Site Slowdown after 9:00

[Raoul]

David I may have an answer to what's causing the problem.

There is a large hoster named Akamai. Apparently their servers have been flooding DNS requests recently. It is especially a problem starting about 9:00 pm EST. Sound familiar?

Charter has been having a significant issue with them and I would bet they are not the only ones. You might give your tech guys at your host a heads up. Couldn't hurt.

[TGO David]

No, TGO never touches any of Akamai's network.

[TGO David]

FWIW, both the hosting provider's technicians and I have been monitoring the server since about 8pm. No signs whatsoever that the server is constrained for resources. In fact the load averages are staying below 0.90 across the board, frequently dipping lower than 0.50.

[Oh Shoot]

FWIW, both the hosting provider's technicians and I have been monitoring the server since about 8pm. No signs whatsoever that the server is constrained for resources. In fact the load averages are staying below 0.90 across the board, frequently dipping lower than 0.50.

Yep, tonight trouble free.

Perhaps they hadn't actually yet switched your server change over the other nite when you thought they did? Or hadn't actually switched internal DNS to new location or whatever?

- OS

Edited October 20, 2011 by OhShoot

[TGO David]

Yep, tonight trouble free.

Perhaps they hadn't actually yet switched your server change over the other nite when you thought they did? Or hadn't actually switched internal DNS to new location or whatever?

- OS

Neither of those things are the case. They switched us to the upgraded VPS exactly when they said they did; I participated. Their internal DNS would have nothing to do with us anyway.

I've noticed a few moments this morning where Tactical Republic's ads have stuttered and slowed a page load but no other problems. The bottom line, though, is that other than having them investigate and possibly fine-tune things, I am not able to ramp up the level of our hosting service any further at this time regardless of what reports I get that it's slow at 10pm or whatever. At this point I am now subsidizing the additional expense of hosting and, while I do not mind it, we are the limit of what I am willing and able to throw into the pot.

And on a different but related note...

I'd like to shamelessly remind everyone that this is why the Supporting Vendor program is so important to TGO. The cost to our vendors is roughly $35 a month. Our hosting is roughly $300 a month now, plus software maintenance fees, upgrade costs, etc.

Recently several people have tried to extract free / guerilla advertising from TGO by promoting themselves without becoming a legitimate Vendor partner. $35/mo for advertising is CHEAP in the world of doing business. If a business or individual trying to start a business cannot afford cheap advertising straight to the people who they are trying to sell to, I don't know how long they can expect to be in business.

Just keep that in mind the next time someone tries to use TGO for free promotion, or tries to promote a gunsmith, gun shop, etc. who has openly made it known that they are willing to use TGO for free but have no intention of supporting the community. When they do that, they're essentially saying that they don't care what it costs us to keep the lights on for you or keep pages loading fast for you.

Food for thought. Personally, I prefer to do business with folks that support the site. I absolutely refuse to give my money to anyone who is willing to screw TGO for their personal gain.

[Oh Shoot]

Neither of those things are the case. They switched us to the upgraded VPS exactly when they said they did; I participated. Their internal DNS would have nothing to do with us anyway...

Well, whatever changes were made when, it's been stellar the last couple nights.

As always, your efforts much appreciated.

- OS

[Guest pfries]

Been great tonight,

Thanks again David!

Pat