Slow Smugmug

Jackal · November 4, 2006

During the past two days the system is noticeably slow. I am concerned customers will not be patient waiting for the pictures to refresh. Is there something going on? Am I the only one noticing this speed decrease?
:huh
CC

Mac Write · November 4, 2006

I concur I am also seeing the slowness.

marlinspike · November 4, 2006

It's been slow for me too, though only for the past couple hours.

Andy · November 4, 2006

Jackal wrote:

During the past two days the system is noticeably slow. I am concerned customers will not be patient waiting for the pictures to refresh. Is there something going on? Am I the only one noticing this speed decrease?

CC

Can we have your website please? Thanks.

Also, if you can run a test, www.dslreports.com, free site, you must register though - under tools, pls run the line quality test - this will help us diagnose.

Thanks!

KiNiKo · November 4, 2006

Same here.

I have 1 day left on my trial period and I am about to come on board as a Pro user. So far, I am happy with all aspects of SmugMug but the speed. Over the past 13 days of my trial I've experienced slow connections 4-5 times.

KiNiKo · November 4, 2006

Andy,

My website is kiniko.smugmug.com. Thanks.

KiNiKo · November 4, 2006

Andy,

You can look at my line quality test at [...del...] Thanks for your help.

Andy · November 4, 2006

KiNiKo wrote:

Andy,

You can look at my line quality test at http://www.dslreports.com/linequality/nil/2121577. Thanks for your help.

your first hop ping
stream of 40byte pings to XXX.XX.XX.XX 100% loss unknown reason You are 75ms
to your first hop

You have an issue on your network. One way to troubleshoot is to try and go direct from your computer to the cable modem - no router, no wireless, just a cable direct.

If you can tell us more about your setup, we can help. Firewall? Security software? Something's slowing you down, causing big packet loss, and I'm pretty sure that's the issue.

Mac Write · November 4, 2006

I did a speed test and my connection is running at 8800kbps, and that was the speedtest close to you (from the speedtest thread).

marlinspike · November 4, 2006

Andy wrote:

your first hop ping
stream of 40byte pings to XXX.XX.XX.XX 100% loss unknown reason You are 75ms
to your first hop

You have an issue on your network. One way to troubleshoot is to try and go direct from your computer to the cable modem - no router, no wireless, just a cable direct.

If you can tell us more about your setup, we can help. Firewall? Security software? Something's slowing you down, causing big packet loss, and I'm pretty sure that's the issue.

It's slow for me tonight too Andy, and nothing is ever slow for me on my college connection.

KiNiKo · November 4, 2006

Andy,

This is a university network (no cable modems, routers, wireless -- pure T3 connection).

I don't think that's an issue because I'm experiencing slow speed problems from different networks. When I get to the other machine, I'll provide you with another line quality test.

Here're my observations

1. SM loads fast when redirected from my website.
2. Individual photos on my front page load fast.
3. Random photos for categories/galleries on my front page load slow (5-10 sec. lag).
4. Thumb zooming tool is slow (at always though). It can take up to 60-120 seconds after I click save button.
5. Slideshow is fast (no lag) ones you start it.
6. Gallery browsing can be slow (3-7 sec. delay) -- not always though.
7. Photo uploading is fast.

Thanks again.

Andy wrote:

your first hop ping
stream of 40byte pings to XXX.XX.XX.XX 100% loss unknown reason You are 75ms
to your first hop

You have an issue on your network. One way to troubleshoot is to try and go direct from your computer to the cable modem - no router, no wireless, just a cable direct.

If you can tell us more about your setup, we can help. Firewall? Security software? Something's slowing you down, causing big packet loss, and I'm pretty sure that's the issue.

Jackal · November 4, 2006

Andy,
My website is www.onsetbayphotography.com
Smugmug has always been fast for me. No changes in my setup at all, but very slow for a few days now.
Thanks
CC

Andy wrote:

Can we have your website please? Thanks.

Also, if you can run a test, www.dslreports.com, free site, you must register though - under tools, pls run the line quality test - this will help us diagnose.

Thanks!

Andy · November 4, 2006

KiNiKo wrote:

Andy,

This is a university network (no cable modems, routers, wireless -- pure T3 connection).

Whenever there's been a slowness issue when on a Univ network, it's been due to some sort of blocking of our site somehow.

KiNiKo · November 4, 2006

OK, but it doesn't explain why I am experiencing the same problems at home with Comcast.

Also, I don't think that this is due to any software issues, as I am running Win XP and Linux Debian - both show the same problems.

You help is very much appreciated.

Andy wrote:

Whenever there's been a slowness issue when on a Univ network, it's been due to some sort of blocking of our site somehow.

jfriend · November 4, 2006

Slow for me too

Mac Write wrote:

I concur I am also seeing the slowness.

Very, very slow for me too from Los Altos, CA - the worst I've ever seen it (other than when it was down). Nothing else on the internet seems slow (I can browse around lots of places at normal speed), but Smugmug images take a long time to load (30 seconds for a page of thumbs). The dslreports speed test reported 1.2Mbs download 312kbps upload which is about what I normally get. I uploaded 15 images and the uploads went fine, so it appears to be on the image serving side of things.

Andy · November 4, 2006

Just saw a note from our backbone provider, looks like there was a networking issue "out there" but they say it's resolved. Should be better now

?

BeachBill · November 4, 2006

I've been having problems with random thumbnails and small/medium/large pictures not showing up over the past 24 hours or so. Eventually, if I reload the page enough, the images usually show up. Sometimes it's worse that other times. I've just been dealing with it, but then I saw this thread so thought I would add my "me too".

marlinspike · November 4, 2006

Andy wrote:

Just saw a note from our backbone provider, looks like there was a networking issue "out there" but they say it's resolved. Should be better now ?

It's fine now, though not as good as it has been.

Mac Write · November 4, 2006

Viewing this gallery in slideshow (or even just clicking an image) is beyond slow. The slideshow is set for 3 seconds but it takes 10 seconds to change photos.

Andy · November 5, 2006

Mac Write wrote:

Viewing this gallery in slideshow (or even just clicking an image) is beyond slow. The slideshow is set for 3 seconds but it takes 10 seconds to change photos.

Hi Trevor,

First of all, the fullscreen slideshow thing is a difficult animal. We were the first site on the net to do it, and we've already revised it a few times to make it even easier to use. But that doesnt' mean it's perfect - we'll continue to work on it.

Most people have no problems using it, while others can't seem to get a fast image to save their skins. 99% of the time, this comes down to bandwidth - sending over a full-screen sized version of your photo takes a lot more bandwidth and time than sending over a smaller version.

The bandwidth problem is exacerbated by the fact that we pride ourselves on great image quality. So we use as little JPEG compression as we possibly can - which results in a larger file. So the tradeoff is better looking image versus faster speed. We chose the better looking image for a few reasons. The biggest of which is that more and more people have fast broadband, and that'll only increase in the future.

The "3 seconds" thing can be a little confusing. I wish I knew how to word it better on our site - if you can think of a way, let me know. It really means "display the photo for at least 3 seconds" and here's why:

Since people's connection speeds vary, we can't reliably be assured that the next photo will be ready in 3 seconds. If it takes 10 seconds to transfer to your PC, we'd then show you a 7 second black page. Ugh, that'd be no good.

So what we do is this:

- We request the next photo while we display the current one.
- As soon as we get the next photo to your web browser, we check the timer and say "Has it been X or more seconds yet?" (Where X = 3 in this case). If yes, we go to the next slide. If no, we wait the remaining seconds and then switch slides.

That way, even people on modems can see the image without seeing black pages, while people on super-fast connections can see the image without it whipping by so fast they can't see the details.

Big, screen-filling photos take time to transfer. I'm afraid we can't get away from that ... the one thing we could do is sacrifice a little quality to get a little more speed. I'll take a closer look at our balance between the two and see if we can fiddle with it a little bit there.

To be honest, we don't do nearly as much competitive research as people think we should - we're too busy listening to our customers and building the features they want. Most of our customers rave about our slideshow, but that's no reason to let it get stale. As a customer of ours, I take your feedback seriously and will definitely continue to work on the feature.

Bottom line, though, is that your family and friends who have fast connections should see a gorgeous full-screen image in a fairly short amount of time. Meantime, we'll work on it to make it even better.

Mac Write · November 5, 2006

I thought the "Full-screen" Images were not rendered with originals anymore due to Pros complaining? Other slideshows have been faster. So this is why I thought it was related to the problems all have been having. I just tested this gallery of mine and it's running about 5/sec a photo. So it seems it's a problem with that persons site (maybe they uploaded custom largest is my only guess or JPEG 12 vs 10). Also forgot to mention since I got this used 19" CRT (upgrade from my 17" of 10-years) I have gone from 1152x870 to 1600x1200. Could that have anything to do with it?

ivar · November 5, 2006

Mac Write wrote:

I thought the "Full-screen" Images were not rendered with originals anymore due to Pros complaining?

Not that I am aware of.

Mac Write wrote:

Other slideshows have been faster. So this is why I thought it was related to the problems all have been having. I just tested this gallery of mine and it's running about 5/sec a photo. So it seems it's a problem with that persons site (maybe they uploaded custom largest is my only guess or JPEG 12 vs 10).

Could be, it's all about the amount of data that needs to be received. If it does not change the photo after the specified time, it means it is still loading the next image.

Mac Write wrote:

Also forgot to mention since I got this used 19" CRT (upgrade from my 17" of 10-years) I have gone from 1152x870 to 1600x1200. Could that have anything to do with it?

No, it is about the amount of data being sent from our servers to your computer, and the time it takes to get there. The resolution of your local screen has no influence on it. I have two computers hooked up to the same internet connection, one is a 15" 1600x1200, and one is a 19" 1440xsomething. Both take the same amount of time to display the slideshows.

Jackal · November 5, 2006

Andy,

It is much better now. As far as I can tell as fast as always.
Thanks for your assistance.

:ivar
Carlos C.

simplykristi · November 5, 2006

I am a Comcast user and experience slowness with the site a lot of times. I think that I will stop uploading pics on Sundays. It's just too painfully slow. I like SmugMug but the slow speeds are painful especially when you are a paying customer like me.

You do NOT need to be a registered user to use the speed tests at DSL Reports.

Kristi

Andy · November 5, 2006

simplykristi wrote:

You do NOT need to be a registered user to use the speed tests at DSL Reports.

Kristi

For the line quality test, it's usually impossible to get in the queue unless you register (free).

The speedtest, well, that's fine - there's a better one, we prefer, over at http://speedtest.net

In most cases, speed is not the issue, but rather sustained quality of the connection. The line quality test gives us some info that a speed test does not.

Thanks!

Andy · November 5, 2006

simplykristi wrote:

I am a Comcast user and experience slowness with the site a lot of times. I think that I will stop uploading pics on Sundays. It's just too painfully slow. I like SmugMug but the slow speeds are painful especially when you are a paying customer like me.

Hi Kristi,

I'm sorry you are experiencing slowness. We'd like to help. Can you please run the line quality test, and share the result with us? We'd like to help diagnose the problem. Sundays are typically busier than other days, but in general, browsing, uploading, shouldn't be terribly different from other days.

JenGrace · November 5, 2006

I'm experiencing slowness as well (at least the "PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE" thing hasn't shown up again). My smugmug site is http://jenw.smugmug.com. I'm running a line test, but for some reason it said it couldn't ping because of my firewall. Only...I don't have the firewall set up.

So I'm running the test without pinging. I'll post results when I get them.

edit: well that didn't work...wonder why it gave me the option to test without pinging if it wasn't going to working without, well, pinging. Weird.

agunther · November 5, 2006

Somehow it has come to a halt for me today:
http://store.aguntherphotography.com

(linked to: andregunther.smugmug.com)
Not sure what the problem is

Ping requests to andregunther.smugmug.com are timing out.

Andy · November 5, 2006

agunther wrote:

Somehow it has come to a halt for me today:
http://store.aguntherphotography.com

(linked to: andregunther.smugmug.com)
Not sure what the problem is

Ping requests to andregunther.smugmug.com are timing out.

Hi, sorry you are having troubles. I can hit your site just fine (I'm in NY)...

Can you please give us a www.dslreports.com line quality test (under tools) so that we can help diagnose?

agunther · November 5, 2006

Andy wrote:

Hi, sorry you are having troubles. I can hit your site just fine (I'm in NY)...

Can you please give us a www.dslreports.com line quality test (under tools) so that we can help diagnose?

I am getting this from them:

Could not queue request

Due to the popularity of this tool, use is limited to members only!

However everything else works fine. I am browsing several sites and I have a pretty good line. I will force a reconnect now to see if that does anything for me.

EDIT: I reconnected, got a new IP but still no progress. Besides I can browse the forum just fine and I can browse the smugmug main page just fine.

Andy · November 5, 2006

agunther wrote:

I am getting this from them:

However everything else works fine. I am browsing several sites and I have a pretty good line. I will force a reconnect now to see if that does anything for me.

EDIT: I reconnected, got a new IP but still no progress. Besides I can browse the forum just fine and I can browse the smugmug main page just fine.

Yeah, you have to register (it's free) and then they'll queue you up..

Slow Smugmug

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