OVF loading

[Jacko51]

Mine's really slow again tonight.

 

Mine is almost stationary.

[TheSage]

Same here. Yet I wouldn't have thought the site would be overloaded with users at this time in pre-season.

[TheSage]

I'm with BT. It's normally very fast.

[Jacko51]

I'm with BT infinity which is very quick.

[pensioner]

All try this

 

If you are running windows - then go into a CMD prompt and issue the following command

 

Ping onevalecom.co.uk and watch the responses .... note the Time= xxx in my case 111ms

the Ping bbc.co.uk Time = yyy in my case 25ms

Then try Portvalefc.co.uk Time = zzz in my case 112ms

 

This shows the average time of 64 bytes being sent from your PC, across the network and bounced of the network card in the above domain names.

 

In the last ten minutes PVFC and OVF responded in about the same time whereas the BBC was 4 times quicker - (they more than likley have a far greater number of network cards working as one, and they will be far faster than ones Rob and the Vale use.

 

to stop the pings just press the CTRL and Z keys together

[Santa]

Some database issues tonight I think judging from the error message I got.

[TheSage]

I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing but what you say makes sense and my results mirror yours, so that perhaps explains it. Cheers.

[Conrad]

I'm with Virgin recently upgraded to 100 meg.

[TylerB]

who's that young tart in your pic.

 

You couldn't make it up...

[robf]

Some database issues tonight I think judging from the error message I got.

 

The "database issues" are a lack of capacity. :(

 

Sadly, without spending a lot more there isn't too much I can do about it and OVF will always crash at peak times as a result.

 

It's one of those "rock and a hard place" things - it's happening because the site gets a lot of traffic at certain times but I'd have to invest in an expensive new server to serve traffic peaks that only happen about two or three times a week.

 

I am trying some things this season including a much reduced site during Saturdays (when traffic peaks) to ease the load. It may help, we'll have to see. But I think OVF will always struggle during busy periods, sadly.

 

At the end of the day, this is only my evening/weekend hobby, it's not my full-time job. If it brought in enough to make a wage rather than just about breaking even, I would be able to spend more time working around the problems that sometimes occur but it is just me doing so and with commuting to work, going to work (many of the articles are written in advance on the train each morning and scheduled to appear - it's not me writing all through the day), family things - there are limited hours I can spend on the site. Even then, it still takes up an awful lot of my sparetime and has done for 19 years now...

 

Sorry, that's a longer answer than I planned to write but I hope it explains it a little more from my point of view.

[onestepatatime]

The "database issues" are a lack of capacity. :(

 

Sadly, without spending a lot more there isn't too much I can do about it and OVF will always crash at peak times as a result.

 

It's one of those "rock and a hard place" things - it's happening because the site gets a lot of traffic at certain times but I'd have to invest in an expensive new server to serve traffic peaks that only happen about two or three times a week.

 

I am trying some things this season including a much reduced site during Saturdays (when traffic peaks) to ease the load. It may help, we'll have to see. But I think OVF will always struggle during busy periods, sadly.

 

At the end of the day, this is only my evening/weekend hobby, it's not my full-time job. If it brought in enough to make a wage rather than just about breaking even, I would be able to spend more time working around the problems that sometimes occur but it is just me doing so and with commuting to work, going to work (many of the articles are written in advance on the train each morning and scheduled to appear - it's not me writing all through the day), family things - there are limited hours I can spend on the site. Even then, it still takes up an awful lot of my sparetime and has done for 19 years now...

 

Sorry, that's a longer answer than I planned to write but I hope it explains it a little more from my point of view.

 

 

Cheers for that Rob. We all appreciate the hard work and hours you put into the site.

[onestepatatime]

All try this

 

If you are running windows - then go into a CMD prompt and issue the following command

 

Ping onevalecom.co.uk and watch the responses .... note the Time= xxx in my case 111ms

the Ping bbc.co.uk Time = yyy in my case 25ms

Then try Portvalefc.co.uk Time = zzz in my case 112ms

 

This shows the average time of 64 bytes being sent from your PC, across the network and bounced of the network card in the above domain names.

 

In the last ten minutes PVFC and OVF responded in about the same time whereas the BBC was 4 times quicker - (they more than likley have a far greater number of network cards working as one, and they will be far faster than ones Rob and the Vale use.

 

to stop the pings just press the CTRL and Z keys together

 

 

 

Way, way over my head mate!!! I just press buttons and type words being a bit of a Neanderthal as far as computers are concerned.

[bookworm]

That, young man, is none of your business and also, a totally unnecessary remark. Why am I nor surprised?

 

sorry jacko,didn't mean to offend you.

[robf]

Cheers for that Rob. We all appreciate the hard work and hours you put into the site.

 

Thanks.

 

What I'm getting at is that with all the other things (work, children, elderly parents) time on OVF isn't always available. Ten years back I could spend a lot more. I know that people do expect everything to be perfect and I understand but I'm just trying to give a bit of perspective. This was never intended to be the 24-hour, first Vale forum to go to site that it is now and as it's not a full-time operation there won't be the time or indeed money to correct all the issues. In many ways - OVF is the victim of its own success.

 

However, I am speaking to the host company at the moment just to check on server prices and also on any tweaks that may sort out the connection issues and I'll see what they come back with. You never know - with a few tweaks it could be a lot better.

 

p.s. With that in mind, if anyone is a server expert and is willing to take a look at the settings, pls get in touch.

[robf]

* Update *

 

The hosting company has made some tweaks. There's no guarantee that the site still won't go down at peak times again but as the capacity has been increased, it may stay online a bit longer now.