There are a number of issues with which we're dealing.
- PowWeb (the web host)
- Some issues on the site itself
- Some deferred maintenance
All 3 of these contributed to the sluggishness. PowWeb was purchased by another company, a while back, which resulted in a rate increase, but also some staff and support changes. PowWeb's main support person was forced out, and the current staff is really struggling with just maintaining their servers. As for their support, as of 3/1/23, they dropped phone support for chat only. The support agents are overseas, and get their knowledge from an instruction manual. They can run a few scripts.
PowWeb runs the web sites on a group of servers, or a server farm. Apparently, they oversold their capacity, and tried to add servers to the farm. The process did not go well. This has resulted in a lot of issues that directly impacted this web site, in a negative way. Understandably, they were giving this a higher priority than the other issues, failing to realize that they are all caused by the same problem.
For the last week, I have been working with PowWeb on the 403 Forbidden error some of you may have seen. There are several issues causing this. We believe one of the issues has been resolved (DNS errors at PowWeb, where the IPs of the servers were incorrect/outdated). There are 3 or 4 more issues that need to be resolved on this. Their web hosting software keeps crashing (failed update), there are some permissions issues for their software, their firewall has issues, and their server farm is not properly virtualized.
I had PowWeb move this site to a different "part" of the server farm (which isn't supposed to have "parts"). Basically, this site is now on a more functional "part" of the farm. I'll not be helping them fix their server farm. They need to get a competent server/network engineer on their payroll.
Meanwhile, other issues have cropped up with PowWeb. Their FTP is unstable. FTP is the method used to update files on the site. When the FTP has issues, their server deletes the existing file, and it could take minutes for the FTP to allow a file to be uploaded, meaning something(s) on the web site will not function properly, in the meantime.
Another issue that cropped up has to do with logging into their control panel. Let's just say that it's erratic. Their control panel is very sluggish, as the best of times, but it intermittently just gives a blank white screen or a redirect error. This is all on PowWeb's end.
We also discovered that certain options in their control panel do not work. They don't know how to resolve this.
That is issue 1. Now for issue 2.
You may have noticed some small visual changes that have been made on the web site. I went through each main page (about 17), and addressed some small issues. I also changed the contact option to a form. Most importantly, I made some changes that have reduced bot traffic dramatically.
Much of this is great, but is limited by the PowWeb issues.
That brings us to issue 3.
There was a lot of deferred maintenance. Much of this has now been caught up, but there are some more major updates that need to be done, largely waiting on PowWeb. The major updates include a site overhaul, including updating the forum software several versions. This is a next year issue.
PowWeb, too, is well behind. They are running end-of-life software. Nothing has been updated since they forced out the guy who knew what he was doing.
Now, for some general updates.
The sluggishness should be greatly improved, due to changes mentioned above.
Paid members should all be set as such. Anyone who is not a paid member, but who was listed as such, has been removed from the paid members group.
All existing bogus registrations were removed (more than 200).
Bogus registrations were largely blocked.
Events on the home page are current with the calendar.
The header and sidebar were made to fit in a bit better.
I encourage you to look through the various pages on the site. There have been a lot of small updates.
Most of the updates that have been done are not readily visible, but I have a detailed log.
I realize that most of you cannot reply on this board, but this is the correct board for this post. Should you have any input, you can use the contact form to reach me.
For anyone still experiencing sluggishness on just this web site, PowWeb is asking for your IP, a traceroute, your ISP, a screenshot and the time/date. If you know how to do these things and want to provide this info, that would be helpful; if you don't know how, don't worry about it.
Note: I have no idea how a screenshot can show speed, but PowWeb
always wants screenshots.
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