How to speed up vbulletin page load times

[michelle86]

Members of my forum are complaining about the site loading slow lately.

I realize at this point that I should probably move my site to dedicated server hosting, but I do not have the funds to so anytime soon. So right now bluehost will have to do.

I currently have about 10,000 members. 10% are active.


So what other ways can I speed up my forum? Temporary files somewhere that are taking up space that I can delete? Settings in the cpanel that I can change somehow?


Along with slow loading time for my site, people have also complained about vbulletin database errors which I have tried fixing in the past to no avail (vbulletin blames my host. my host blames vbulletin). Also someone recently said this:

The "Are you sure you want to leave the page" and database error has happened to me.. and double posts, even though I only press the submit button once.

I have no clue about what to do about any of this. All suggestions are welcome! And if you'd like the link to my site, please PM me. I can give you a temporary account that you can view the site with.

[Pandemikk]

Get rid of BlueHost. They're notorious for having sub-standard quality. If you want to stick with a shared server, I'd recommend Liquidweb. They're slightly more pricey but their support is much better. They wouldn't simply blame vBulletin.

[michelle86]

I can change hosts to a dedicated server probably within the next year or so. So I really don't want to move everything to a new shared server if it would only be for a short amount of time. I'd like to see if there are any other options.

My forum home page is 101.93 kb. Big? How can I decrease it? I already have GZip HTML output enabled and compression set to 1.

[vbenhancer]

dedicated server will not make your site faster on its own... you need a host that is reliable... BlueHost is one of the worst in the market...

no matter how you compress or enhance your site, the host is more important than the way to deal with the design etc, because the browser will handle it anyway. right now, we do not have the numbers to your stats, so we can not compare performances...

a dedicated server will not help you if you can not handle its building and configuration on your own, because you will have to pay for someone to do the job that is included in a VPS... and your problems are not related to the server you're on, but the software handling your hosting...

blueHost and some other hosts are always targetting the software, so they can not be pointed at... but when blueHost is pointing at vBulletin, HostGator on their side use vBulletin as their support forum, so they know exactly how it works on a server, and they can deal with your configurations when needed... some other hosts act seriously like HG as well...

[Pandemikk]

Originally Posted by michelle86

I can change hosts to a dedicated server probably within the next year or so. So I really don't want to move everything to a new shared server if it would only be for a short amount of time. I'd like to see if there are any other options.

My forum home page is 101.93 kb. Big? How can I decrease it? I already have GZip HTML output enabled and compression set to 1.

That's not going to help. If your site is loading very slowly there's only two reasons why:

1. Client-side Issues
2. Server-side Issues

Examples of client-side issues: Slow internet, old browser, person is using Internet Explorer (just joking), too much javascript, flash, etc on the web page.

Examples of server-side issues: Database congestion (if one is being used), poorly configured settings (apache, mysql, php, etc), your host is throttling your connections (happens more often than you think).

102 kb is not big at all. There's no reason why it should take a modern user more than a second, maybe two, to load that.

Switch your hosts.

[michelle86]

Originally Posted by vbenhancer

right now, we do not have the numbers to your stats, so we can not compare performances...

Okay, I used http://www.webpagetest.org for these stats:

Load Time: 5.988s
First Byte: 0.744s
Start Render: 2.285s
Result (error code): 0

When opening my site in a browser (cookies/cache cleared) it takes less than 2 seconds for the site to fully load for me. So I don't know where the 5.988 seconds above comes from.

Different speed test show different results. Here's results from http://www.selfseo.com/website_speed_test.php

Size: 101.55 KB
Load Time: 1.37 seconds
Average Speed per KB: 0.01 seconds

[Pandemikk]

It would help to have a link to your site.

A load time of nearly 6 seconds is unacceptable.

[michelle86]

Originally Posted by Pandemikk

102 kb is not big at all. There's no reason why it should take a modern user more than a second, maybe two, to load that.

It really doesn't take more than a couple seconds to load. I don't really know why my members are complaining so much. So many of them were saying it was slow, I was thinking that maybe there's a problem if so many are complaining.

But if 1-2 seconds to load is OK, then I guess I don't have to worry about speed?

Just focus on these database errors I get once in awhile.

Here are a couple errors. The database errors happen roughly between 1-4am EST almost every night from what my members tell me. Sometimes I'm up that late to catch it. I don't always get an email when they happen, but here are the last couple that I did get emails for:

Database error in vBulletin :

mysql_connect() [<a href='function.mysql-connect'>function.mysql-connect</a>]: User ******* already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections
/home1/*****/public_html/members/includes/class_core.php on line 315

MySQL Error :
Error Number :
Request Date : Friday, March 23rd 2012 @ 11:22:47 PM
Error Date : Friday, March 23rd 2012 @ 11:22:47 PM
Script : http://************/mgc_cb_evo_ajax.php
Referrer : http://************/forum.php
IP Address : 72.87.142.139
Username :
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :

And another random one from awhile back:

Database error in vBulletin 4.1.8:

Invalid SQL:

SELECT alb.albumid, att.attachmentid, att.userid, att.caption, att.dateline, att.state, fdt.filesize, IF(fdt.thumbnail_filesize > 0, 1, 0) AS hasthumbnail, fdt.thumbnail_dateline, fdt.thumbnail_width, fdt.thumbnail_height, u.username
FROM album AS alb
LEFT JOIN attachment AS att ON alb.albumid = att.contentid
LEFT JOIN filedata AS fdt ON att.filedataid = fdt.filedataid
LEFT JOIN user AS u ON att.userid = u.userid
WHERE alb.state = 'public' AND att.contenttypeid = '8'
ORDER BY rand(869630)
LIMIT 6;

MySQL Error : Lost connection to MySQL server during query
Error Number : 2013
Request Date : Tuesday, January 10th 2012 @ 08:18:47 PM
Error Date : Tuesday, January 10th 2012 @ 08:20:52 PM
Script : http://************/content.php
Referrer : http://************/usercp.php
IP Address : 74.243.173.27
Username : *****
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :

--------------- Added [DATE]1332824941[/DATE] at [TIME]1332824941[/TIME] ---------------

Originally Posted by Pandemikk

It would help to have a link to your site.

A load time of nearly 6 seconds is unacceptable.

I sent you a PM

--------------- Added [DATE]1332825482[/DATE] at [TIME]1332825482[/TIME] ---------------

Originally Posted by Pandemikk

It would help to have a link to your site.

A load time of nearly 6 seconds is unacceptable.

I just tested your site (body bags) with that first speed test and it says:

Load Time: 6.574s
First Byte: 0.656s
Start Render: 3.538s

So maybe it isn't very accurate?

[Pandemikk]

Originally Posted by michelle86

It really doesn't take more than a couple seconds to load. I don't really know why my members are complaining so much. So many of them were saying it was slow, I was thinking that maybe there's a problem if so many are complaining.

But if 1-2 seconds to load is OK, then I guess I don't have to worry about speed?

Just focus on these database errors I get once in awhile.

Here are a couple errors. The database errors happen roughly between 1-4am EST almost every night from what my members tell me. Sometimes I'm up that late to catch it. I don't always get an email when they happen, but here are the last couple that I did get emails for:

Database error in vBulletin :

mysql_connect() [<a href='function.mysql-connect'>function.mysql-connect</a>]: User ******* already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections
/home1/*****/public_html/members/includes/class_core.php on line 315

MySQL Error :
Error Number :
Request Date : Friday, March 23rd 2012 @ 11:22:47 PM
Error Date : Friday, March 23rd 2012 @ 11:22:47 PM
Script : http://************/mgc_cb_evo_ajax.php
Referrer : http://************/forum.php
IP Address : 72.87.142.139
Username :
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :

And another random one from awhile back:

Database error in vBulletin 4.1.8:

Invalid SQL:

SELECT alb.albumid, att.attachmentid, att.userid, att.caption, att.dateline, att.state, fdt.filesize, IF(fdt.thumbnail_filesize > 0, 1, 0) AS hasthumbnail, fdt.thumbnail_dateline, fdt.thumbnail_width, fdt.thumbnail_height, u.username
FROM album AS alb
LEFT JOIN attachment AS att ON alb.albumid = att.contentid
LEFT JOIN filedata AS fdt ON att.filedataid = fdt.filedataid
LEFT JOIN user AS u ON att.userid = u.userid
WHERE alb.state = 'public' AND att.contenttypeid = '8'
ORDER BY rand(869630)
LIMIT 6;

MySQL Error : Lost connection to MySQL server during query
Error Number : 2013
Request Date : Tuesday, January 10th 2012 @ 08:18:47 PM
Error Date : Tuesday, January 10th 2012 @ 08:20:52 PM
Script : http://************/content.php
Referrer : http://************/usercp.php
IP Address : 74.243.173.27
Username : *****
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version :

--------------- Added [DATE]1332824941[/DATE] at [TIME]1332824941[/TIME] ---------------



I sent you a PM

Those database errors are host problems. The first one means that there are most connections to the database then allowed. On a shared host you don't have permission to increase the maximum allowed connections. You can ask your host to increase this limit, but, most shared hosts will not do so.

The second simply means your mysql settings are too limited. The amount of resources needed is more than the amount allowed in your settings.

Your site seems to load fast enough for me. Not slow, not lightning quick. Very typical of a shared host.

[michelle86]

Originally Posted by Pandemikk

Those database errors are host problems. The first one means that there are most connections to the database then allowed. On a shared host you don't have permission to increase the maximum allowed connections. You can ask your host to increase this limit, but, most shared hosts will not do so.

The second simply means your mysql settings are too limited. The amount of resources needed is more than the amount allowed in your settings.

Your site seems to load fast enough for me. Not slow, not lightning quick. Very typical of a shared host.

Okay, thanks. These are the kind of errors I sent to bluehost and they said it was a vbulletin issue :P But I was always sure it was them. I asked them to increase my limits already but they wouldn't.

I definitely will be switching hosts in the future when I can afford it, but for now it'll do I guess. I really don't have much choice money-wise at the moment.

That 5.988 second result is inaccurate I think. Not sure if you saw my post above, but I tested your site for comparison and it said it took 6.574 seconds! Of course when I actually visited it, it loaded fine for me. The second test seems to be much more accurate.