topic Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this. in Plusnet Feedback

Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

tonycollinet — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 06:29:35 GMT

The main plusnet site has been the most consistently slow of any I've visited for years. Typically 3-4 second response to each click - even now in the morning. Evening response is slower.
Contrast with BBC which always has instant response and faster page loading even though they tend to be delivering more graphic content.

Why can't a major ISP do a faster web site?

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

jelv — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:48:09 GMT

Look in your browser cache at the expiry date/times on all the images etc that build up the portal pages. It's downloading everything nearly every time because they set such a short expiry time.
I pointed this out to them some years ago but they've never done anything about it - quite frankly I don't think they are bothered. They'd rather make the portal unusably slow for anyone on a slow connection (or having to use dialup) rather that have to tell people to use CTRL+F5 if they've made changes.

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

bobpullen — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:12:23 GMT

I don't think saying we're 'not bothered' is a particularly fair assumption jelv. What was our response the last time you raised this? I'll have a word with some of the web development guys and see what they have to say about it...
Edit: Transpires that there are a few here who have been pushing for content caching on the Apache servers for a while now, so it *definitely* isn't something we're not bothered about! I get the impression there are mixed opinions for and against it though. FWIW, the main contributor to Member Centre performance will be at a code/database layer, although the lack of content caching certainly won't be helping, especially for those on slower connections as you've pointed out.

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

jelv — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:06:39 GMT

There was a project a few years ago to speed up the portal - it was called something like "10 second website". I can't remember if it was discussed on the old portal forums, PUG or Usenet and I didn't find anything with a quick search. If I remember correctly it sort of fizzled out without really achieving any dramatic improvement.

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

gofaster — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:27:42 GMT

I thought it was called "Don't make me wait" and aimed at providing sub 2 second response times.
10 seconds is a pretty low target to aim at.

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

tonycollinet — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:40:46 GMT

I don't think it is caching. Most of the delay is a complete lack of response from the time of clicking, to the pages starting to load. Once page is loading, it is reasonably quick.
I've just waited 10 seconds for the member center to even START to load, and that was from a click on the home page. Then 12 seconds after clicking login.
Strangely the community site is much faster.

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

gswindale — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:55:56 GMT

Yep - the pages load fine in almost an instance.
It does appear to be the initial stage from clicking on a link where the server seems to have a problem locating the link target to start with. Once it has found it; everything loads fine.

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

VileReynard — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:25:03 GMT

It's because of all those extraneous URL's in the "news" area.
Firefox resolves (and probably pre-fetches) things like this.
(because it's a https site, these ancient things aren't cached).

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

bobpullen — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:44:02 GMT

Quote from: jelv
There was a project a few years ago to speed up the portal - it was called something like "10 second website".

It was called '2 second website' and IIRC was mainly centred around the optimisation of one of our core databases. We've done a lot of work in this area since then too.

Quote from: gofaster
I thought it was called "Don't make me wait" and aimed at providing sub 2 second response times.

2 seconds, yes. 'Don't make me wait' though was something else entirely.

Quote from: collinet
Strangely the community site is much faster.

Not strange, the Community Site is reliant on completely separate databases.

Quote from: A
It's because of all those extraneous URL's in the "news" area.

Are you talking about the (outdated) BBC links? If so, there are plans afoot to remove these.

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

tonycollinet — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 13:52:55 GMT

So are there any activities ongoing now to improve performance. It seems a poor recommendation to potential new customers if there first experience of an ISP is a slow website. (Not to mention irritation to existing customers)

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

gswindale — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:06:01 GMT

Quote from: Bob
Are you talking about the (outdated) BBC links? If so, there are plans afoot to remove these.

How long does it take to remove one or two lines of code?

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

BenTrimble — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 10:07:04 GMT

It doesn't take long at all to remove some code but our Development Team, Web Team and Quality Assurance Team have other priorities that need to be addressed before this particular issue will be dealt with. Hopefully it doesn't cause anyone too much hassle in the meantime!

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

bobpullen — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:43:19 GMT

Quote from: jelv
Look in your browser cache at the expiry date/times on all the images etc that build up the portal pages. It's downloading everything nearly every time because they set such a short expiry time.
I pointed this out to them some years ago but they've never done anything about it.

Reviving a very old thread here I know, but thought I'd let you know that we've just increased the expiry time of the portal content to 11months+

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

Oldjim — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:45:47 GMT

~~As I clear my cache when closing the browser - security recommendation - how will this help~~
Just checked and it is much faster than usual even after clearing the cache manually - more explanation would be nice

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

jelv — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:58:49 GMT

Good grief! When I first pointed this out (it must of been well over 5 years ago) I thought it would make a difference but I didn't expect it to be that much!

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

jelv — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:01:59 GMT

Quote from: tonycollinet
I don't think it is caching. Most of the delay is a complete lack of response from the time of clicking, to the pages starting to load. Once page is loading, it is reasonably quick.

Looks like it was the caching! The explanation will be that the load on the servers has been considerably reduced which will then mean faster response as well as a quicker load when it does start.

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

VileReynard — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:39:22 GMT

https URL's don't cache - however the Plusnet page has quite a lot of links:-

https://portal.plus.net/images/general/background.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/header_bg.png
https://www.plus.net/images/general/plusnet_logo.png?refresh=oct10
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/search.png?refresh=oct10
https://www.plus.net/images/google_header_test/googlelogo.png?refresh=oct10
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/navigation_bg.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/nav_residential.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/nav_business.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/nav_help.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/nav_member.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/nav_community.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/banners/plus_banner.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/banner.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/announcebox.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/bill.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/h3_myaccount.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/h3_helpandsupport.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/membox_bg.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/myaccount_icon.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/help_icon.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/referrals/refresh0509/referrals_mem_cen_sq.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/1pixel.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/portal/poll_result.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/arrow_grey.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemapBG.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemap-products.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/sitemap-sitelinks.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemap-business.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemap-member.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemap-community.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemap-help.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemap-company.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemapBG-rounded.gif

Is this really necessary?

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

jelv — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:00:14 GMT

Quote from: A
https URL's don't cache

So why when I go to view my Firefox cache do I find 5 pages of items for https://portal.plus.net including all the ones you have listed?

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

VileReynard — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:58:27 GMT

OK - surely https websites didn't ought to cache - it's a clear security hole.
My (Linux) Firefox 6 stores it's cache information in 1,000's of files randomly named by some hexadecimal string.
So I can't easily say what is in my cache or where it came from.

Re: Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

jelv — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:06:13 GMT

Yes you can!
about:cache lets you see what is in there - but the interface is very unfriendly! https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cacheviewer/?src=api lets you sort and filter.
(NB If you are on an up to date FF you will need to use https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-on-compatibility-reporter/?src=api to make it work)