Worldwide acceleration (& security)

[Bibs]

Less than 50% of our traffic comes from the UK, which for the non maths geniuses means that 50% of the traffic comes from outside of our boundaries (TLF is actually viewed in 128 countries per month!). The TLF server is hosted by the UK's fastest hosting company, UKFast but this doesn't mean that it's fast everywhere.

To deal with this, I've signed up to a pro account with http://www.cloudflare.com - With this, static content (images, javascript) is stored throughout the world on servers in local datacentres which means that you get this from a closer source, therefore quicker. Cloudflare also offers a huge level of security (so much so, hackers @lulzsec use it for their website!) against all manner of attacks which is important for a site of our size nowadays.

So far, we're saving 2GB of bandwidth per 24 hours (we still get through 10GB a day!) and hundreds of thousands of requests and I'm pleased with it. Pages are also loading 70% faster worldwide they tell me.

If anyone has any issues, please do let me know. You 'may' get a CAPTCHA screen asking you to verify your human credentials but this is unlikely, please let me know if you do and also, if you have any strange issues (uploader not working is fixed, reply box toolbars are fixed), please let me know about that too.

[Bibs]

This has been causing problems with the ajax code on the site so I've turned it off for now.

[esprit s2]

I thought it might.

[Bibs]

I think I've fixed the problem with this so it's back on again. Can anyone please tell me if you see any errors or CloudFlare screens, or indeed if you think there's been an improvement/degradation? Thanks.

[rocket63]

All good here.

[ramjet]

Working beautifully down here Bibs

[Jukka]

I had problem yesterday. But after clearing cache and reboot, all is ok.

[Bibs]

I sacked this off, too many people were getting caught up in it's overly clever security (although it's still in use for the classifieds site and works well there!) but we're now using Amazon Web Services Cloudfront CDN. Americans and Asia/Australia should notice a marked acceleration both on the news site and forums over the next couple of days

[Iconic Ride]

Geeze I hate to bring this up, Bibs, and it's probably unrelated, but....

A couple of times within the last three days I have been unable to "sign out." In fact, I'm posting this "real time" because of just that. It's probably an anomaly with my computer, but it's not happened before.

However, the "acceleration" is phenomenal. The pages load before I even turn on the machine!

[Bibs]

I don't know what you mean by 'real time', do you usually post in the past, or perhaps the future?

And when you say unable to log out, can you please explain this? Why can't you log out, error message, page not loading, computer catching fire?

None of this is related to the CDN setup as a, it's not finished or live yet and b, it just hosts large files (ie images) on a server closer to you to speed up loading times.

[Iconic Ride]

Happy to explain. When I click "sign out" I can see the Tab "swirl" doing wheelies for the appropriate length of time, but when it stops the page remains the same, with "sign out" still available. Repeated attempts result in the same result. There are no error messages. It's an intermittent problem, and I've assumed from the beginning that it's my machine, but I was nonetheless curious if others had encountered the problem as well. Guess not.

I have run a complete virus scan with nada found, have all current "Windows Updates" installed (Windows 7), done several complete shutdown/reboots, and still have the problem occasionally. No other sites have prevented log outs (yet, anyway).

Still scratching my head over this. My guess is it will "go away quietly" at some point.

[Bibs]

Might be a problem with your cookies. Clear the cookie for TLF and it will give you a new one when you log back in, job's a peach

[Iconic Ride]

This particular peach is not to be found, Bibs. I've looked high and low for a TLF cookie, but no joy*. I found a few other temporary internet files having to do with TLF and deleted them, but they're mostly "flavicons," and seem to be simply eye candy on the page, not coded to perform operations. I suppose I could just delete all my existing cookies (the "one button does all" approach), but several of them are helpful to me on certain sites (online banking, younger son's college tuition statements, investment portfolios, Swedish Bikini Team mud fight challenge, etc.), and would cause some nuisance issues if deleted. Nothing that can't be restored, but I'd rather not have to reenter all the info again.

Does it tie up the TLF site to stay signed in for long periods of time? I generally sign out of all sites when done.

I'll keep trying to find any "hidden" files that might contain cookies, but I'm not holding my breath.

*Perhaps I need the missing cookie in order to sign out?

[Iconic Ride]

Update: When I loaded the "sign in" page today it still showed me as already signed in (as expected, as I was unable to sign out yesterday), but I decided to sign in again just for grins. I used the standard method of entering email address (always "saved" along with password on this computer--typing the first letter brings up all the required entries automatically). I say "standard" because I usually use the fingerprint reader to sign in. Perhaps that's what caused the problem with later attempts to sign out (normal button click--you can't sign out with the reader, of course), but I've used it before many times, and had no difficulty.

Anyway, after the page reloaded I immediately clicked "sign out" and, voila, it worked. And I was obviously able to re-sign in again afterwards. Go figure.

Update edit: OK, so I decide to sign out to get a bite to eat and..........am unable to once again. So, I repeat the above procedure (re-sign in) and it loads a second page with me signed in. In the past that's exactly what I would have expected it to do, so why did the earlier re-sign in keep me on the same first page?

Now I am signed in to two pages, and unable to sign out of either. Arrgghhhhh!

Edited November 1, 2011 by Iconic Ride

[Bibs]

[Bibs]

I've heard back from the professionals and they agree that it's more than likely a cookie issue. If I delete your cookie, I have to delete the cookies of everyone (which isn't going to happen) so you need to delete your cookies or live with the problem.

[Iconic Ride]

I'll keep sleuthing about for the elusive cookie, Bibs. It's not really a "problem" per se for me. I just don't want to tie up the site needlessly. You haven't mentioned anything about bandwidth loss (or whatever), so I assume that a single extra participant does not create undue hardships on the server. It's actually easier for me to stay signed in, for the obvious reason that I don't have to do anything but call up the site with a single click, a significant reduction in personal caloric expenditure per visit. Like to think I'm doing my part to minimize global warming.

And along those lines, like the age old question of "Does the refrigerator light go out when you close the door?," am I still shown as being online here even when I turn off my computer?

TLF: Tentacles Like Flypaper

[Bibs]

Being signed in doesn't use any bandwidth, the same as just having your internet router turned on doesn't use any bandwidth. They both only use bandwidth when you request something from the site/internet.

We get in excess of 50,000 people a month visiting the site and send out over 200GB of data all the same, we'll be all right for bandwidth with you turning your computer off without signing out!

.. If he has a second browser that he never uses.. Go to the forum in it, login, then try to logout.. That should do the same thing.. If it works in the second browser, it's cookies.. Or the original browser, but most likely cookies.

[Iconic Ride]

A grin slowly spread across Iconic Ride's face. His effort to gain control of The Lotus Forums site was proceeding according to plan. Having cleverly established a permanent connection to the site's server, his newly programmed software was even now stealthily infiltrating the UK's inner circles of power. Men of means and influence, frequent visitors to the site, surfed in complete ignorance of the digital machinations going on directly beneath their noses. Oh, how easy it had been. Why even the webmeister in charge had bought into the ruse. The fool! A heinous cackle escaped his lips, as he relished the havoc he could now inflict upon the Isles. The days of pompous and stilted English language domination upon the modern day's colonial tongue were numbered. No more "whilsts" and "only evers." Goodby to superfluous "u's" and abominable substitutions of "s's" where "z's" rightly belonged. And "tires" would once more be universally spelt, with banishment of the nefarious "y" to the nether world of its origins.

Yes, the King's English had had its day. Enough of such grandiloquent atavisim. Progress would rule the day! The Thread Withdrawal Instantaneous Termination trojan was even now worming its way into the harddrives of unsuspecting laptops Empire wide. The composition of alphabetically supercilious posts would trigger immediate and irrevocable vaporization of the user's device. Iconic revelled in the vision of countless puffs of smoke emanating within British living rooms nightly. Immense satisfaction was to be derived, as Colonial standards of global speech and grammar inexorably overwhelmed the pontifications of a bygone era.

Long live ubiquitousl banality!

[Bibs]

So did you delete your cookies?

[Iconic Ride]

Can't bring myself to do it, for aforementioned reasons. Not even sure a "blanket deletion" would accomplish anything, since none of the "visible" cookies show any connection to TLF. I've looked at them several times now carefully.

Can cookies be in "hidden files" ? In any case, I've long since forgotten how to bring them up, if that attribute still exists in Windows 7.

Besides, I need a few more days for my trojan to work its magic.

[USAndretti42]

John, Have you tried Firefox? It allows you to delete individual cookies by going to "Options" and choosing "Options" from the menu and then the "Privacy" tab. Select the "remove individual cookies" link and search for "the Lotus Forums." They will all be neatly presented in a folder ready to be eliminated by a keystroke.

[Iconic Ride]

Thanks for the tip, Trevor. Firefox has always been the weapon of choice for my wonderously bright younger son, currently enrolled in the nation's premier Computer Science program at Carnegie Mellon University. But even he was unable to persuade his dinosauric father to convert to its usage. In any case, can Firefox find cookies originally created within the framework of a competing browser, i.e., I. E.? (ha! waited years to use that alphabetical combination)

I.E. can, of course, also permit the deletion of individual cookies. I have even begun the process of doing just that on ones I know for certain that have no value to me. However, as previously mentioned, I cannot for the life of me find any relating to TLF.

Here's the thing: when I run a complete virus scan, the final report breaks things down into certain categories, one of them being "cookies." At some point I seem to recall some 2,000 cookies having been scanned! Yet, when I use "Internet Options" to find "temporary internet files" (which, of course, include cookies), it displays a large number of them, but no where near the number claimed by the virus scan. If there are, in fact, "hidden cookies" lurking about, I'd like to see them in the hopes of discovering any associated with TLF. But I've not had reason, till now, to perform such a search in many moons, and I've lost the technique.

Any hints on how to go about this with Win 7?

[ramjet]

Ok. Here's what we'll do John. Log on and get yourself into your predicament. The turn your PC off and then let us know when you've done that. We'll check and let you know whether you still show up.

I see only several little problems with this test. Once you've turned off your PC, how do you contact us? You could phone, but with the time differences, that's painful. You could write a real letter, but that would take a long time to get a reply. You could use a second PC and go to TLF as a guest and not log on and see if you were still showing up as logged on.

Or you could just put up with it or you could just DELETE THE COOKIE!!!!!!!!!

If it's hiding in the depths of all your electronic whizz-trickery, become the hunter and seek it out until it succumbs and you can answer the question:

Are you sure you want to move

this cookie to the recycle bin?

"Yes" "Cancel"

[Bibs]

Back on topic...

You'll notice many images are now being server from cdn.thelotusforums.com rather than the usual domain. The skin/javascript and other clever bits are also being served from more local, err, locations to you, anyone noticed a speed up yet?

You can see here on the average response time where the CDN became active...