Forum is loading slowly

Technical Details

Forum version : #phpBB3
Position : Founder
Concerned browser(s) : Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Other
Who the problem concerns : All members
When the problem appeared : 4-5 days
Forum link : https://butterflyservers.forumotion.com/

Description of problem

I noticed my forumotion forum is loading extremely slow for several days. The problem has been also reported by several people who frequent my forum (I provide gaming servers, and forumotion is our main way of communication).

I did clear my cache, I tried several browsers (Firefox, Edge, Chrome and SRWare Iron).
I went ahead and changed the layout to the regular phpbb3 layout back and forth, to no avail. I also disabled all widgets.

I can still access my admin panel.

I have no problem accessing other sites, and my Internet connection does not have any issues.

Is there anything that can be done?

Thank you in advance.

My forum address: https://butterflyservers.forumotion.com/

Hi there,

Have you tried disabling any scripts to see one of those could be causing the issue?

Hi,

If you mean scripts on the forum, I'm not using any additional scripts. I did use 2 widgets, but I disabled them few days ago, hoping this would solve the problem.

As for scripts on my browser, I tried several browsers on 2 different computers. Also no extra scripts on those. Same problem everywhere. I also connected through a different network to make sure the problem is not on my end.

It's definitelly something specific to your site causing the issue. Are you sure you have no javascripts or css codes added?

Hello.

I have run so basic tests on your forum and found the following.

If you look at the bottom left hand side you will see that Google and other sites are trying to load and they take there time.

Have you got links to sites and or images on your site that are hosted outside of our servers?

If yes then this is your problem,

Please take a look at the following video of your site.

You will see sites you have in links that are taking to long to load i would say change the link's or remove them from the main site so this speeds your forum up.

Also if you still run links in your Widgets linking outside of your forum this can still give you problems.

also i see the following code in your CSS files

Code:

body {
    -khtml-border-radius: 10px;
    -moz-border-radius: 10px;
    -webkit-border-radius: 10px;
    background-attachment: fixed;
    background-color: #1a1a1a;
    background-image: url(http://etfastdownload.site.nfoservers.com/img/currentbackground.jpg);
    border-radius: 10px;
    color: #5c758c;img
    filter: alpha(opacity=90);
    font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
    font-size: 10px;
    height: auto;
    opacity: .9;
    padding: 10px 0;
}

This background image is not loading that fast it maybe better to remove it or re host it using our host servimg

Code: http://etfastdownload.site.nfoservers.com/img/currentbackground.jpg

Thanks for the response.

I re-uploaded the images (background and logo) to your hosting service, but the problem persists. As I mentioned above, I loaded a regular phbb3 skin/layout without any addons from outer servers before, to check if it could solve the issue; it did not help either.

I also removed the portion of the forum desciption you showed in the screenshot. How do I stop google(?) bots from creating links out of plain text in messages or forum descriptions? I did not put those links there, but I noticed when I view the forum as a guest, many words become links to search engines, while they are originally written as plain text. That means the words used in regular posts made by members or me, and in categories descriptions. It is confusing, as it happens to random words in random messages, and when I want to edit them, the text still shows as plain text, despite being a link to a search engine.

The forum is still slow, and I'm positive I don't run any extra scripts. The forum worked great for months without any changes made to its structure until it started to load this slow few days ago. I was hoping it is some kind of maintenance that would be over soon, but then I discovered no mention of such maintenance here, or any problem with other forum boards hosted on your service.

ButterflyServers wrote:

I also removed the portion of the forum desciption you showed in the screenshot. How do I stop google(?) bots from creating links out of plain text in messages or forum descriptions? I did not put those links there, but I noticed when I view the forum as a guest, many words become links to search engines, while they are originally written as plain text. That means the words used in regular posts made by members or me, and in categories descriptions. It is confusing, as it happens to random words in random messages, and when I want to edit them, the text still shows as plain text, despite being a link to a search engine.

You can disable the links by following these steps, however, to me seems highly unlikely a few random ad links could cause such dramatic slowness: ACP(Admin Control Panel) > General > Forum > Configuration > General > Text ads activation for guests(underlined): Tick to No and save.

Also the reason I asked if there was any codes being used is because 9 times out of 10 a bad script or something is the culprit as the browser spends a great deal of time trying to load it, before finally giving up since it can't.

You mentioned this started a few days ago, did you make any changes to your forum right before it started happening?

-Brandon

Hello,

It comes from one of your customizations. The resource https://astuforum.free.fr/js/snow.js is not native on Forumotion forums:

@brandon_g

Thank you, I disabled the links showing for guests.

@The Godfather

Thank you! We tried to install snow for xmas event 2 years ago, but it never seemed to work. I had no idea there was any leftover from that time.

So you just need to remove that script and your site will load fine.

Hello,

APE wrote:
This background image is not loading that fast it maybe better to remove it or re host it using our host servimg

Code: http://etfastdownload.site.nfoservers.com/img/currentbackground.jpg

Never been a good idea to load http resources on a https forum !
You must load all resources in https, or choose http protocol for your forum.

SSL Certificate: Guide for a success forum migration to HTTPS

Thank you all for your assistance. I will be making sure not to keep leftover code from now on.

Your welcome!

Problem solved & topic archived. Please read our forum rules: ESF General Rules