SLOW LOADING

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1. For the site to move somewhere where "forum.nhfree.com" would actually freakin' work properly

This should be fixed (or at least worked around) already. Try clearing your cache. (I will note that it took almost two years to get this even somewhat sorted out.)

2. For the site to move somewhere where it would get decent performance during more of the hours in the day

Seriously, what's it gonna take to make that happen?
Error, will you Make It So if Kat requests?
Kat, will you request such if I promise to tell everyone else at the MVP meeting this weekend to buy your awesome salsa?

This isn't likely to happen. It would almost certainly require leaving the current web hosting provider entirely, and I am told that the current web hosting provider is owned by a very long time personal friend of the family.

[d_goddard]

1. For the site to move somewhere where "forum.nhfree.com" would actually freakin' work properly

This should be fixed (or at least worked around) already.

The workaround is just a redirect and I'm not that thrilled with it.
What I'd love is an actual DNS alias, not just a redirect.

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Good luck.

[penguins4me]

The workaround is just a redirect and I'm not that thrilled with it.
What I'd love is an actual DNS alias, not just a redirect.

Who controls the DNS for nhfree.com? I run a server which handles, among other things, DNS for several domains, and adding additional aliases for a specific IP is a cinch! Moreover, configuring apache to use multiple URIs for a single site is also a cinch.

Okay, after eyeballing the DNS for the two sites, it appears that all that has to happen here is that forum.nhfree.com's A record be changed to point to 66.160.132.20, or even a CNAME of forum.soulawakenings.com (though I'm sure the latter violates some RFC or another). Regardless, either change should resolve the domain conflict issues (cookies, etc.).

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You can't point forum.nhfree.com at this IP address and expect anything useful to happen unless the Web site is serving something under the name forum.nhfree.com. Otherwise all you'll get is, well, the default web site "Kat Dillon".

[penguins4me]

Exactly. And since forum.soulawakenings.com is running apache, it is a snap to have that web server serve up the same site as it does when addressed by forum.nhfree.com by using the ServerAlias directive.

e.g.:

Code (/etc/httpd/httpd.conf) Select Expand

ServerName forum.soulawakenings.com
ServerAlias forum.nhfree.com

If SMF is even remotely sane, that's all that needs to be done! :)

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Hey wait a minute. Last time I looked, it was running on a Windows box. WTF? So why is it running slow?

And if it really is a Unix box why don't you just turn on the built-in spell check instead of bothering with that stupid cow?

If it really is Unix then maybe this slow thing is fixable.

[penguins4me]

Overlooking possible sarcasm and rhetoric, even though I am heavily biased towards *nix systems, an OS can't compensate for inadequate hardware and/or an overloaded system. I haven't bothered to try to find out who is hosting the forum, nor how many other sites are hosted on the same system (heck, don't think I can, anyhow), but standard practice for a web-hosting company is to cram as many sites as possible onto one system to maximize return on investment. If too many sites have been added *OR* one site starts sucking up a lot of resources, it can bog down a whole server something fierce. This also assumes the problem is the server hardware and not the connectivity, though this could be checked quickly if one other site on a seperate server is reachable during times of sluggishness for this forum.

As for the *nix spellchecker, SMF would have to have a hook or other component to take advantage of whatever spell-checker the system might have (aspell, Ispell, etc.) in order to use it with the forums. It may just be as simple as logging into SMF's control panel and adding a line, or it could be next to impossible - I don't use SMF, so I don't know. :/ In either case, it seems that the Spelling Cow was easier to implement. If it bothers you that much, and you use Firefox, try the Noscript extension to get rid of it (and many other annoyances).

[Russell Kanning]

If it really is Unix then maybe this slow thing is fixable.

this forum is run on a linux server ... I don't think that Kat can change things very easily ... so she doesn't ..... she also is sick of hearing complains so she doesn't even read these threads anymore.

If one of you guys wants to start a similar forum to this one, maybe some of us should hang out on that one. I get annoyed with how slow this one is.

I use the one I have on the Keene Free Press, but that might not be the best answer.

We could use the ftlive one or the strike-the-root one also. We could just drag all those guys into our nh activism.

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Overlooking possible sarcasm and rhetoric, even though I am heavily biased towards *nix systems, an OS can't compensate for inadequate hardware and/or an overloaded system. I haven't bothered to try to find out who is hosting the forum, nor how many other sites are hosted on the same system (heck, don't think I can, anyhow), but standard practice for a web-hosting company is to cram as many sites as possible onto one system to maximize return on investment. If too many sites have been added *OR* one site starts sucking up a lot of resources, it can bog down a whole server something fierce. This also assumes the problem is the server hardware and not the connectivity, though this could be checked quickly if one other site on a seperate server is reachable during times of sluggishness for this forum.

There's no sarcasm here whatsoever. Just a little bit of shock. Since you don't seem to be familiar with the background on the technical issues behind this forum, but appear to have an uninformed opinion anyway, (Okay, maybe there is some sarcasm here) here's some information for you.

Among many other things, I run the Free Talk Live BBS, which is on the same software, and on a Linux server. It used to be on a Windows server. So I've become quite familiar with SMF, its capabilities and its weaknesses. I've also tried before to look into what the slow issue is on this forum. But since it seemed to be Windows at the time, I got nowhere.

I was also under the impression that nobody else but Kat's sites are on this particular server. (And since it is Linux after all, maybe I can identify or even fix the problem. I sent Kat some PMs about this already.)

As for the *nix spellchecker, SMF would have to have a hook or other component to take advantage of whatever spell-checker the system might have (aspell, Ispell, etc.) in order to use it with the forums. It may just be as simple as logging into SMF's control panel and adding a line, or it could be next to impossible - I don't use SMF, so I don't know. :/ In either case, it seems that the Spelling Cow was easier to implement. If it bothers you that much, and you use Firefox, try the Noscript extension to get rid of it (and many other annoyances).

SMF includes a built-in spell check feature. The feature, however, only works on Linux systems, and only if you turn on the simple checkbox to enable it. Oh, and only if your web host has put pspell support in PHP. On every Linux box I've installed it's already been enabled, but some places might have turned it off for who knows what reason. It's also not annoying to certain people, like the spelling cow.

It always surprises me when some host has disabled common features like spell check on "behalf" of their web hosting clients. You can click the question mark there, and SMF will happily tell you if the hosting provider has failed to turn on PHP's pspell support. If that's all it is, they can just turn it back on.

P.S. Of course I use Firefox. See the attached screenshot to find out what else I use.

[attachment deleted by admin]

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this forum is run on a linux server ... I don't think that Kat can change things very easily ... so she doesn't ..... she also is sick of hearing complains so she doesn't even read these threads anymore.

Tell Kat that she can go back through her old PMs on this issue. If she can get me an SSH account up on the server then I'll take a look and see if I can find out what's causing the problem. It doesn't have to be a privileged account (unless she wants me to actually FIX it).

If one of you guys wants to start a similar forum to this one, maybe some of us should hang out on that one. I get annoyed with how slow this one is.

I've been meaning to start a forum for a while now, so... without further ado... the Homeland Stupidity Forum.

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If one of you guys wants to start a similar forum to this one, maybe some of us should hang out on that one. I get annoyed with how slow this one is.

I've been meaning to start a forum for a while now, so... without further ado... the Homeland Stupidity Forum.

OK, Russell, I started the forum, now where are you? You're missing the guy who wrapped himself inside a giant plastic bag with a fire extinguisher and set it off, more abuse at Walter Reed, and more. And hardly anyone has posted yet!

[Russell Kanning]

I might have to .... although your forum is not centered around our revolution in The Shire .... it is more about making fun of homeland security .... which is just a hobby for me.

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I might have to .... although your forum is not centered around our revolution in The Shire .... it is more about making fun of homeland security .... which is just a hobby for me.

Oh, I also make fun of stupid people, and the military, and whatever else comes to mind.

It's also up and running 24 hours a day.

Besides, everyone should spend some time on their hobbies. All revolution and no play...

[Russell Kanning]

I can post when we hassle the tsa .... like next friday, when we visit the airport.