Site Anomalies

[Stanley]

I have to log on each time I open OG but that's because I have enhanced cookie management. Same applies to Google, BBC and other sites.

[PanBiker]

Well that's fair enough. The Apple problem is documented and seems to be an example of unintended consequences. One thing is for certain it's nothing to do with the site.

[Tizer]

But surely the mighty Apple empire could never do anything wrong?

I never tell web sites and forums to keep me logged in. It only takes seconds to log in and logout.

[Stanley]

I am of the same mind now and if you use the Firefox password facility it's so easy. Doesn't make you totally secure but one small step....

[PanBiker]

What makes you think that wrong un's couldn't get access to the cached passwords file?

[Stanley]

I never said I thought they couldn't. There is a limit to my paranoia!

[chinatyke]

I've noticed a strange thing with the site. If you open up a thread containing a picture, like those pics put up by BobH in Shed Matters, and then click on the picture to increase its size, the picture is loaded line by line (slowly) presumably from the Cloud. The next time I click on the picture it loads like lightning. Does that mean it is putting an image on my computer somewhere or just a cookie? I can't find any trace of any retained images but I'll be able to reopen it quickly even after a few days, not just later this session.

[PanBiker]

Bob adds his pictures as attachments. The default action for image attachments is to display as a thumbnail and enlarge when selected. The download function is not enabled on image types. They enlarge instantly on my laptop and I would assume will be held in the Widows cache or as a temporary file. This would explain why they would open faster the second time round if you are using a slower machine.

[chinatyke]

Thanks Ian.

[chinatyke]

Just reporting how fast the site loads today. It has been slow, and sometimes extremely slow, at loading pictures. but it is back to normal again, almost instantaneous. I know it is because I live in a heavily censored part of the World, but what has suddenly changed? Has the Great Firewall of China been tweaked to whitelist OGFB? Makes me think it was something to do with 11/11 singles day, when China sets records for on-line sales and the Internet must be ultra fast. Perhaps The GFoC is switched off that day?
One financial site I use tries to load up YouTube in the background and YouTube is banned here. The website loading comes to a stop until YouTube times out or whatever it does.

[PanBiker]

When the site crashed due to the database being full. The site was moved, whole kit and caboodle to a virtual server running in SSD RAM. No hard drive latency or other limiting factors any more hence the speed increase. With regard to your Great Firewall of China - Every Little Helps.

[Gloria]

I never log out of this site, should I?

[Stanley]

I didn't used to either Gloria but then I went onto a higher level of cookie management in Firefox and since then I have to log in every day, same with BBC as well. Not a biggie.

[Tizer]

I know it is because I live in a heavily censored part of the World, but what has suddenly changed? Has the Great Firewall of China been tweaked to whitelist OGFB?

It's because Trump has lost the US election and China is willing to risk opening up to the world again!

I never log out of this site, should I?

I never stay logged in to web sites in between sessions but that's probably due to having been in at the beginning when it was the Wild West rather than the World Wide Web!

[PanBiker]

It's a combination of how paranoid you are about website cookies and how benign you judge the One Guy site to be. I only log out if I have to test something or use one of my "normal member" aliases.

[Gloria]

Thank you, I will carry on as is.

[Stanley]

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you!

[Gloria]

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you!

And is this Covid a cover for them?

[Stanley]

The virus is certainly being used as a cover for a lot of dodgy activities like phishing and scams, see the police reports and warnings on the matter.

[chinatyke]

A few days ago I commented on how fast this site loads. Today it is like waiting for treacle to flow uphill. It is definitely not the speed of my processor or the OGFB server. I'm guessing it is the availability and traffic on international lines from here. It is the images that slow everything down. Line by line like the old dial-up 56kps speed we used to enjoy. Chinese sites load like lightning. OGFB used to always load quickly but now it is hit and miss whether I can get a topic to display. I'm losing the will to live!

[PanBiker]

Yes, the site is optimised in SSD ram, all data and a virtual server to boot. One thing has changed from when it was on the shared resource. That sits on hardware based servers and is hosted in Germany. The SSD arrays and date storage for IONIS and where the site is hosted now are UK based so the routing to the Great Wall will be different for the main site.

One test you could do is to try accessing the topics in the LTP2013 forum. They have all the images embedded in the posts but are still served from Germany as they still live in the shared resource area.

[PanBiker]

If you are on a Windows machine it would be interesting to see how any hops you are away from the server.

Just open a CMD prompt box and enter:

tracert www.oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk

and hit return, this will trace backwards from your machine and report all the different routers as "hops" until it gets back to the queried source.

You could also try pinging the site URL and see how long it takes for a round trip of data packets.

ping www.oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk

that will keep going with multiple packet tests until you hit escape but it will show you the round trip timings.

Of course you could just ignore all the nerdy stuff.

[chinatyke]

It went to 15 hops, then 16 was 'request timed out'. 17 was OK and then no more connections, all Request Timed out, and then it gave up before it had reached 30.

pinging ping www.oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk gave request timed out repeatedly.

Don't lose any sleep, I know it is due to my location.

[chinatyke]

I could cheat and get a VPN but they are banned here. I'll try LTP in a minute.


LTP loads quickly with all the pictures displayed correctly.

I do use UBlock so I've now disabled it for this site. I'll try again.

LIKE MAGIC AGAIN! Must be something in a U Block filter that was causing it. I'll see how it goes. Thanks for your help.


I spoke too soon! Still hit and miss though I think it is better than before. I'll persevere. Next time I'm at my friend's house in Nanning I'll try with his VPN.

[PanBiker]

No problem a combination of Chinese paranoia and a self installed application one of which it looks like you have sorted. Unfortunately you don't have control of the other.