BLF slow load problem - probably my network problem

Pages on BLF are slow to load on my machine. I didn't notice any problems with other sites.

The front page takes 10-20 seconds to load, but some threads (even those without pictures) take couple of minutes, longer time for more messages in a thread.

I checked it from another computer on my home network, same result.

This happens with Chrome (my primary browser), IE, FF, Opera.

I used Chrome's task manager to keep track of network activity - it seems that pages from BLF are transferred in bursts of several kb/s (3 to 50) with long waits between bursts (tens of seconds). I tried more detailed load data with Chrome's MonitorTab extension but couldn't get any interesting results - there doesn't seem to be any single file that causes the delays, and it's not a rendering problem.

Ping time to BLF is ~220ms.

Tracerrt doesn't show any particular problem either.

I accessed BLF from my university's computer and pages load almost instantaneously, with transfer speeds of 500kb/s+. (I have a 2.5MB connection at home so I don't expect more than 300kb/s, but I get a lot less). That's a different ISP, so maybe ISP problem?

It seems the problem is not with BLF server but with my network - but it happens only with BLF...

And it seems to get worse over the last few days, but was like this before.

Anyone has any idea how to debug the connection between my computer and BLF?

~ 150 ms ping. Not so fast, but good enough. Had some problems few days ago tho. (I have 15MB OF, btw)

http://speedtest.net/ test?

Good speed to servers abroad (depends on the server, but generally > 1MBps), full speed to servers within my country.

As I mentioned before - BLF is the only site with which I experience connection difficulty.

I had the same problem two weeks ago. BLF was the only place where loading was slow. But only for a couple of days.

Hmm, thanks for reporting this! I have noticed a few brief slow periods from time to time. But my own internet connection is so bad that I never know if it's the server or my connection. BTW we are hosted on http://downtownhost.com in Miami. I've been very happy with them so far. I'll file a trouble ticket with them if many users report this.

Can't say I've ever noticed any slowdown.

I'm in the UK.

Well, the IP of budgetlightforum.com (174.121.218.38) translates to 26.da.79ae.static.theplanet.com, and a traceroute to downtownhost.com and budgetlightforum.com doesn't show shared servers... (besides my ISP's)

I also use Chrome and have no problems whatsoever.....you might want to clean out your cookies or do a restart.

Since I also experience the same difficulty with other browsers (FireFox and Opera) which I hardly ever use, and since it happens also with my other computer, I don't believe this has anything to do with cookies or cache or extensions or any other browser specific issues.

Have you tried another IP addy....to see if that changes anything. Are you using a wifi router or are you connected to the modem itself.

Yes, my ISP gives me a dynamic IP.

I am directly connected to the modem.

I tried rebooting the router and the computer, but it didn't help.

Well unplug the modem for about 20 seconds so it will reset itself....and then right click on your connection and click on diagnose and repair, but let the modem connect to the network first.

Not seen any problems here (UK). Works better than many for me all of the time. But I've no idea about Israel's outbound connectivity. It's most likely your network/ISP/part of the world. Traceroute can be very informative on this sort of thing. tracert if you are running windows. Will show you where packets are getting lost.

On |Windows bring up a Terminal window and type tracert budgetlightforum.com.

If you can't figure out the results copy and paste them here and someone will be able to explain probably better than I can where the problem is.

I made another experiment - using lynx through cygwin. Also the same phenomenon: bursts of somewhat high speed data transfer, between them some tens of seconds of 0 transfer.

I also tried with no firewall and no antivirus - same results.

Tried that too, didn't help.

Don, the traceroute is:

Tracing route to budgetlightforum.com [174.121.218.38]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 10.0.0.138

2 11 ms * 12 ms bzq-179-37-1.static.bezeqint.net [212.179.37.1]

3 24 ms 11 ms 11 ms bzq-219-72-134.static.bezeqint.net [62.219.72.134]

4 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms bzq-179-160-181.static.bezeqint.net [212.179.160.181]

5 108 ms * 109 ms bzq-219-189-205.cablep.bezeqint.net [62.219.189.205]

6 27 ms 20 ms 14 ms bzq-219-189-150.cablep.bezeqint.net [62.219.189.150]

7 * * 110 ms bzq-179-124-22.static.bezeqint.net [212.179.124.22]

8 85 ms 85 ms 135 ms xe-4-0-0.edge3.London1.Level3.net [212.113.15.77]

9 86 ms 87 ms 87 ms ae-52-52.csw2.London1.Level3.net [4.69.139.120]

10 83 ms 152 ms 84 ms ae-56-221.ebr2.London1.Level3.net [4.69.153.129]

11 157 ms 215 ms 164 ms ae-44-44.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.137.78]

12 205 ms 162 ms 236 ms ae-81-81.csw3.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.134.74]

13 189 ms 157 ms 155 ms ae-82-82.ebr2.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.148.41]

14 190 ms 188 ms 188 ms ae-3-3.ebr2.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.137.121]

15 185 ms 249 ms 186 ms ae-62-62.csw1.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.151.129]

16 193 ms 193 ms 221 ms ae-1-60.edge4.Dallas3.Level3.net [4.69.145.13]

17 188 ms 188 ms 195 ms THE-PLANET.edge4.Dallas3.Level3.net [4.59.32.30]

18 191 ms 191 ms 251 ms te7-2.dsr02.dllstx3.networklayer.com [70.87.253.26]

19 * * * Request timed out.

20 194 ms 190 ms 190 ms te4-1.car16.dllstx6.networklayer.com [70.87.255.22]

21 188 ms 192 ms 191 ms 26.da.79ae.static.theplanet.com [174.121.218.38]

Trace complete.

I don't see anything unusual with that.