Syntax
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I'm more of a coder than a network expert so forgive me if this is obvious, but has something changed server-side?

Every avatar and pic (smileys etc) seems to get fetched individually. The result is that threads appear very quickly, but it takes a *lot* longer to load the thread in its entirety.

Is this a bandwidth saving ploy, or am I not caching things this end?

[EDIT]

This is particularly annoying as reading a post part way down the page results in it slowly scrolling down as the avatars load. Clicking a link tends to be hit n miss...

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[Last edited by Syntax at 10-26-2007 07:35 PM]

Syntax
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*bump*

Maybe my topic issue was misleading but this is still confusing me. I'm guessing now it's a local issue, but am wondering if anyone at all is experiencing the same. Bearing in mind I seem to be one of the few experiencing extreme issues with connectivity in-game (variable player listing in chat, delayed messages, duplicate messages, chat echoes, F6 demos screen alternating between "This room has no demos" to "This room first needs to be conquered" to the actual demo listing, downloading demos often resulting in "Corrupt File" and such), I would like to see if this post is related.

If it can be shown that my local download setup somehow "downloads in scetions", it could explain the other issues...

Anyone know about download/connection protocols?

Schik
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I'm not sure what the problem is. I can tell you that nothing has changed that should affect this on the server side. So if you're seeing something different than usual, then it's probably on your side.

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Alneyan
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Syntax wrote:
If it can be shown that my local download setup somehow "downloads in scetions", it could explain the other issues...

Just wondering, what's your current ISP? I know I've run into many of the same problems as yourself, but they only started occurring since I've fallen into BT land (my French ISP was all dandy, thereby allowing me to poke fun at you and your messages echoing five hours later).

This sounds far-fetched, of course, but hey, blaming BT is fun.

I'll also add 'messages are sometimes delayed by up to thirty seconds on the chat', 'the player listing sometimes claims that there's nobody in here' and 'the game occasionally hangs for several seconds in-game when sending high-scores' to the list of my woes. I'd be curious to know if you've seen those too.

Syntax
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Alneyan wrote:
I'll also add 'messages are sometimes delayed by up to thirty seconds on the chat', 'the player listing sometimes claims that there's nobody in here' and 'the game occasionally hangs for several seconds in-game when sending high-scores' to the list of my woes. I'd be curious to know if you've seen those too.

Absolutely! The last point especially. Every time I conquer a room I cringe as it usually takes DROD almost a minute to "recover" and become responsive again.

The in-game chat is rarely not delayed and the player listing usually shows that no-one is there, or at least just a subset of those actually there is listed.

My ISP is Be, and I've only been with them for a short while. However, I also had these issues with my previous provider (Bulldog). I'll fiddle with my network tonight and see if I can uncover anything... Glad to hear it's not just me

Alneyan
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Damn, so there goes my theory. It sounded nice, though, seeing how weird my connection is (I sometimes cannot initiate new TCP connections over IPv4, but current connections are fine, and IPv6 works like a charm).

All other symptoms look very much the same, though. A casual glance at my network didn't bring up anything, so I suppose it's karma getting back at me for taunting you.

Syntax
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Out of interest... are you also getting the images on the forums loading individually (even when, say, there are several identical smileys in a post)?

Using latest FF on XP.

Briareos
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Syntax wrote:
Out of interest... are you also getting the images on the forums loading individually (even when, say, there are several identical smileys in a post)?

Considering that all smileys are simply normal IMGs that all point to the same URL I'd say you've got one sick panda there...

Have you tried using a new Firefox profile to see if your old one might be misconfigured somehow? At least I'm not getting any of the symptoms you describe using FF 2.0.0.9...

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Alneyan
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I can't say for sure whether I'm experiencing this particular problem, as my regular browser is text-only (that's why I sorta dodged that point). Near as I can tell, there *might* be a problem with loading threads, but nothing too serious.

Do you have a thread filled with identical smileys for testing? I don't know what's the regular behavior is supposed to feel like, so perhaps a clinical case would help me. (Now if I could fix that TCP issue...)

Syntax
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Briareos wrote:
Have you tried using a new Firefox profile to see if your old one might be misconfigured somehow? At least I'm not getting any of the symptoms you describe using FF 2.0.0.9...

Good idea. I'm using the same version and changing profile does load the page *a lot* faster. I've uninstalled most of my addons (fully aware that that probably won't reset anything) and I still get the same issue. I uninstalled Web Developer and Firebug in particular so maybe they've messed with something. I'll look to see if I can restore Firefox defaults without having to start a new profile - will post any findings.

Alneyan, I have no issues with text so doubt we're suffering from the same thing unfortunately :/

Syntax
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Thanks for your input guys.

Had a look at the various FF about:config options and found the culprit. "browser.cache.memory.enable" was set to false. Unfortunately this doesn't link things to my in-game experience, but browsing the forums is now a lot more enjoyable

Briareos
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Syntax wrote:
Had a look at the various FF about:config options and found the culprit. "browser.cache.memory.enable" was set to false. Unfortunately this doesn't link things to my in-game experience, but browsing the forums is now a lot more enjoyable

I bet the Web Developer toolbar was the culprit - though I've long discontinued using it since it bogged down FF in general.

Firebug is nice on the other hand, as long as you disable it's net logging code using about:config, because I've found that that slows things down quite a lot as well...

np: The Orb - O.O.B.E. (U.F.Orb Remastered)

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jamie
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Sorry to bump an old thread, but if anyone is interested, HTTP/1.1 allows 'multiple requests (text or otherwise) in one tcp connection' (AKA "keep-alive")

I don't think you can do that with http/1.0

And some browsers have settings such as "use http/1.0 through a proxy"

Old proxies had problems with 1.1 - it shouldn't be an issue now - but this sort of thing could be caused by a misconfiguration at the isps proxy (if they have one) - which could cause each request to be an individual connection.

But basically, check "HTTP networking" and "use http 1.1" is set in both cases, along with "enable keep-alive" ....

I realise you've already solved this problem... Just may help someone else in future And... you may find this may still help


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[Last edited by jamie at 11-21-2007 01:29 PM]

Syntax
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Cheers

I did originally think that was the issue but couldn't find any local settings which backed my theory hence my original post.