I have no problems with FR at all. Even on debate nights, I had little trouble. I have a modest machine running Firefox on w7, and a Verizon DSL connection which is not exactly their fastest pipe. I am no IT person. There are no problems loading. It’s not any slower than anything else. This suggests to me that other people may be having trouble related to their hardware, their software, their ISP, their browser, local traffic, or home conditions. (If you’re sharing your network with a teenage gamer, yes, he’s going to suck up all the bandwidth and it will be a nuisance. Ask me how I know!)
Yeah, that's it. A month or two ago, almost everyone on this site suddenly and coincidentally began experiencing slow (or no) response due purely to self-inflicted problems. The common denominator might appear to be Free Republic, but that can't possibly be it. LOL.
If I am, it's a problem that only exists with connecting to FR. I visit dozens of other sites daily, some forums, others just web pages, and nothing malfunctions like the slow loads/no loads at FR.
You're completely wrong. There are several intermediate servers that give HORRENDOUS response times at particular times of the day. The tracert command (tracert www.freerepublic.com) reveals the culprits. It's possible that you do not have these servers in your path to Free Republic.
Even on debate nights, I had little trouble. I have a modest machine running Firefox on w7, and a Verizon DSL connection which is not exactly their fastest pipe. I am no IT person. There are no problems loading. It’s not any slower than anything else.
I am an IT person. Your experience points the finger AWAY from Free Republic, and to another culprit.
As a professional in the web arena since 1994 I am not someone who likes to jump into these types of discussions because as someone outside looking in I do not have enough information available to offer true insight.
HOWEVER, blaiming user hardware is not correct, the sites performace has degraded noticeably, and the fact you do not have a few people complaining lets you know its not just one persons hardware.
I personally can attest that the performace of FR has been slow from at leas 3 different networks that I am part of and on 3 different pieces of physical hardware.. whatever is going on its not something caused by users hardware.. it is either performance at the site itself or something in the network.
If it is network it certainly seenms to be something network related to FR or something very close to FR as I have not experienced any latency on any other locations around the globe I deal with.
I have confidence whatever the issue is, folks are working on it. I won’t try to second guess the folks who are far more intimately familiar with their configurations than I am.
If there are others like yourself using the site fine without noticing issues, it could be a networking/routing issue outside of FR itself that could be affecting some but not others... However this isn’t something where its user hardware caused for sure.