[Jim Robinson]

Sorry, I’m fresh out of ideas. I’m sure John will get it solved, but I don’t know when. I’m hoping there are still enough people donating to keep FR going through this rough spot.

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Denial of Service attacks, perhaps?

[Artcore]

I completely agree. This is ridiculous! I know it's not politically correct to say this around here, but at what point does the equipment for this site get upgraded, or replaced?

I've already purposed that I won't even waste my time coming here for the next presidential debate.

[re_nortex]

Thank goodness for Free Republic -- a beacon of truth amidst the lies of the state-run media. Supporting this valuable resource is just a click away. Generous donations from Constitutional Conservatives will ensure that Free Republic remains fast, responsive and reliable in these perilous times.

[BereanBrain]

Being an IT professional, I would suggest that he run it in the cloud, that way it scales, is reliable, and it can add servers dynamically....I do this all the time for customers who have much bigger problems.....

Amazon, Azure, etc.

[Bobalu]

It doesn’t seem to be a lack of server power as JimRob said on the live thread that they were operating no where near capacity. It must be a network bottleneck of some sort.

I’d say it’s going to take a careful step-by-step approach to pin the problem down. It would be easier to do it when the servers are under heavy load. You could then change things one at a time to find out what’s going wrong. Not sure how to put such a load on the servers unless you were to trouble shoot during a debate, and that would cause lots of grief.

Perhaps a limited DOS attack by a group of freepers in the wee hours could put enough load to help diagnose this?

Network problems are not my strong suit, I work on embedded stuff and it’s far removed from such a topic....just thinking out loud here.

[factoryrat]

The volume of traffic here says a lot. Nothing wrong with a conservative site like FR getting this much volume, it's reassuring..

[gunsequalfreedom]

What's the Point of Donating If We Can't Access This Site at Peak Times?

Donate more!

[miliantnutcase]

This site is beyond slow even in off peak hours.

[ottbmare]

Are we sure that this is all the fault of FR? I’m no expert, but I never, ever have a hard time getting on FR or posting, no matter what’s going on. Sure, sometimes it’s a little slow, but I never have to wait more than five seconds or so. And I don’t have fancy machinery at all. But I live near DC, Verizon is my broadband carrier, and I have to share my bandwidth with a son who’s gaming. So is it possible that some of the people who are having trouble are having trouble with their particular route to the California servers of FR?

I dunno, just a thought. It’s just that some of us never have a problem, there has to be an explanation for that.

[Revolting cat!]

Article already posted:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2943599/posts

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Squarespace offers 24/7 support UNLIMITED bandwidth, UNLIMITED storage for $16.00 a month. Running a secure web site shouldn’t be a big deal in today’s technology.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

It was most likely a DNS attack, not much can be done to prevent that.

While we are all gathered here, is your name on the list of monthly donors?

[Vinylly]

I couldn’t get on either but I’m not complaining. It’s because there were so many concerned posters, this website could not handle them all. To me, it’s a good thing. It means we are very concerned about the political situation we face today. I went over to the political section of www.citydata.com to make my feelings felt. See my post under Vinyly and ‘That Ryan/Bidden Debate Tonight’. Which you all too must get on to make your feelings felt vs. the left-wingers. We are nearly all conservative here, but over there you get to rumble and ruffle the hair of left wingnuts.

[The Cajun]

Lots of people here trying to access one particular thread, bottleneck somewhere because of that????
Just thinking that could be right up there with a real DOS attack?

[Irenic]

I don’t know if others have noticed but it is not only during big events. It also seems to happen much more when there are Freepathons.

I’ve wondered if there are disgruntled ex-freepers that might get a jolly off running a DOS. Especially during fund-raising and large events.

[Yaelle]

That 9/11 thread is amazing history. It wouldn’t be possible with FR unable to handle a lot of people wanting to post at once. I’m sad about next week and election night. I miss FR.

I bet there would be a ton of solid donations if there were an explanation and guarantee that FR would be able to handle huge volumes on big days.

Why can some chat rooms hold thousands of people? There must be a solution. And I’d love to help pay for it, once it’s explained.

[Vendome]

Well, we could fill up the pages with all kinds of ads from anyone and everyone, even those who have agenda’s we don’t care for.

A ford logo here, a Solyndra logo there...pretty soon we are Huffington post and have to listen to drivel from idiots.

You want it this way or Huffpo?

I know, you were just venting. hell, even I do it.

Long live Jim Thompson!!!

[trebb]

Understood, but on the other side, Jum keeps taking flak from always “begging for money” and many work very hard to keep FR funded and free from becoming a commercial-ridden site. If you want to belong to an exclusive club, you need to make sure it is properly funded.

[Roccus]

I used to be a $1+/day contributor, at first anonymously and later posted, even during the increased levy that was supposed to get the hamsters up to speed. Just as FR slowed to a crawl right before the present FReepathon, it did so before the previous one. THAT was the one where I decided to stop donating. Now I'll grant you that I get very few 404 pages anymore, but the incessant slowness I find off-putting. I haven't been here as long as many, but in the early days I only had WebTV and FR was a nightmare to navigate back then. When I tried again in 04, your format (or whatever) had changed and my joining was possible. Dial-up was slow, images made the wait seem interminable, but I accepted that. I knew my equipment was chisel and rock. In 06 I finally got a computer and except for the porn attacks that used to show up, I was pleased. The last couple of years though, ESPECIALLY the weeks before the FReepathons, FR is in the mud.

Get FR up to snuff, and I will be MORE than happy to resume my contributions......otherwise it feels like I'm just throwing money at a problem that never seems to end and I am averse to doing that.

PS, I stay logged on to FR 24/7. I know MANY FReepers do this also. If this is part of the problem, PLEASE make an announcement to that effect.