I'm only getting on 1/2 the time now; maybe...

[erh]

General Info for the IT Guy(s) in charge: -
I don't know the cause, but thought that you "Lead Guys" for this board should be aware that; at least where I sit, this board "Time's Out" more often than it comes up anymore... I do not have this problem "Anywhere else..!"
I really like this board, but have so much trouble reaching it, that I had to ask you to see if there is an issue that needs to be addressed @ the "Server" end, or something... It's really infuriating to compose a long "PM" for instance, only to not be able to deliver it; thus having to trash it and try again another day... (Also, which "Browser I use has no baring on this situation; I use mainly "FireFox", but also I.E. if/ when needed...

Thanks for any help...

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[rocky]

Lately we have been experiencing some slow downs. hopefully the server can get it fixed.

[P95Carry]

Eric - not sure why the error for you is a time out but as Rocky mentions, the server seems a bit flakey last day or two.

I have had slow loads quite a bit and we down an hour last evening late too. As a small suggestion temporarily I hope - write a post or PM in text editor (notepad or whatever) and save that - then copy and paste into browser - if that attempt fails your typing is not wasted and try it again later.

Sorry no easy fix I can think of.

[erh]

Thanks all; just wanted someone either to know about it, or tell me "I'm loosin' Me mind..!" (Come to think of it; that's probably a bit late to tell me by now anyway..!) (LOL..!)

[hsuCowboy98]

I too had some issues yesterday, and last night, but thats the only time Ive had any issues with the site.

[erh]

I too had some issues yesterday, and last night, but thats the only time Ive had any issues with the site.

I wish thaat were it for me; mine seems to be getting progressively worse over the last couple of weeks; maybe time for a "Much Bigger Server"..! I Dunno..!?!

[rstickle]

I'm using Safari on a Mac, I had problems last night, but things seem to be OK today. Almost no delay when posting or opening messages, which is where I usually see the longest waits.

[BigEd63]

I've had troubles also. Yesterday in particular couldn't get this site at all.

And there have been other days that have been the same as well.

Maybe the amount of traffic here?

[dr_cmg]

There have been some more slow downs and at least one possible stopage this afternoon. For those of you who are not computer people maybe a short explanation will help.

The CombatCarry.com site is not on a server that Bumper maintains. It is on a server belonging to a hosting service. This is good and bad. It is good in that Bumper doesn't have to maintain hardware, software, and operating systems. He maintains the vBulletin software that the site runs on and the content of the site. The bad is that if anything goes wrong Bumper can't fix it. Bumper lives in Arizona, I don't know where the host has the server CC is on located. I did come check a few weeks ago and determined that the address the host gives for its technical support is in Kentucky. If the servers are there then Bumper can't drive down the street and work on them. Since they belong to the host even if they were in the building next door Bumper could not go work on the site.

So Bumper has to depend on the host to keep things going and recently there have been some problems. These problems could be caused by dozens of things. Bumper has been in contact with the host numerous time here lately and we hope that they will soon resolve whatever is causing the problem.

Please don't think that because the problem is not fixed in a few days or weeks that Bumper and the moderators are not concerned. We are concernedand right now Bumper is doing all that he can to encourage the host to solve the problem. Please bear with us and don't give up. It may take a little while longer but we will solve the problem.

Thanks.

[falcon1]

I've experienced some problems too lately, but I know I'm not going anywhere (and I'm certain no one else is either). All of you who work here run an excellent site...the rest of us just start going into withdrawal when we can't log on.

:2Berserker:

[Bumper]

Sorry for the problems, guys and thanks, George for explaining a bit of what is going on. I'll expand a bit on specifics that George brought up, but honestly I don't have a whole lot more.

We are hosted by Host Excellence and they are, indeed, physically located in Kentucky. From what I have researched they are one of the better hosts in the country with a modern, redundant data center, newer servers that are pretty much kept up to date. In the past, I have always had pretty good luck with their technical support. Twice after much smaller periods of "slowdown" they have moved us to a new server. They haven't been real good at giving me advance warning when they do that so I can let all of you know, but I have always appreciated their efforts in moving us.

In this incident, that has really been going on for almost a month now, they are failing me pretty miserably and I am getting tired of it. When you are hosted on a shared server like we are, you are only one site on a server full of websites. They should (ideally) balance the servers out so websites that have little or no traffic co-exist with some of the busier sites. It helps them maintain better utilization of the equipment; the larger sites benefit by being on a server with a bunch of smaller sites, the smaller sites are really not normally hurt by the traffic of the larger ones. Usually. We have normally had trouble here around the Christmas holidays that tells me that we are probably hosted on the server with a fairly large e-commerce site that gets busy during the holidays. I know it's not a problem with the forum itself because I have a couple of other minor sites hosted on the same server and they are suffering as well (not that anyone would notice, lol).

The hosting company itself is having some kind of new problem, now. Their customer service now sucks I hate to say. I have turned in several problem tickets to them and, if I were a betting man, I would say they are outsourcing part of their technical support functions. I have not gotten very far with them. They just don't seem to "get it".

I will redouble my efforts this weekend to try to get them off their duff and do something, but I may have to upgrade our hosting plan or move the site. That's an effort I would like to avoid, but may have to do to keep our performance levels up.

At least a part of the explanation is good old fashioned growing pains. We have grown over 60% in the last year and it apppears to be continuing fairly steadily. Anyway, I'll end the long winded explanation before I time out and ask you to bear with me while I try to get their heads dislodged from their buttocks. Again, sorry for the problems, Eric and everyone else....