A couple of suggestions to possibly make your pages load faster [UPDATED]

Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

Very sorry about the problems with our servers causing FR to fail under heavy traffic loads. Praying that John finds a solution or workaround soon.

In the meantime, here are a couple suggestion you can use to possibly make your pages load faster:

1. Configure your sidebars to display fewer items. I've temporarily disabled all sidebars but breaking news on mine.

   Select "Disabled" in the "Region" pulldown for each sidebar block you wish to temporarily disable then click "Modify":

   http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/manage-blocks

2. Reduce the number of threads and replies downloaded on each click. Go to personal preferences and reduce the "Thread Pagination" to 20 messages per page and "Browsing" to 20 results per page.

   http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/settings

3. Update: And a suggestion (made by metmom) is to set your "Brevity" preference to "Headers." This will definitely make your index pages (latest posts, etc) load faster.

   And it’s simply a click to toggle "Brevity" from "Text" to "Headers" or back the other way when needed: http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/news-forum/index

4. And for firefox users: KoRn has posted a useful tip to make firefox load pages faster: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1299854/posts

If enough of us did this we would reduce the amount of data downloaded on each click, reducing the load on the database and the server and possibly increasing overall systems performance.

To reset your preferences later, click on "Account" at the top of any of the main index pages and then "Manage Blocks" to configure your sidebars and "My Preferences" to set your number of threads and replies per thread preferences.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/my/

Thank you all very much and good luck.

[Lancey Howard]

Often I have to relog/sign in. Free Republic is one of the worse in that reqard.

Huh... I can't understand why you are having that problem. When you log into FR do you log in using the "Convenient" setting? I have Windows 7 and never have to log back in unless I do a "window wash" or turn off my computer completely.

[2111USMC]

Definitely made a difference.

:)

[rockinqsranch]

Took awhile, but I was able to get through the Internet cannot open.....stuff, and finally got it done.

Yes, it is working faster for me now.

Thanks for that Jim. I’m just sittin’ here wipin’ the tears of frustration from my cheeks. It’s all better now. I get to have a cookie and some milk.

[Jyotishi]

Thank you for the suggestions!

[Clyde5445]

“HOME/ABOUT Prayer SCOTUS ProLife BangList.......”

Is there away to diabled the keywords as well.

Thanks.

[Jim Robinson]

Yup. Disable the Link Banner block.

[sneakers]

Thanks p6!

Pinging the Q&R group to an important message from JimRob!

[Clyde5445]

OK thanks.

[sneakers]

Done Jim. Thanks!

[Qwackertoo]

Thanks, I disabled everything but Breaking News & Front Page News.

[leapfrog0202]

I did as suggested and it helped, thanks.

[matthew fuller]

Thanks for the instructions, I have set up my account as you suggested.

Now, I would like to suggest that you make these settings the DEFAULT settings for everyone, since these suggestions will not get out to very many people now.

I suspect that most FReepers would appreciate this action on your part, since it will speed up response times.

[The SISU kid]

Bump for bookmark

[defconw]

This might actually be working! WOO HOO! Thanks!

[gov_bean_ counter]

Thank you so very much for the heads up on this. Hope it makes a difference.

[dglang]

I did that earlier this week, I’ll try some more Dan

[Gene Eric]

Cache the banners and sidebars that depend on the DB to text files and update on a configured interval. Give subscribers priority bitrate through rewrite rules redirecting the others to the servers designated for general public access.

[Wasichu]

I’ve found on debate nights that the following seems to be speedier:
For example, I have just read post 100 and the next choice is:
101-187 (Yeah I had it set on 100 posts...),
or “last”.

Asking it to gather the 101-187 posts takes longer than only asking it for the last post, which of course includes 101-186.

It’s like I’m asking it to gather less info...this make sense?

[TXnMA]

I, too have been looking for "man in the middle" or "pipe"problems.

UNIX TRACEROUTE shows some problems with the close-in servers in Milpitas.

Most of my problems are timeouts -- and the fact that Vanman posted the same thing ~ 50 times on the last debate thread (having received no feedback from FR) makes me suspect the problem is data flow outward FROM FR -- rather than internal speed or FR's response to INcoming data...

~~~~~~

But my big surprise was when TRACEROUTE showed FR's DNSs (Domain Name Servers) in Germany!!

Network Tools says: "62.116.181.25 [ns2.robinson-defehr.com] is from Germany(DE) in region Western Europe"

Final hop: 62.116.181.25 25-181-116-62.rev.customer-net.de

I hope that's not some sort of "hijack" going on...

This IP stuff gets weird, sometimes...