Issues connecting to the site?

[Keeping Up]

I have a desktop PC which runs on Vista, and a laptop which runs on XP.

 

Last night both were running fine but this morning the Forum is running incredibly slow on the laptop, although it is still just fine on the desktop. Each page takes typically between 60-90 seconds to load; I have tried it on both IE8 and Firefox and it is exactly the same on both. The status bar displays "Waiting for ... " (insert URL of choice), and it does appear to be genuinely waiting because the CPU usage is near zero, the memory use is less than 50%, and while I am waiting I can go off and browse my Facebook page, check my emails, and so on. I am on the landline which is plenty fast enough.

 

Why is CWDF making me wait so long for each page? Does it regard my laptop as being inferior in some way?

 

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Solution towards end of thread.

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Edited March 21, 2013 by DHutch

[Guest]

I have a desktop PC which runs on Vista, and a laptop which runs on XP.

 

Last night both were running fine but this morning the Forum is running incredibly slow on the laptop, although it is still just fine on the desktop. Each page takes typically between 60-90 seconds to load; I have tried it on both IE8 and Firefox and it is exactly the same on both. The status bar displays "Waiting for ... " (insert URL of choice), and it does appear to be genuinely waiting because the CPU usage is near zero, the memory use is less than 50%, and while I am waiting I can go off and browse my Facebook page, check my emails, and so on. I am on the landline which is plenty fast enough.

 

Why is CWDF making me wait so long for each page? Does it regard my laptop as being inferior in some way?

 

My Win 7 (not XP) lappy does that sometimes when it's doing it's 'updates' of the OS, but it affects all sites not just the forum.

 

Have you got updates going on in the background? Is it only the forum that takes an age to load? or are all sites affected?

[Keeping Up]

My Win 7 (not XP) lappy does that sometimes when it's doing it's 'updates' of the OS, but it affects all sites not just the forum.

 

Have you got updates going on in the background? Is it only the forum that takes an age to load? or are all sites affected?

 

No there are no background updates going on; I've let them all complete before re-checking on the Forum. I've also tried clearing the cache and cookies, flushed the DNS cache, and checked for registry issues using Ccleaner - but it's still the same.

 

It's only CWDF that is behaving this way. It's still fine working on (for example) Just Canals, Facebook, BT Yahoo, Google search, etc; in fact I can visit every one of those sites in turn, and still get back to the original CWDF tab before it has finished loading the next page.

[Rebotco]

Its working fine on my Win7 laptop, so I think its not CWDF thats at fault.

Maybe more likely to be because XP is no longer supported by microsoft, but I'm no expert.

[Keeping Up]

Its working fine on my Win7 laptop, so I think its not CWDF thats at fault.

Maybe more likely to be because XP is no longer supported by microsoft, but I'm no expert.

 

XP is still supported by Microsoft. They still issue the monthly updates for it (and mine are up to date).

 

I can't see how it can be other than a CWDF compatibility issue, because every other site seems OK, also CWDF was fine until this morning, and nothing changed on the laptop overnight.

[Guest]

XP is still supported by Microsoft. They still issue the monthly updates for it (and mine are up to date).

 

I can't see how it can be other than a CWDF compatibility issue, because every other site seems OK, also CWDF was fine until this morning, and nothing changed on the laptop overnight.

 

Presumably your lappy connects wirelessly to a router?

 

Do you have another wireless device you can try connecting to the forum with - a phone or tablet perhaps?

[smileypete]

Long shot, but try going to control panel/network connections and right click on the connection, select 'repair'.

 

Also maybe worth a try with an install of Firefox Portable, or see how the page is downloading with the Firebug addon for Firefox.

 

I don't suppose it could be a web shield or firewall type program interfering?

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[Rebotco]

XP is still supported by Microsoft. They still issue the monthly updates for it (and mine are up to date).

 

I can't see how it can be other than a CWDF compatibility issue, because every other site seems OK, also CWDF was fine until this morning, and nothing changed on the laptop overnight.

 

 

Yes, just checked - support ending next April My link

Thats the limit of my "expertise"!

[Keeping Up]

OK now I'm really stumped.

 

Check WiFi signal on Lappy - 54Mbps, Quality Excellent

Check Broadband speed on Lappy via WiFi - Download 3.88 Mbps, upload 0.74 Mbps, ping 88ms. Pretty much normal for here.

 

I disabled my firewall, Adblock, and every other shield/protection I could find, repaired the wireless connection, and ... no difference.

 

Re-enabled the firewall etc, then took the lappy upstairs and put it on the desk next to the desktop. Desktop still 100% OK, lappy still slow on CWDF and OK on all other sites.

 

Disabled the lappy wireless connection and plugged it diectly into the router by Ethernet. Still the same symptoms. Reset the router just in case but still the same problems.

 

And now for the completely puzzling bit. I unplugged the lappy from the router and plugged in a dongle. It works 100% perfectly on the dongle, I'm using it at the moment.

 

So to summarise:

 

PC - ethernet - router - web ... Perfect

PC - ethernet - router - CWDF ... Perfect

 

Lappy - ethernet - router - web ... Perfect

Lappy - ethernet - router - CWDF ... Slow on both IE and Firefox

 

Lappy - WiFi - router - web ... Perfect

Lappy - WiFi - router - CWDF ... Slow on both IE and Firefox

 

Lappy - dongle - web ... Perfect

Lappy - dongle - CWDF ... Perfect

[bizzard]

Mines working fine and fast with the forum ''Vista'' but a short while ago when I clicked on a post I got a blank screen, clicked out and in again and got a fatal error message, came out of the forum altogether and then back in and all seems fine again. strange.

[steven wilkinson]

I saw the title of the thread and thought - 'Don't put yourself down.'

[spannerman]

having similar problems myself since site moved to new server

 

unfortunately have no idea what's causing it either

[DHutch]

OK now I'm really stumped.

 

So to summarise:

 

PC - ethernet - router - web ... Perfect

PC - ethernet - router - CWDF ... Perfect

 

Lappy - ethernet - router - web ... Perfect

Lappy - ethernet - router - CWDF ... Slow on both IE and Firefox

 

Lappy - WiFi - router - web ... Perfect

Lappy - WiFi - router - CWDF ... Slow on both IE and Firefox

 

Lappy - dongle - web ... Perfect

Lappy - dongle - CWDF ... Perfect

If i'm honest, having been following this thread myself, your not the only one baffled, even more so with the addition of a second member witnessing slow response.

 

I think I speak for the majority when I say that I am having no issues with site responsiveness (wired network, to by bt homehub, running xp and opera, fwiw) however I will have a look at what I can find out about the topic and if it continues please keep me informed of that.

 

 

Daniel

[smileypete]

What happens on the lappie if you open a command prompt and enter:

 

ping canalworld.net

 

If you don't get a response, as a diagnostic step you could try adding the following to the hosts file, which is somewhere like C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

 

5.77.47.171 canalworld.net

 

Then a reboot maybe needed before trying again.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[Keeping Up]

What happens on the lappie if you open a command prompt and enter:

 

ping canalworld.net

 

If you don't get a response, as a diagnostic step you could try adding the following to the hosts file, which is somewhere like C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

 

5.77.47.171 canalworld.net

 

Then a reboot maybe needed before trying again.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

 

It pings OK, I get a response time of 16ms

 

I take it that means it's not the problem?

 

ETA in response to a suggestion from Daniel, I've just tried browsing around 5 other Forums that run on the IPB software, and I get no problems with any of them

Edited March 16, 2013 by Keeping Up

[alan_fincher]

It pings OK, I get a response time of 16ms

 

I take it that means it's not the problem?

I'm seeing ping times of no less that 16ms over a fast connection, so, yes, that's absolutely fine.

[Gypsey_Kings]

Just a stab in the dark ... Have you tried resetting the router/clearing the router's cache ?

[Ex- Member]

I'm not too comp literate so this might be utterly useless but will throw this in.

 

After the change over none of my existing links to canal world worked, for example canal world in the task bar, canal world on the desk top and canal world in my favourites. I had a similar problem to the OP Lynn told me to delete all the old links and clear all history from all browsers which I did. I then connected to canal world through google and reset canal world in favourites and desktop.

 

Ever since I havent had any problem.

[alan_fincher]

What happens on the lappie if you open a command prompt and enter:

 

ping canalworld.net

 

If you don't get a response, as a diagnostic step you could try adding the following to the hosts file, which is somewhere like C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

 

5.77.47.171 canalworld.net

 

Then a reboot maybe needed before trying again.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Wildcard question...

 

Any chance that due to any issues in the past that your local hosts file might already have something related to CWDF in it?

 

Unlikely but worth ruling out.

 

I have had isues like you describe with another non canal related forum in the past that I put down to routing isues related to my ISP but if one computer is fine and another not I can't see how it can be a solely externally caused problem.

[by'eck]

I have a desktop PC which runs on Vista, and a laptop which runs on XP.

 

Last night both were running fine but this morning the Forum is running incredibly slow on the laptop, although it is still just fine on the desktop. Each page takes typically between 60-90 seconds to load; I have tried it on both IE8 and Firefox and it is exactly the same on both. The status bar displays "Waiting for ... " (insert URL of choice), and it does appear to be genuinely waiting because the CPU usage is near zero, the memory use is less than 50%, and while I am waiting I can go off and browse my Facebook page, check my emails, and so on. I am on the landline which is plenty fast enough.

 

Why is CWDF making me wait so long for each page? Does it regard my laptop as being inferior in some way?

 

Press Ctrl, Alt & Del simultaneously then select Task Manager>Processes tab. You will then be able to see what is running and the CPU usage and memory each is using. This may identify what is slowing the machine.

[alan_fincher]

Press Ctrl, Alt & Del simultaneously then select Task Manager>Processes tab. You will then be able to see what is running and the CPU usage and memory each is using. This may identify what is slowing the machine.

In the bit you have quoted Allan has already said that CPU usage is close to zsero, and memory usage not high, so he is unlikely to find much, he?

 

It's not Allan's machine that is slow, it his connection to one specific Internet forum.

 

I can't think of anything he will identify in task manager that slows CWDF access but allows everything else, including all other Internet access to run at normal speed.

 

Plus he can even get normal access on the forum if he uses his 3G dongle, rather than his home Internet service.

 

Almost certainly some kind of routing problem, I would have thought, although I admit networks and Internet access is not my speciality!

 

What's bugging me is that it is fine from another PC on the same network, so it seems to be something configurational on the laptop that is affecting it. I certainly think he needs to be sure there is nowt been put into a hosts file or anything else that affects address resolution that is CWDF specific. Allan was once a CWDF administrator, although I don't know if that ever involved this particular laptop.

Edited March 17, 2013 by alan_fincher

[smileypete]

Have you any recent backups you can restore and try (but don't forget to back up the current configuration)

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[Keeping Up]

Thanks for the suggestions folks.

 

There's nothing slowing the laptop down; while it's waiting for the page to load the only big number in the task list is "System Idle" showing at 97%.

 

The fact that there's no problem with the other PC, plugged into one of the other Ethernet sockets in the same router, seems to rule out config problems within the router; I did try a Restart on the router, but it made no difference. My next trick will be to try logging on to one of my neighbours' networks (legally, using their BT Fon channel after disabling the wireless on my own Hub) and see what happens then.

 

It was quite a long time ago when I was a Mod on this Forum, and I bough the laptop since then so I don't think that's the issue. I will have a look in the hosts file, it's the only thing I can think of on the laptop which would name CWDF specifically (after I deleted all cookies, history, temporary Internet Files and DNS cache) especially as I get the problem on Firefox which I never had on my laptop until I loaded it yesterday to see if it was specifically an IE8 problem. Of course they do share certain global Internet options, I wonder if it's somehow trying to use a non-existent proxy (now getting out of my zone of comfort and knowledge).

 

It also seems odd that everything was working fine up to Friday evening, so it had coped with the aftermath of the Forum changeover with no difficulty.

 

I haven't specifically made any system backups recently, but if the last automatic system restore point is not too old I'll try rolling back and see what happens.

[cotswoldsman]

Mine seems to be fine on Win 7 via a 3 dongle

[Gypsey_Kings]

Someone at this link has solved a similiar problem by using Ccleaner to clean his registry...