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Slow Speed of this website!

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Slow Speed of this website!
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 9:37 AM
Bergie, or other confuser ex-spurts, why does it take so very long for this website to download? I have standard dial-up internet connection. My phone lines are slow. However, this doesn't explain why this website is so much slower than all the rest I visit.

It may be possible there is nothing I can do, do to my rural location, phone lines and outdated equipment.

Any comments, suggestions, other?
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Posted by cacole on Friday, October 22, 2004 9:47 AM
One cause are the graphics, such as smilies, and photographs that some members post, which use up a lot of bandwidth. I think there's an option you can check in your profile area to turn off the receipt of photos and graphics, which will definitely speed up your connection since only text will then be downloaded.

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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 10:14 AM
I have DSL connection and noticed quite some time ago too that this forum is slow to open. I did change my profile so I don't see the very large signatures with all of their unecessary graphics. Still slow, but not as bad.

Bob Boudreau
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 10:26 AM
You guys need to get CABLE it is the best!
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 11:00 AM
Cable would be great but no all have the funds for such things. I have a modem and get 50.6 connections and am very happy, and the cost is much less. As far as the page loading slowly, yes as was mentioned above it has to do with all the photos (which are nice) as they use alot of memory and slows down the server as well as all the stored data. Maybe I don't know for sure but another forum for postings over 30 days to keep the current 30 days current.
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 11:19 AM
Where I live, cable, DSL and other is not offered. This is the price of living in God's country and I certainly will put up with it, if I have to. I will try the suggestion about graphics, thanks!
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Posted by twhite on Friday, October 22, 2004 11:40 AM
I'm wondering if it's just a general slow-down all over? I've got a few other websites I visit--mostly about old movies--and they've been really slow this week, too. Maybe it's sunspots.
Tom
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Posted by Dough on Friday, October 22, 2004 11:49 AM
This site has always been slower to load than other sites for me. I have cable as well, so it isn't terrible. I do have to wait a few seconds for it to load while other sites pop up instantly though. Trains.com has always been that way for me as long as I can remember. Even posts without smilies and pictures.

I believe that it has to do with the number of posts and users on whatever their server they have. As the site grows it slows it down, and bigger faster hardware isn't cheap.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that it speeds up and slows down depending on the time of day. If you get on at ten o'clock in the evening then it will be much slower than five o'clock in the morning. Of course being on the east coast versus west will also affect the times of when more people are on.
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 11:56 AM
This is a very interesting situation, as I used to have the same problem with a former server Core Comm.They were fine till they screwed up my email and infected the whole computer with viruses,adult sites and other garbage that I didn't want,they even messed with the firewall..Now I have SBC DSL,and I haven't had any problems. It "might " be your server.[sigh]
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 12:08 PM
I have not had any problems. I do have DSL but no probs for me.
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Posted by johncolley on Friday, October 22, 2004 12:19 PM
The combination of your modem speed and the speed available from your ISP's server has a lot to do with how slow you can download. It would be really nice if 56k actually meant 56k delivered!
jc5729
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 1:07 PM
There's a little bit more to it than your connection speed as I have found out.
True, this site may appear a bit more slower than other sites and for some of
the reasons listed.

I complained here when Atlas went down because I use to be able to zip right thru Atlas and responded that this site is like waiting for a 54 car freight train
to pass and I'm SBC DSL at 1.2 MPPS download connection speed.

I didn't have all the answers so I was critical of trains.com W R O N G Charlie.

Then I upgraded my computer to 3. 0 GHz from 45O MHz. Now I could get a ticket for speeding.

MY APOLOGIIES TO TRAINS.COM
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 1:11 PM
Belive it or not I pay $8 more for cable than I did for Dial up. You figure 24.99 for xtra phone line, 10.99 for ISP =35.98 I pay 42.95 for Adelphia.
That is the math lesson for today!
I also live in GODS country, I live 5 miles out side a town POP. mabey 3500
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Posted by cjcrescent on Friday, October 22, 2004 1:56 PM
(Ole Man Voice) ...Back when I was in computer school and computer chips only had 1 number, in them days we hadda make our own chips outta piles o' sand and coils of wire we pounded flat with a hammer to make our traces which we glued to square pieces of cardboard to make our motherboards.....(End Voice)

The instructors did say that a 56K modem may actually be able to put signals up to the V90 standard with new software, and maybe capable of even faster speeds but (and they said it was a biggun), the physical limit of the phone lines wouldn't allow the modem's signals to travel faster than 53K max. The best dial up speed I could get because I am at the very end of a trunk branch , and we had very old wiring, was 38k.
I went DSL went it became available. Cable is toooo expensive, here it is a good $25 a month higher than DSL.

Carey

Keep it between the Rails

Alabama Central Homepage

Nara member #128

NMRA &SER Life member

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Posted by rexhea on Friday, October 22, 2004 2:48 PM
I have comcast broadband that smokes the lines with all other sites, but this site has a slow response time regardless of how many users are on board. It's not enough to bother me, but I can understand the aggravation of those with dial up.
Rex "Blue Creek & Warrior Railways" http://www.railimages.com/gallery/rexheacock
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 3:06 PM
I have the same problem at home - I'm on a very slow dial-up but will probably switch to broadband (need to get a firewall to keep out unwanted guests before I do this) when the prices come down. If I use the university network workstations to access this site it's much quicker as they have very fast connections, so if I'm on during the day it's probably because I'm between lectures and bored!
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 7:25 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by locomotive3

There's a little bit more to it than your connection speed as I have found out.
True, this sit may appear a bit more slower than other sites and for some of
the reasons listed.

I complained here when Atlas went down because I use to be able to zip right thru Atlas and responded that this site is like waiting for a 54 car freight train
to pass and I'm SBC DSL at 1.2 gig download connection speed.

I didn't have all the answers so I was critical of trains.com W R O N G Charlie.

Then I upgraded my computer to 3. gigs from 450 megs. Now I could get a ticket for speeding.




Whoa, 1.2 gig? 3gig? 450meg? The only computers that use those connections are VERY high end servers. Don't you mean 1.2MB, 3MB, and 450KB?
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 7:45 PM
Yes it is slow!
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 8:25 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by deschane

Bergie, or other confuser ex-spurts, why does it take so very long for this website to download? I have standard dial-up internet connection. My phone lines are slow. However, this doesn't explain why this website is so much slower than all the rest I visit.

It may be possible there is nothing I can do, do to my rural location, phone lines and outdated equipment.

Any comments, suggestions, other?



Tell your local Phone Company that it's about time to upgrade from cans and string to the latest and greatest in Digital Technology.
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 8:41 PM
I have 256 & my ISP is dialup. I don't have any trouble w/speed on this forum. I also just added a speed up internet connection called CNET. It was free & speeded up my connections tremendously.
I'm on another train forum that has a lot of photo's on it & it doesn't make any difference w/speed in downloads. I have a lot of my own photo's on there w/about 1600 other members.
I also keep a lot of junk off my PC & do a lot of scans at least once a week. I also erase all unwanted cookies & remove a lot of photo's off my computer when I finish using them, which helps in speed of connections.

Larry
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Posted by dano99a on Friday, October 22, 2004 10:08 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by deschane

Bergie, or other confuser ex-spurts, why does it take so very long for this website to download? I have standard dial-up internet connection. My phone lines are slow. However, this doesn't explain why this website is so much slower than all the rest I visit.

It may be possible there is nothing I can do, do to my rural location, phone lines and outdated equipment.

Any comments, suggestions, other?


GEEZ, 20 replies and no one answered your question. The reason this site (mainly the forum) loads SO SLOW is due to the amount of data it has to load just to display 1 page.

Yes your connection type (dial-up, DSL, cable, T1) plays a part BUT I'm on a T1 and certain threads load slower than others especially when people don't size down photos they post on this site, so not only does the server have to call in many large photos that aren't "web ready" but your computer+browser has to process it and display it.

So, the solutions is, get a faster computer and a faster connection. But just so you know, as stated above, some threads take forever to load even on a fast connection.

Overall the site is kind of pokey most of the time, it just depends on the amount of traffic hitting it at one time.

DANO
C&O lives on!!!  
Visit my railfan community site: http://www.crtraincrew.com

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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 10:55 PM
Golly, Deschane, alot of complaints here lateley...I have DSL, It does take longer than most to load...I don't worry about it.
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, October 23, 2004 2:29 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by Guilford350

Originally posted by locomotive3
[

Whoa, 1.2 gig? 3gig? 450meg? The only computers that use those connections are VERY high end servers. Don't you mean 1.2MB, 3MB, and 450KB?


BIG OOPS!
No wonder I couldn't climb the computer grade. I will amend, correctly I hope and THANKS.
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, October 23, 2004 2:50 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by cjcrescent

(Ole Man Voice).
I went DSL went it became available. Cable is toooo expensive, here it is a good $25 a month higher than DSL.
My local provider is SBC and as part of a bundle, Local , LD & DSL,(No fax,No cell) one line. The DSL fee is approx $27.00 for a 1.2 MHPS download and you free up your house telephone line and if you have a power failure the hard line still connects.
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, October 23, 2004 6:16 AM
Ahhhhh,, the magic of cable!
True, it may be a few (like 5, after you figure the addition of a 2nd phone cable)
bucks more than DSL, but ohmygosh its sooooooooo much faster![:0]
Loads the whole forum in like no time.[:D]
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, October 23, 2004 6:23 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by locomotive3

[ The DSL fee is approx $27.00 for a 1.2 MHPS download and you free up your house telephone line and if you have a power failure the hard line still connects.


Ok, what powers the PC? Mouse on a treadmill[?][?]

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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, October 23, 2004 6:53 AM
Back up battery pack.
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Posted by CBQ_Guy on Tuesday, October 26, 2004 4:07 PM
I've got a broadband cable connection and have noticed the speed is somewhat less than brisk a lot of times.
"Paul [Kossart] - The CB&Q Guy" [In Illinois] ~ Modeling the CB&Q and its fictional 'Illiniwek River-Subdivision-Branch Line' in the 1960's. ~
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Posted by darth9x9 on Thursday, October 28, 2004 11:44 AM
One other thing to consider which hasn't been mentioned yet, it the fact that not all segments are healthy all of the time. it all depends on your route to the website in question - which you have no control over. I earn my living as a computer geek and I investigate this kind of stuff all of the time.

Depending on your ISP, you might be able to do a little troubleshooting from your PC. First opening a command prompt (DOS window).
Enter "ping www.trains.com" without the quotes and press <ENTER>.
If your ISP allows it, you will get response times from the site in question.
Note: some sites won't acknowledge a ping and you will get all Time Outs. www.ups.com is such a site.

If you get replies, then you can do type this:
tracert www.trains.com <ENTER>
and this will show the route you are taking through the world wide web to get to the website. If you get 5 or 6 "all *" then you can "CTRL-C" to stop. If there are *'s in the middle (or longer response times) and then more responses from later hops, then there is a problem on that segment.

You can do the above periodically to get a sampling of what to expect so when you do have problems, you might actually know where the problem. Once you discover and prove a segment it having problems, you can notify your ISP so they can pass the problem to the responsible party.

Bill Carl (modeling Chessie and predecessors from 1973-1983)
Member of Four County Society of Model Engineers
NCE DCC Master
Visit the FCSME at www.FCSME.org
Modular railroading at its best!
If it has an X in it, it sucks! And yes, I just had my modeler's license renewed last week!

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