Sites going a bit slow

[nogoodnamesleft]

Clear my DNS cache and repeat and now getting routed to a Cloudflare London (UK) located CDN server and getting <8ms ping response times but few mins late half the speed (15 ms).

That is still sub second, and in your latter examples, around 1/10 second. Barely noticeable compared to the 5-10 seconds or just hangs responses.

I'm not suffering slow-downs or issues. The main point was that there are a lot of variables (that vary) outside browser and user's computer. My timings were just pings not accessing any content. I suspect with a dynamic site (like cyclechat.net) with frequent content changes the CDN will often have to retrieve content from the real cycle.chat (before serving from whatever CDN server happens to have been selected). So to me it's not the ping response times but the variability in those timings.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

frequent content changes the CDN will often have to retrieve content from the real cycle.chat

Which would affect us equally would it not? But it seems it is the same users that encountering a persistent slowdown not a temporary one. Whilst the rest of us are not.

 

[wheresthetorch]

Site going very slowly for me (Android phone) - taking 10-15 secs to load each page.

 

[ianrauk]

Site going very slowly for me (Android phone) - taking 10-15 secs to load each page.

My Google Pixel, which runs Android is running fast with the page.
Are you a CC site subscriber?

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

frequent content changes the CDN will often have to retrieve content from the real cycle.chat

Which would affect us equally would it not? But it seems it is the same users that encountering a persistent slowdown not a temporary one. Whilst the rest of us are not.

It would depend on the loading of the CDN server the client is accessing the site through and that server's link speeds and loading to the real Cycle Chat host.

 

[classic33]

I asked chatgpt about this

I’ve dug further, and I think there is a much more interesting explanation than simply “the server is a bit busy.”

My current diagnosis​

The strongest clue is the number of people/clients the site says are currently online.

When I checked CycleChat, it reported:


That is an extraordinary ratio: 7,367 guests versus only 58 logged-in members.* The site has only about 52,700 registered members in total. CycleChat Cycling Forum

That makes me suspicious of automated traffic/crawlers/bots hammering the site, rather than 7,000 genuine human visitors.

And that would fit the symptoms very well.

A little over a week ago there were nearly 18,000 guests viewing various pages, with around 7-8,000 bots showing on the site.

Todays figures are a bit more "normal".

 

[Ming the Merciless]

It would depend on the loading of the CDN server the client is accessing the site through and that server's link speeds and loading to the real Cycle Chat host.

Well i cannot imagine users in the uk will see a large difference since they will all access the same few UK based CDN servers of Cloudflare. Which often have a tier 1 or tier 2 connection to their UK edge servers.

Specially when users are reporting 5-15 second response times.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

Well i cannot imagine users in the uk will see a large difference since they will all access the same few UK based CDN servers of Cloudflare. Which often have a tier 1 or tier 2 connection to their UK edge servers.

Specially when users are reporting 5-15 second response times.

It depends. I was for some time connected through US CDNs (always using a UK based IP address). Some internet providers route their consumers through CGNATs due to shortage of IPv4 addresses (eg Gigaclear) and Cloudflare have a "bit of a thing" about shared IP addresses.

I'm not saying it is the cause but it's a possibility. I can't see how one person eg using Firefox on iPhone should be getting issues when another person using Firefox on iPhone is not and it being the client platform causing the issues.

Some site users will be running IPv6, others won't. Lots of variables that might explain why different users on identical systems are getting very different experiences.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Some site users will be running IPv6, others won't. Lots of variables that might explain why different users on identical systems are getting very different experiences.

Yeah, but 5-15 seconds does not look like a CDN issue which have tier one connections across the globe. I agree it is not client, but do not think it points to CDN issues either. Until someone who can look at the logs and find a connection and pattern between users, I think theories so far are just based on a finger in the air.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

But AI has an aliens theory

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

Yeah, but 5-15 seconds does not look like a CDN issue which have tier one connections across the globe. I agree it is not client, but do not think it points to CDN issues either. Until someone who can look at the logs and find a connection and pattern between users, I think theories so far are just based on a finger in the air.

I'm uncertain. Cloudflare tends to try and verify users if they don't like their IP (eg CGNAT or shared IP). Sometimes this is transparent, sometimes you get a check

Sometimes there is a transparent verify that may or may not popup anything. My own personal site (of no interest to anybody) does a "verify" for "new" visitors (based on IP) and that incurs a brief belay and if longer than some threshold will pop-up a notice whilst it happening. and if you look at the "Verify human" checks it brings gets your client fetching stuff from google.com as well.

All I'm suggesting is that two people usin g identical systems seeing very different timings is that there re a lot of other possible causes unrelated to their client.

 

[classic33]

But AI has an aliens theory

View attachment 823759

And you have proof that such a signal was being used?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

All I'm suggesting is that two people usin g identical systems seeing very different timings is that there re a lot of other possible causes unrelated to their client.

Indeed, I never thought it was client and no one here is going about trying to work it out methodically. Just wild random guesses,

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

Indeed, I never thought it was client and no one here is going about trying to work it out methodically. Just wild random guesses,

Hence my initial question asking people what Cloudflare CDN server they were connected to. If people with and without issues on same server then that eliminates that.

The "Verifying a human" is a harder one as it's a bit intangible but another potential variable.

 

[Rusty Nails]

A lot of silence from moderators/site management on this.