fyi- We have migrated to LiteSpeed webserver..

[Rick A]

When I click the classifieds, I keep getting a box that says the server needs my user name and password. when i enter them, I get a page that reads that you are down for repairs, and to check back in one hour. I've been doing this for several days

 

[tim_walls]

When I click the classifieds, I keep getting a box that says the server needs my user name and password. when i enter them, I get a page that reads that you are down for repairs, and to check back in one hour. I've been doing this for several days

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[johnnywalker]

Well the speed increase I noticed early on was a very short lived phenomenon for me.

 

[Sean]

Never been faster here, page loads are almost instant and that's across the globe so not sure what's up with your connection. Try marking all your posts as read and see if that helps or reset your internet router..

 

[johnnywalker]

I talked to my ISP about it, since it happens on another website (the CBC) as well. They gave me a speed test to try a few times a day, then I'm to call them back. When I first get on to APUG, it's fast. Then over the next hour it will slow to a crawl. I tried the speed test when I first got onto APUG (when it was fast) and then again after it slowed right down, and the result was the same - 106/107 kb/s download speed on the test. This is not as fast as the ISP expects (they say it should be a minimum of 130). I'm on a satellite service and have a wireless router by the way. My computer is a 2 year old Sony Vaio laptop.
If this happened on all websites I'd have no hesitation in blaming the ISP, but it doesn't.
I mark my posts as read every day, and restarting the router doesn't help.
I downloaded a network meter a week or so ago, and it averages way slower speeds than the speed test showed. APUG and the CBC just hang up for long periods and a message at the bottom of the screen says "waiting for APUG" or "transmitting" - which it isn't, according to the network meter. Pushing the refresh button works for a few seconds.
I have to call the ISP back tomorrow, but I'm sure they're going to say it's not their problem. Probably not APUG's either, which means I'm just venting.

 

[Sean]

I know Ron was having issues, turned out to be his ISPs DNS servers. Maybe you can change DNS servers on your router to a different set (just write down your current ones before editing), sorry can't advise on another DNS to try, should be some open ones out there. Also try logging off APUG when it goes slow, once logged out is it fast again? You may have a corrupt APUG cookie, and most of all use FIREFOX http://www.mozilla.com if you are on IE the anti phishing tool is probably giving you grief.. good luck!

 

[johnnywalker]

I already use Firefox. I log into APUG in the am and have it on a tab most of the day, but I'll try logging out when I'm not on it. Last night I hardwired the computer to the router thinking that might help. Don't know what a a DNS is or how to change it, but I can find out. Thanks for the suggestions Sean.

 

[johnnywalker]

It appears my problem is with my ISP - they keep slowing me down because they say I've reached a limit on their "Fair Use Policy" for uploads. Since I rarely upload anything, I don't believe it. I have a Network meter that tells me what is happening regarding uploads and downloads in real time, but I need something that will record the history. Is there some program that will do this for me and work on my Vista and XP computers? I use Firefox on both computers. I tried googling "Download Manager" but I don't know if these programs will do what I want or not.
I've shut each computer down for 24 hours, bypassed the router for 24 hours, and I still hit their magic number. The ISP says something must be uploading in the background, but if so I can't imagine what it is. Both computers run an up-to-date Norton.
This is frustrating to say the least, and I'd really appreciate any suggestions for a program that I can run for a few days before I have to get my blood pressure checked!

 

[Photo Engineer]

Well, I'm still having the problem and it appears now that it is 90% IE and only about 10% Mozilla. It is confined to APUG about 99% of the time.

The DNS server from my ISP is timing out finding APUG. No place else. Just APUG. It does it from IE and Mozilla, but Mozilla is better. APUG runs about 50% faster now but every once in a while it freezes or just cannot be reached.

It freezes when posting, when a banner ad is coming up or when I try to arrive at APUG, it tells me that the server timed out. When I access APUG via the IP address itself, it works fine 100%! I suspect that the DNS server for my locale is overloaded, but I have seen several of the ISP trucks in my area and on my street so there may be deeper problems. They are converting from 100 mbps to a turbo 150 mbps or higher.

PE

 

[Tom Kershaw]

APUG is working fine for me here in the United Kingdom.

Tom.

 

[Bob F.]

It appears my problem is with my ISP - they keep slowing me down because they say I've reached a limit on their "Fair Use Policy" for uploads. Since I rarely upload anything, I don't believe it. I have a Network meter that tells me what is happening regarding uploads and downloads in real time, but I need something that will record the history. Is there some program that will do this for me and work on my Vista and XP computers? I use Firefox on both computers. I tried googling "Download Manager" but I don't know if these programs will do what I want or not.
I've shut each computer down for 24 hours, bypassed the router for 24 hours, and I still hit their magic number. The ISP says something must be uploading in the background, but if so I can't imagine what it is. Both computers run an up-to-date Norton.
This is frustrating to say the least, and I'd really appreciate any suggestions for a program that I can run for a few days before I have to get my blood pressure checked!

I just started trialling DU Meter (http://www.dumeter.com/main.php?SID=079fd35248faee07b5c84abb0d244c83). It can output reports in various formats of upload and download volumes by hour/day/week etc. Seems to work well. A 30-day trial is available and it costs $24.95 if you want to keep it after that - the trial period is probably long enough for your purposes to prove how much you are/not transferring.

 

[johnnywalker]

Thanks Bob, that's exactly what I was after.

 

[tim_walls]

I suspect that the DNS server for my locale is overloaded, but I have seen several of the ISP trucks in my area and on my street so there may be deeper problems. They are converting from 100 mbps to a turbo 150 mbps or higher.

I'd suspect you're right - I've just checked, and APUG appears to have two DNS servers hosted by wiredtree both of which appear to be responding fine. More to the point, they're returning a TTL (Time To Live - the time a downstream DNS server is advised to keep hold of a response without bothering the origin server again) of 4 hours, so your ISP's individual DNS servers shouldn't actually be bothering APUG's servers more than once every 4 hours anyway.



johnnywalker - are you running any kind of file-sharing software, e.g. Kazaa or Limewire? Alternatively, any online-television services like BBC iPlayer installed? File sharing software will carry on using your network connection even when the application itself isn't runnning, and these on-demand-TV programs often work in a file-sharing kind of way (i.e. even while you're not watching the TV, they're running in the background using your internet connection to upload content to other viewers.) I believe iPlayer at least has an option to turn off the background operation.

If not, or indeed even if you are, you may be well advised to run a full virus scan of your computer. If your antivirus software has an option to boot from the CD and do a full scan that way, it might be worth doing it. If you have a virus on there, you could well find that your computer is busily uploading spam to the Internet without your knowledge.

(Modern viruses don't tend to do the dramatic "I'm deleting all your files" things people think they do. It's more profitable for the virus writers if they actually hide themselves quietly on computers and then do nasty things like sending spam emails or denial-of-service attacking websites... The people who send a gazillion Viagra emails a day could never afford the bandwidth to do it themselves - it's much more cost effective to use other people's bandwidth bills by getting viruses to do the dirty work.)

 

[Anon Ymous]

...The DNS server from my ISP is timing out finding APUG. No place else. Just APUG. It does it from IE and Mozilla, but Mozilla is better. APUG runs about 50% faster now but every once in a while it freezes or just cannot be reached...

Declare the IP of APUG at the hosts file then

Seriously speaking, sometimes I also experience freezes and need to reload pages. Overall, it seems somewhat quicker, but nothing dramatic.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Declare the IP of APUG at the hosts file then

Seriously speaking, sometimes I also experience freezes and need to reload pages. Overall, it seems somewhat quicker, but nothing dramatic.

I would love to, but as I told Sean, I have about 4 hosts files on my computer and IDK which one it uses. I suppose adding to alll of them might do the trick. I am considering it right now.

PE

 

[Anon Ymous]

Four?! I only know of "c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts". Anyway, if you consider this as an option, append "209.188.84.21 www.apug.org" at the end of the file.