I know that I may be being obnoxious about this but.........since the exceedingly, frustrating, maddening slowness of connecting to ST blogs, links to ST places within messages, leaving blog comments, etc. has been identified as a problem between firefox and IB, when will this be resolved? It can't be an insurmountable problem as I use firefox exclusively and do not have this problem on other sites so it must be fixable. I suspect that many people using firefox who are not ST addicts just move on to other sites which are more friendly to use. Many people now use firefox rather than IE. I haven't been so frustrated with speed since the days of dial-up. Thanks, hopefully, for making this a priority.

Yep, me too! I use Firefox and am having trouble accessing ST sites, particularly the blogs.

I refuse to use IE and my Netscape stopped working, so Firefox became my browser of choice. I am sure we are not the only ones who prefer Firefox.

Nancy

I'm sending a copy of this thread to Nate at IB; unfortunately, more than that I can't do. Though Marta and I have been scouring the web to see if there are any other clues but we keep coming up short.

I'm a Firefox user, too, Jane, so I feel your pain. You can get around the problem most times by NOT waiting when it appears to be slow. Just hit the link you wanted again. Sometimes it will take two or three tries, but it will eventually come up without one of those outrageous waits.

I know, I'm a pain.

But maybe the following link does address the problem?

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.dns.disableIPv6

Maybe Marta or Kim or Chris may have a look?

quote:

Caveats

* Setting this preference to false under versions of OS X prior to 10.4 can introduce significant delays in DNS lookups.
* Setting this preference to false under OS/2 can cause DNS lookups to fail altogether.

[edit]
Recommended settings

If your OS or ISP does not support IPv6, there is no reason to have this preference set to false. Some suggest that setting this preference to true on any OS will speed up connections, though this is probably a placebo effect.

my note the property is set to false by default

quote:

Originally posted by Kim:
I'm sending a copy of this thread to Nate at IB; unfortunately, more than that I can't do. Though Marta and I have been scouring the web to see if there are any other clues but we keep coming up short.

Kim, I meant to clarify that this should be seen as an IB problem and that they should be the ones to fix it--not the mods or ST. I know that you guys are stymied with this, too. Paolo seems to offer something but I do not know if that is something I need to do to my computer and if so, what it is. My literacy only goes so far, I'm afraid.

Is this a browser setting, Paolo? I can't find anything remotely like that in Firefox.

Jane, you should at least try my suggestion. It may be slightly inconvenient, much much quicker than just sitting and fuming while waiting for the browser to react.

No the fix mentioned is an OS item. It's also only mentioning Mac OS.

Is everybody having problems running a Mac OS?

I use Firefox on Mac OS 10.4.11. What exactly should I do in preferences? Non-geek speak is helpful.

Nope. I'm Windows XP.

it is a firefox setting

in the address bar
type

about:config

[enter]

the browser will show a loooong list of properties

you can narrow down the list by typing

ipv

in the filter bar (I have the Italian version now and it call it Filtro thus I think it would be filter o howwver they call it in English)

you should see just two entries now

doubleclick the first one

network.dns.disableIPv6
it will be set to true (that is disabled)

[the second entry is for a comma separated list in case one wants maintain ipv6 enabled but some servers just searched through ipv4 just doubleclick is listed here by default i see.]

{to revert the setting as false just doubleclick again}

note that for other os (i would read windows here)they say they suspect just a placebo effect but still don't exclude it could work

almost forgot

This appears to work! Thanks, Paolo. I just tried a bunch of the slowtrav blogs and went to the comment areas, and they all worked quickly.

Let me just confirm that you want the setting to be True, not false, correct?

exactly

from false to true


(remember this change since when ipv6 will be widely supported it will be a problem again, but until then I hope it helps)

let's see if this works for others too.

Chris, I will try yours but will probably try Paolo's also if I get up the nerve to mess with the OS.

But, I guess I still don't understand why this problem seems to only, at least in my browsing, apply to ST? Paolo?

Definitely try Paolo's first. That's a fix, mine was only a workaround.

The slowtrav relationship rpobably has to do with something about how the dns is configured for the site, something that only IB could answer, and they don't seem to consider it a high priority. But I really don't care as long as the problem goes away.

Good question.

I noticed that some blogs here have a complex structure: one opens 30 different connections for example.

My guess is that for such structure any possible delay or problem in obtaining the desired ip number from resolvers (every server with a name actually is reached through a number, so called i.p. number : dns servers "translate" names to numbers) multiplies the problem times "n" connections.

Or maybe some servers are actually ready for ipv6 but not all the servers along the path. some stop scratching their heads not knowing what to do.

This is my long guess.

In short :
I have no idea and it shows

Excellent Paolo! I'm going to give it a try in the morning, and if it works for me too, I'll write up some step by step instructions so we have it documented.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Ok. I did this now will see what happens the next few times to try links. I'll let you know.

Interestingly my XP was on true so I reset to false. My Vista was already on false.

I gave it a try and I'm still getting slow downs.

I also closed down all copies of firefox and restarted it. I'm not certain if the change happens immediately or when firefox is restarted.

It sounds like a good possibility. It seemed to work at first but after posting comments on 3 blogs it started halting again. I'll see what happens next time I update my blog.

Has anyone seen the slow down on SlowPhotos also? I'm more suspicious of an issue handling databases on the servers. If so, you might also see it on Slowphotos or the trip reports.

I made Paolo's change yesterday. Afterwards I shut down Firefox but did not reboot. Still a slowdown in accessing the blogs and particularly the comment section.

I have now rebooted and restarted Firefox, and I do not see any change in access time.

It was worth a try, though. I hope IB figures out what the problem is.

Nancy

I have stayed silent lately but have been very frustrated with this issue also. I tried Paolo's suggestion but it didn't work for me. It is still sloooooow.

I have tried the tip of hitting the link two or three times but sometimes that doesn't even work to load a blog or go to another page on a blog. If you hit the link again when leaving comments sometimes you end up leaving duplicate comments. I do that when I am writing a comment on my blog, but I try not to until I am completely frustrated when leaving a comment on someone else's blog.

With my limited knowledge, I would tend to guess that it is not merely a firefox issue since all other links load quickly but something to do with IBS or the servers even though it does seem to be connected to using the firefox browser. It would be nice to get this figured out without having to reset every browser for traveling purposes.

I appreciate everyone's help in trying to get this solved. Hopefully it will be done soon since it has been an ongoing issue for months now.

I’m in Atlanta until June 2 and I have to use Firefox on my brother’s computer and it is making everything awfully slow. I have given up on replying to the comments left on my blog and had to change the settings to accept comments from anyone without email notifications. I have tried hitting the link again and again but sometimes it takes more than three tries and I just give up. I can’t wait to get back home to my Mac and Safari!

Just curious

how many among the slowness affected blogs have the sitemeter webcounter?

Are blogs without counter slow as well?

I ask because it adds some not elementary instructions from an external script 2 hundreds lines long.

It even insert an Iframe (dimensions 0x0) pointing to a third part site. (It is positioned close to the counter logo image)

That means that the loading time is not completely under the control of the main website but also rely on others servers response.


(by the way, when I see iframe with dimensions set to 0 I start becoming uncomfortable; call me paranoid