Slow site

[aquaessential]

My site is suddenly responding very slowly - check it out www.aquaessentials.co.uk

Nothing has changed to warrant this sudden speed issue and I have taken it up with my hosts. They suggested that the site is heavily reliant on database and this is most likely the problem.

Anyone have any thought on this? I am currently trying to load up new products to the site and each time I do this, the site takes several minutes just to respond - Painful...

[misty]

From here in UK, site took too long to load.
SUGGESTION.. thumbnail images on main page,
most over 20K EACH, should be around 3k-6k each.
HTH

[aquaessential]

From here in UK, site took too long to load.
SUGGESTION.. thumbnail images on main page,
most over 20K EACH, should be around 3k-6k each.
HTH

Hi

Well I'm UK based so good for some local feedback.

I wasn't aware that 100x100 pixel images are too large at over 20K in size (most about 26k). The site has been operating for nearly 3 years and all my smallest images are about that size and I haven't had a slow site before.

It still doesn't make sense that all of a sudden the website has become very slow - makes me think something has changed.

Even when I compress the JPEG to zero quality in photoshop, the image size doesn't shrink by much. Should I be usig a GIF instead?

[Ajeh]

Check with your hosting site to see if the server that your site is on has become overloaded with time ...

Overloaded can be caused by too many other sites on the same server or just 1 site that has become a resource hog ...

There are a number of factors that cause a slow down on a server ...

If this is sporatic ... check to see if speed ups corrolate with reboots of the server ...

[misty]

Can't comment on previous site loading speed, only visited today, but just revisited,
took even longer to load than my original visit.. at foot of page, was
an image sized ....208.79 kB (213804 bytes)...
As long as thumbnails are no more than 6k, gif or jpg, improvement in speed
should be noticeable.. in download files here at forum.. look for "Image Handler"
module.. otherwise, contact your webhost re recent server changes/updates

[aquaessential]

Can't comment on previous site loading speed, only visited today, but just revisited,
took even longer to load than my original visit.. at foot of page, was
an image sized ....208.79 kB (213804 bytes)...
As long as thumbnails are no more than 6k, gif or jpg, improvement in speed
should be noticeable.. in download files here at forum.. look for "Image Handler"
module.. otherwise, contact your webhost re recent server changes/updates

Thanks guys I will contact Xcalibre (my hosts) with your feedback. I had difficulty many months ago and they chaged the server my store was saved on - it sped up dramatically (maybe others requested that too?)

Interesting what Ajeh said if the speed is sporadic. 20 mintues ago, I was able to load up 20 new products, in no time at all. Earlier on today, it took over 4 mintues to load just one new product...

[misty]

Tested site loading again several times.. couple factors you might wish to investigate..
site loading time affected by two things
1. Banner sizes at foot of page....sizes vary dependant on advert being shown
2. Link to an image which is not loading most visits i.e.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y226/aquaessential/Logos/forumopenimage-1.jpg

HTH

[Ajeh]

NOTE: loading images from other sites, tracking info from other sites, etc. will put you at the mercy of the speed and response time of the other site ...

In other words, these things can really make your site a dog ...

[aquaessential]

Great tips there again so thank you

Interestingly I'm not having the issue with the forum banner not working or downloading, but I shall move it onto my webspace with the site

The banners at the bottom are quite large (this is intentional) but again, it has never slowed it down before (I may shrink them though)