Forum Moderators: phranque
Since Monday it's typically taking 10 to 30 seconds to serve a page on all of my sites. One index page, for example, is 14kb, another 13kb, still another is 14kb, etc. I run what I think are pretty lean pages.
Support's response is that svr15 load is fine:
load average: 0.62, 1.76, 1.47. They blame it on errors in my code. This on pages that have been loading fine for the last six weeks. I ran Dreamweaver's check html. It removed (or maybe it was combined?) a nested table tag and combined two font tags into one. Those are errors that produce up to 30 second load times? I don't believe it. They also removed my .htaccess file (lotta nerve, huh!) that was checking the .htm page for php. That adds ten to 15 seconds to the load time on a site that gets maybe a 500 visitors a day?
I think the server we're on is over loaded. Or, am I just over-reacting? What do you think?
Slow loads are a sign of a (heavily) shared server and often taken as a sign of something amateur..... which may be alright if it's something amateur.
You might also ask a friend to load your site. If it loads faster look for other explanations.
Tables can be tricky. Better multiple small tables stacked up that 1 large container table with everything nested inside.
Image rendering could be an issue. Specified H & W for each?
Too many variables. I'm shooting in the dark, trying not to wound innocent bystanders.
I shoot for 200 milliseconds (0.2 seconds) on server response time. Normally, I get a response time of less than 120. Note that this is the server response time, and does not include browser rendering time.
You could easily test your problem by putting up a short "hello word" page with a minimal <head> section, no tables, includes, or scripts, and see what response time you get. If it is still slow, then your code is not to blame.
Jim
I generally don't wait for large Flash intros either. If I don't see the "skip intro" button, I'm on the back button.
<off topic>I can't help thinking that people who only wait for three seconds for a page to start loading are missing an awful lot of the Internet. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, three seconds, or ten, or even a minute or two, just isn't that much time. And, it would probably take most people at least that long to find another good source of whatever information they're after. Just because someone doesn't know how to get their server to respond quickly doesn't mean they have nothing valuable to say. With that said, I normally just middle-click links to other sites and let them load in a new tab - when I'm ready to read them, they'll be there waiting for me! ;) </off topic>
How do you measure server response time? Just however long it is until the page begins to render? Surely there's a more scientific method...
For me, "server response time" is probably a euphemism for "my level of patience at the time, bearing in mind that some pages are way too large or carry offsite banner ads that take forever to load and there are way too many other sites to wait for this unknown>" whew!
Really, you may be right that we all should be more patient but I suspect there are lots more 3 second people than 30 second people cruising the net. And, I also suspect that 3 second people are more likely to spend money at my site.
When I'm at the office on a massive OC3 line, even the most graphic intense pages popup quickly. So if 3 or 4 seconds goes by with no activity, I find another source for the information.
Maybe it depends on what business you're in. With the businesses I deal with, many or most of them are "Mom and Pop" operations, run out of homes. They're concientious, provide great service, and are professional. Yet, when I visit one of their websites, I expect to find something a little less than professional. Does this mean they're unprofessional in business? No, it simply means they understand their own business, and have little understanding of others, including the Internet. Many of them don't even realize that they (allegedly) "need help." But they'll fill my order, it will be delivered to me on time, and they'll stand behind their product.
There are many other areas I can think of, where the proprietor might not have a good website, but who will do a great job on whatever it is he does. I know of a nationally-recognized printing company that does many of the biggest national magazines available. They obviously do their job well, but I consider their website something less than professional. What would you expect? They're in print publishing, not web publishing. They know their business, and they do it.
And yet, if I were looking for anti-virus software, or a good web host, I'd expect to find a site that looked professional, was easy to navigate, had a consistent design, and downloaded quickly. If I didn't find those factors on their site, I would probably assume they were an unprofessional outfit.
I can agree with your first to assumptions about when a site takes more than a few seconds to respond. But the last, about "unprofessional," is simply inaccurate under many circumstances (obviously not all). There are plenty of people who are professional within their own area of expertise - and if they don't have enough web expertise to realize they don't have any at all, I can deal with that.
Like I said, maybe it all depends on what you're looking for, and what you expect to find before you ever type in the web address.
Sometimes what happens is that on a shared server somebody starts running bad scripts, that hog the processor(s), and all the sites on the server slow down. Obviously good hosters watch for this, but bad ones don't, I used to have that problem every month or so before switching to a good hoster.
As jdMorgan said, response time if it's not heavily scripted should be in the milliseconds.
To get a good idea of server speed I will sometimes check the site with Opera 5, that is an insanely fast rendering browser, starts building the page much faster than any other browser, althoug of course it's buggy. You can get that here at evolt [browsers.evolt.org]
