deleted my jpod101 forum cookie from Firefox and tried reloading the page. Instant access in Firefox, which wouldn't even connect to the forum before. It's only slightly slower than most other sites that I browse to. Then I try to sign in, and when I click the "Log In" button, it hangs on a white screen indefinitely. (EDIT: This problem only occurs when I have checked the "remember me" box).

If I block jpod cookies through Firefox, I can access the forum normally, and when I press the "Log In" button, there is a short pause on the "white screen of death", but then, I am returned to the forum (logged in).

I think there's some kind of problem with cookie authentication.

EDIT2:
I'm now posting from an internet cafe Windows box roughly equivalent to the ENIAC in both size and speed.

Firefox 1.5.0.4 allowed me to log in with the "remember me" box checked, but froze after about 5 min of surfing the forum. Working much, much better than Firefox on my Mac though. Thus far, no problems at all with IE 5.0. It's actually working a lot better than Safari did.

[Bueller_007]

I'm now in high-bandwidth Hanoi, and the problem has completely resolved itself. All browsers work fine.

I'd be interested in knowing if the other people experiencing this problem are on dial-up or another relatively low-speed Internet connection.