Are Your SSL pages as slow as mine?

I understand all the reasons why I should not host with Godaddy so we don't have to even mention that. We set up a new dedicated server at "The Planet" Quad Xenon 3.2 with Linux, cPanel and 4GB ram. PHP 5.2.8 MySQL 5.?

I moved our oldest Zen-Cart site www.liberty-flag.com to the new server and purchased a Standard SSL cert from GoDaddy and installed it on the server. I need to move two more Zen-Cart sites this week, so I need two more certs.

I understand the latency issue with my Satellite Internet Connection, but for me it takes 30 - 60 seconds to access the SSL Log In Page.

I put Crafty Syntax in a sidebox with SSL image and now it takes 3 seconds for the home page to load after the header instead of <1 second.

For others it may only take 3 - 5+ seconds for the Log In page to load, but that seems outrageous too!

So Now for my Questions:
Is there a performance difference with different brands and levels of SSL?

Will more expensive Geo Trust or Verisign Certs load faster than GoDaddy's?

Any one have a prefference for speedy certs that don't cost an arm and a leg?

Thanks
JOhn ><>

Those are bad times based on what I am seeing at a glance on your site ...

Could be your server is not optimally configured or your database needs some tweaking etc.

But you do not have enough on your site, from what I am casually seeing at a glance to produce such poor times ...

I need to poke around more to know better on this ...

If you can turn on the query times for a while that might help ... beats counting monkeys and gives a better picture ... :smile:

Non-SSL home page
Parse Time: 0.433 - Number of Queries: 537 - Query Time: 0.201291196152

SSL Log In page
Parse Time: 0.293 - Number of Queries: 157 - Query Time: 0.10786192305

The only difference is the site host name changes from www. to secure. Would this make a difference?

JOhn ><>

Those times are pretty low less than 1 second ... what problem are you having with all that you are displaying on your site? :unsure:

Ajeh:

Those times are pretty low less than 1 second ... what problem are you having with all that you are displaying on your site? :unsure:Sorry, I'm not following, what was your question?

Are you saying that the problem is too much stuff loading on the home page? too many side boxes?

The log In page is relatively void of extraneous stuff.
JOhn ><>

I just had my wife check via their broadband connection where she works and it took 5 whole seconds to go from non-ssl to ssl page.

Is that unusual or are most others faster?

I have noticed that some sites load fast here and some take longer, but none seen as slow an this one.

BTW} this site is still on 1.3.7a
JOhn ><>

Test this ... add to cart ... click checkout ... count time ...

Click a category ... click something else ...

Add to cart ... click checkout ... count time ...

The second time is it way way faster?

Test this ...
add to cart ... click checkout ... count time ... 77 seconds

Click a category ... click something else ...

Add to cart ... click checkout ... count time ... 15 seconds

Click a category ... click something else ...

Add to cart ... click checkout ... count time ... 16 seconds

Click a category ... click something else ...

Add to cart ... click checkout ... count time ... 15 seconds

The second time is it way way faster? Seems consistently faster.

I am guessing that with a normal broadband or even a modem connection that this would relate to 5 seconds and 1 second.

Tell me about the SSL process, is there allot of negotiation back and forth between the browser and the web server before it goes SSL? Does the browser have to check back with GoDaddy (or cert provider) before it believes the web server?

I experience 2000 - 4000ms latency here in satellite world, that means that a simple single back and forth could take 4 - 8 seconds by itself. :frusty:
JOhn ><>

the login page opened right up for me,

this page was actually ALOT slower than the ssl pages
http://www.liberty-flag.com/canadian-provinces-638/

http://www.liberty-flag.com/includes/templates/Custom/images/header_bg.jpg- 26946 bytes

http://www.liberty-flag.com/images/banners/miniature_flags_banner.png - 29607bytes

53209bytes for the page's HTML??
(above just on the login page)

You need some serious optimization

Merlinpa1969:

the login page opened right up for me,

this page was actually ALOT slower than the ssl pages
http://www.liberty-flag.com/canadian-provinces-638/
It opens, that's not my perceived issue, the fact that it often takes 5-6 seconds for the normal user and 50 - 80 seconds for my satellite connection.

Both seem a little Loooong for normal.

The Canadian Provinces page loads fast for me, like all non-SSL pages do.
JOhn ><>

the SSL page took under a second,

the non ssl page took over 3 seconds,

thats what I was trying to tell you

The thing I was looking at is the way a server works on saved queries etc.

First hit on a link where the site is not active is slow ...

First hit on next link is slow ...

Re-hit a link you just "saved queries" for and you will see a speed up ...

A test for this that you can do yourself is test with 2 browsers, example: IE and FireFox ...

Use the first browser to

1 hit the site

2 hit All Products

3 hit page 2

4 hit page 3

Now, use second browser to

1 hit the site

2 hit All Products

3 hit page 2

4 hit page 3

Notice a time difference?

Use 2nd browser to:

1 hit a category

2 hit a product

3 hit Previous/Next

Use 1st browser to:

1 hit same category

2 hit same product

3 hit Previous/Next

Notice a time difference?

What is happening is you are again building the cached queries that will remain based on server configuration for time and number of cached queries ...

This more or less means the more active your site the more cached queries the faster the site will be ...

By yourself, things may, at first seem slow ... but move around for awhile ... then repeat in another browser/computer to see the speed differences ...

NOTE: better optimization of your server will improve all of this a great deal ...

NOTE: first hit is slower, especially on a server that is not properly setup based on additional things that are run such as obtaining your gethostaddress ... this can be slow if not configured on the server properly ... while it can be turned off, it is better to configure the server the right way in the first place ...

In addition, optimize your site ... monster pages, as Kim indicated, are a killer ... and a waste of bandwidth ... and a waste of money depending on what you pay for it ... :eek:

NOTE: you also have issues with missing images ... :blink:

Get FireFox if you do not have it already and get the Web Developer add-on ...

Go through your site and check the Images ... Find Broken Images ...

I find them on the product_info pages and not sure what else might be missing but broken images can load a server and start to eat up your resources with each person on the server ...

Merlinpa1969:

the SSL page took under a second,

the non ssl page took over 3 seconds,

thats what I was trying to tell you
Gotcha, sometimes I'm a little slow to catch on, thanks for you assistance.
JOhn ><>

Thanks Linda, Kim, Merlin and all who looked into this.

I am starting to see your point, BIG Thanks for taking the time to answer so descriptively, I am getting a better idea of how this all comes together.

If I am getting you correctly.
So out there in the real world (not my satellite connection), the site operates reasonably quick and the busier the site gets the more cached entries/queries the quicker the site will be.

I just realized yesterday that I have missing images, looks like I missed uploading some of the _LRG images from before I installed IH2.

Monster images will go away when we re-model the site and bring it up to 1.3.8a or possibly v2.0 in the near future.

Thanks Again, don't be afraid to tell me if I am not getting it.
JOhn ><>

Just a Quick Note:
I have not used FireFox in some time. I loaded the site and BAM every page loads very quick. Amazing, most of my perceived problems were due to the use of an inferior web browser. Now if IE would just work that fast I would be ecstatic!

Thanks Again
JOhn ><>

I crawled around in the site and never got a parse time above .687 seconds.

Barco thats not fair,
your running a 16Mbps connection

I'm on 3Mbps dsl and the site is fast for me using FF3. The SSL pages are fast, too, loading in around 2 seconds. One thing you might want to consider is trying out the database cache mod for those poor folks still on dialup or satellite.(I only just got dsl 3 or 4 weeks ago for the first time ever!!:cool:). I've installed the database cache mod and have noticed an improvement.