Replies

Note: I believe the management of the site knows there is an issue and is likely thinking about it and has been for some time. I don’t know this for fact, but I just have a gut feeling that is the case. I just think they haven’t decided yet what to do.

Anyway, I posted this on another thread, and some people there don’t seem to be interested.

I am pretty sure it is FR. I don’t appreciate being called a whiner, and I am not trying to cast aspersions on the running of FR. I am patient, I make my monthly, and am not getting on the management of the site. I assume they know there is an issue, that’s all there is to it for me. I continue to use FR, and like most of us...put up with it because it is a valuable website. I sure appreciate having it.

I just see a problem here, and hoping my view on it helps others wondering if it is just them.

In my line of work,I have to diagnose issues exactly like this all the time with a group of very demanding customers, and there is often a critical need to ensure the systems are functioning normally since a delay can result in injury or death under the wrong circumstances, so I am used to looking for patterns like this, figuring out what is going on, and getting them fixed. It can be extremely stressful. Here is how I approach these kinds of issues, if you are interested:

BEHAVIOR
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25-50% of the time in a given session, the page loads correctly with an acceptable to no delay. However, anywhere between 50-75% of the time, loading a web page of posts from Free Republic (FR) hangs with the load bar at less than a quarter loaded, always stops in the same place. It may partially load the web page or not at all. With the passage of time, more content may load, and if one waits long enough (up to two minutes) the entire web page may eventually load. On some occasions the web page never loads. Once the progress bar stops moving, I can click the “X” in the URL field to stop the load. I can then click the refresh button, and the page then loads with little or no delay, but some percentage of the time, this does not work either.

TROUBLESHOOTING
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1.) FR is hanging on load into browser while running IE on Windows. Are other sites on the Internet doing it? No. Try FR again. Still hangs on load. Try other sites on the Internet. Okay, still good.

2.) Try different browser, such as Chrome under Windows. FR still exhibits hang. Clear Internet cache, reboot computer. FR still hangs on initial load into web page.

3.) Try different OS, MacOS under Safari on same network: FR still exhibits hang. Clear Internet cache, reboot computer. FR still hangs on initial load into web page.

4.) Try different OS, MacOS under Safari on MacOS cellular network (not wireless in work or wired in work, bypassing both) launch cellular modem, connect to Internet...FR still hangs on initial load into web page, others work fine.

5.) Try different OS, iOS, on iPad, connected to work network, work wireless, cellular bypassing both, FR still exhibits issue, other websites load fine.

6.) Try Windows, MacOS, IOS using Safari, IE, and Chrome from home ISP. FR still exhibits hang on load, other websites do not. Clear cache, reboot computer, refresh IP address, no change.

From this, I reach the following conclusions:

1.) The issue is restricted to Free Republic.

2.) It is not related to several Windows computers I have tried it on, two separate Macs, two iOS devices, an iPhone and an iPad. So hardware, network, and software have been ruled out. I judge the likely causes below, most likely IMO first, followed by decreasing likelihood:

3.) Given how I have seen these types of issues in the past dealing with web servers, there is likely a malfunctioning web server getting requests sent to it from a load balancer (or balancers) that level the load to a pool of web servers. One of those web servers in the pool is possibly malfunctioning.

4.) It is possible the load balancer (or balancers) could be malfunctioning in some way.

5.) There could be a SQL issue or other database issue.

6.) There is a possibility that some part of the Internet is malfunctioning as some Freepers have pointed out, and the to me in the Northeast, the pathway to FR is problematic in some way. I rate this as extremely low, but don’t know enough about that to rule it out...I view this as least likely given the behavior I see in the browser.