What's the Point of Donating If We Can't Access This Site at Peak Times?

October 12, 2012 | Self

[PittsburghAfterDark]

I have to ask this very seriously, do you know that this site has been completely unusable to perhaps thousands and thousands of others during either the first Presidential or Vice-Presidential debate and for an hour or so after their respective conclusions?

This has never happened in previous election cycles during debates, election night results or during large breaking news events. Slow? Yes. Unusable, no.

I've had multiple tabs opened for the debates this year and the FR one just wheel spin, wheel spin, wheel spin... blank page, no progress bar moving on the address bar. It's just the internet equivalent of dead air for hours.

If you're getting this during a VP debate I fully expect this site to be dead and inaccessible from 6PM-4AM election night.

Update us would you? What's going on?

[epic stache]

It seems like the OP was asking about the relationship between donations and performance.

There is some relationship, right?

[BereanBrain]

host node begone! Dynamic IP provisioning is what they do now, along with load balancers!

[gunsequalfreedom]

What's the Point of Donating If We Can't Access This Site at Peak Times?

Donate more!

[miliantnutcase]

This site is beyond slow even in off peak hours.

[Last of the Mohicans]

Too bad all of those Mitt supporters have been tossed off the site.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

What’s the Point of Donating If We Can’t Access This Site at Peak Times?

“Donate more!”

Sorry, the Conservative in me has been conditioned to believe that unless the proposed solution is different than the the one being tried throwing money at it won’t change anything.

[ottbmare]

Are we sure that this is all the fault of FR? I’m no expert, but I never, ever have a hard time getting on FR or posting, no matter what’s going on. Sure, sometimes it’s a little slow, but I never have to wait more than five seconds or so. And I don’t have fancy machinery at all. But I live near DC, Verizon is my broadband carrier, and I have to share my bandwidth with a son who’s gaming. So is it possible that some of the people who are having trouble are having trouble with their particular route to the California servers of FR?

I dunno, just a thought. It’s just that some of us never have a problem, there has to be an explanation for that.

[dalebert]

yes it is..

[Ingtar]

That depends on what the meaning of “All” is.

[Revolting cat!]

Article already posted:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2943599/posts

[Ingtar]

Years back, I was in charge of a site that faced millions of hits during competitions. We had what sounds like a similar problem. The server and even network seemed to be operating well and handling the volume. It was the software we had installed to track hits that was hanging up and bringing things to a crawl. I wish I could remember the specific software.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Squarespace offers 24/7 support UNLIMITED bandwidth, UNLIMITED storage for $16.00 a month. Running a secure web site shouldn’t be a big deal in today’s technology.

[Dianna]

I know nothing about how this works, but maybe this information will be helpful. I couldn't access the site at all (tonight during the debate and during the last one). Both times my parents could access the site, but they said it was slow.

This could be a personal problem though, after giving up on FR I tried to turn on the tv and found my satellite box was broken. I was almost desperate enough to resort to smoke signals :)

[SWAMPSNIPER]

It was most likely a DNS attack, not much can be done to prevent that.

While we are all gathered here, is your name on the list of monthly donors?

[SWAMPSNIPER]

It’s about damned time!

[PittsburghAfterDark]

No, it is not.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Jim I could get through occasionally but things were just overloading. We should expect to get hit, the rats are running scared and crazier than usual. It's working 100% now.

I only see some names appear to bitch about something, they never take part in anything else.

[Vinylly]

I couldn’t get on either but I’m not complaining. It’s because there were so many concerned posters, this website could not handle them all. To me, it’s a good thing. It means we are very concerned about the political situation we face today. I went over to the political section of www.citydata.com to make my feelings felt. See my post under Vinyly and ‘That Ryan/Bidden Debate Tonight’. Which you all too must get on to make your feelings felt vs. the left-wingers. We are nearly all conservative here, but over there you get to rumble and ruffle the hair of left wingnuts.

[MacMattico]

At first I thought that when people mentioned a “denial of service” attack, that was ridiculous. But I couldn't get through to post on either the Presidential or Vice Presidential debates, and then my server would go down for no reason. About 20 minutes after the debates, my server was fine and I could post on Free Republic or anywhere else no problem. I don't know much about computers, it was just me on my iPad watching the debate but after trying to access FR, my RR high speed wouldn't work at all until after the debate and then no problem.

[gunsequalfreedom]

Sorry, the Conservative in me has been conditioned to believe that unless the proposed solution is different than the the one being tried throwing money at it won’t change anything.

I've been on here since 2000 and only very rarely have I had access trouble. I do remember though when people would forget to turn off a BOLD tag and every post after that would be bold until someone switched it off. Those were good days.

You are correct that the problem needs to be addressed though. It is a fun time to be able to come here during an event. I'm sure JimRob will figure out something. FR has been worth every donation I have made.