By decibel.places on

I just set up Drupal 6.1 at StartLogic. I am pretty happy with the price, features, and support.

Page loads take forever - is this the server?

I also installed a TON of modules for evaluation, maybe later, etc. - would it help to trim the excess?

<b>I am also suddenly having a weird IE display problem - like there's no styles applied, or something. Looks fine in Firefox.</b>

I had activated the xmlsitemap module just before IE freaked out. I was getting error messages, so I deactivated xmlsitemap.

One reason I wanted that module is to integrate with Gallery2.3, which is up and running, I checked the option to combine the sitemaps.

Can't see how this would cause IE to screw up...

Other sites look fine in IE.

URL: http://netsperience.org

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

silverwing’s picture

silverwing commented

I clicked on the link about a minute ago and it's still trying to load. (I'm on a really slow dialup and I'm used to slow, but your site is ridiculously slow. Most sites would have at least had something by now.)

You may want to consider using the performance options in admin/site configuration/ performace to cache the stylesheets (as long as you're not modifying them.)

(Your site's title just poped up in my tab.)

You should also check with your host to make sure your memory_limit in php.ini is set to something higher than 8. (32 is good.)

~silverwing - still nothing on your site

_____________________________________________
MisguidedThoughts | showcaseCMS

decibel.places’s picture

decibel.places commented

yeah, it's very slow on cable braodband, too

My php memory limit is 50MB (I set it to that and I have confirmed it)

I am modding the stylesheets right now as I get set up - but I don't think caching them would make that much difference.

My gut is that I'm running too many modules (I have A LOT)

~are you netsperienced? http://netsperience.org

~are you netsperienced?
♥ follow me @decibelplaces ∞

seanray’s picture

seanray commented

Looks like it's not a good soultion for Drupal

m.i.a.’s picture

m.i.a. commented

My website also hosted on Startlogic. It's database server has been crashed 4 days, they still can not solve the problem. Before the crash, it was very very slow. Now I am moving my site to a new Web Host. Since January, Startlogic has had a lot of problems. Its server crashed many times. And it takes forever to get in touch with their support. They can put you on hold for hours and you still cannot get any result. Be sure to backup your DB and data. Move to a reliable website to avoid more troubles in the future.

decibel.places’s picture

decibel.places commented

I have best results when I use live chat with StartLogic - you have to wait 5 or ten minutes for someone to come on, but they generally either solve my problem, or at least give me enough info to solve it myself.

Today, I asked about setting up a subdomain pointer. I didn't know I had to include public_html in the path. Problem solved.

I asked about the slow loading, and they said they are making many upgrades including adding more mysql boxes and they said I should see some improvements.

I disabled almost all the modules I was running, the loading time improved, still not really acceptable.

I am surprised, I picked StartLogic because reviews said they have very few complaints, but there seems to be an undercurrecnt of disgruntled customers. We'll see, so far I am only hosting my personal site there, I can be patient for a while.

I also asked for help restoring mysql databases from .frm .MYD and .MYI files - one of my clients got these as a backup when he moved hosting (without me, I would have generated an sql file) so I understand these files can be installed on the sql server and used to regenerate the dbs. Well, the agent at StartLogic at first seemed to think I wanted to export my database. Finally when I explained I wanted to restore the db, he said I had to make it sql (duh) - anyway, I'm probably upgrading client to new apps, those dbs were from 3-4 years agoe, so I dropped it.

I also find it annoying that when I contact StartLogic support by email, they write back and ask for my account security question answer. I wrote back a few times and said I was uncomfortable putting sensitive information in an unencrypted email. They didn't follow up. The email support is useless to me.

I also tried opening trouble tickets, but they just generated email contact asking me for my security question.

I am satisfied with the support on live chat, but I need to schedule 15-30 minutes to do it.

Also, when I opened the live chat window in Firefox, it was clipped horizontally and the window was not resizeable - but I have a Firefox plug in that resizes the window, and it worked. I told the guy at StartLogic, he didn't comment.

So far, so good. I had a really bad experience with a client's web hosting co - the site constantly crashed, the drupal db was corrupted twice and update.php couldn't fix it - compared with that nightmare, I guess StartLogic is ok so far.

I haven't had problems like m.i.a.

I do like the features, unlimited domains, subdomains, email accts, etc and the price is good (around $55 for a year! - including registering my domain with tucows).
, we'll see if it improves as promised.
I just wish the server was faster

~are you netsperienced? http://netsperience.org

~are you netsperienced?
♥ follow me @decibelplaces ∞

silverwing’s picture

silverwing commented

I have yet to see your site.

~silverwing - tried a few times....

_____________________________________________
Land of Midnight | MisguidedThoughts | showcaseCMS

decibel.places’s picture

decibel.places commented

My site now loads in less than 30 seconds - often less than 10 secs!

still setting up, modding the 4seasons theme, so far rebuilt the header

~are you netsperienced? http://netsperience.org

~are you netsperienced?
♥ follow me @decibelplaces ∞

ronald.lew’s picture

ronald.lew commented

Are you up to speed because you disabled most/all your modules or did StartLogic up their game?

joe_crowe’s picture

joe_crowe commented

I'm having trouble with startlogic being slow,also my crons is not working properly.Did anyone get anywhere and could you help me config. crons
thanx

decibel.places’s picture

decibel.places commented

The speed has been really good - good bcause I'm developing a couple of other sites there

StartLogic made the improvements they said they would.

But today I contacted them bcause the index file wasn't displaying when the url was just the directory with a trailing slash (not a drupal page, a regular html page)

They fixed that, but now none of my Drupal clean urls work! (only on my domain netsperience.org, which was where I was complaining about the index files)

The other drupal sites are ok - I've been having problems with "virtual sites" and "multisite" but I don't think that's the host.

~are you netsperienced? http://netsperience.org

~are you netsperienced?
♥ follow me @decibelplaces ∞

mxgfx’s picture

mxgfx commented

I haven't figured it out yet. The service has been very slow for me and most of my clients want me to switch to another provider. If I had to offer a suggestion, I would recommend going elsewhere. The only problem is, which provider is not having serious database query problems with the recent boom of cms sites?

In the meantime, does anyone know how to get clean urls to work? A lot of my sites use ImageCache and that relies entirely on clean urls.

decibel.places’s picture

decibel.places commented

I have not had problems with clean urls on StartLogic for Drupal v 6.2 and 5.7 - did you enable them at admin/settings/clean-urls ?

==================

I looked at budget shared hosting reviews and features at web hosting unleased http://www.webhostingunleashed.com/

lunarpages is cheap and has an exceptionally high ratio of positive to negative reviews

I also contacted bluehost and described my problems with StartLogic and they assured me their hosting is speedy.

I don't think StartLogic got a single positive review since I signed up.

The speed has been inconsistent - pages will load in 10 seconds and I am tempted to stay - then it will choke up again - and were your web server AND email server down for over 5 hours like mine?

Here is a chat I had with them, my last attempt at getting them to be honest and real. I contacted sales, I thought perhaps they would be more motivated to preserve a customer than tech support. So sales tried to sell me up to VPS -- then quickly transferred me to billing... My favorite part:

James C: The only thing that I could offer you is a Virtual Private Server.
James C: If you think of it like a swimming pool, you are currently in the pool with everyone esle spashing you.
Randall: I'm going to ask for a refund
James C: A VPS has lanes that puts you in your own area of the pool
Randall: the pool is full of piss
James C: I will connect you with billing.

James C: How can I help you?
Randall: hello
James C: Hi.
Randall: I have a problem with the page load times - tech support says it's either my content or they say some other customer on the shared server is hogging the bandwidth
Randall: I am researching other hosting companies
Randall: a page load of 2 to 4 minutes is unacceptable
Randall: occasionally, you are able to load the page in about 10 seconds, so don't blame my content
Randall: The browser just sits there idle, waiting for a connection for the bulk of the time
Randall: once connected, the page loads quickly, in 10 to 15 seconds
Randall: but the wait for the first handshake is often 2 to 4 minutes
Randall: that is not acceptable
James C: I know this is not what you want to hear, but that is a big disadvantage of shared hosting.
Randall: no, it's not a problem with other web hosting companies - not a 4 minute wait
James C: It's one of those hit and miss things until tech gets the guy that's using all the bandwidth off the server.
James C: The only thing that I could offer you is a Virtual Private Server.
James C: If you think of it like a swimming pool, you are currently in the pool with everyone esle spashing you.
Randall: I'm going to ask for a refund
James C: A VPS has lanes that puts you in your own area of the pool
Randall: the pool is full of piss
James C: I will connect you with billing.
Chat InformationPlease wait while I transfer the chat to the best suited site operator.
Chat InformationYou are now chatting with 'Nigel Atkinson'
Nigel Atkinson: Hi Randall, I apologize for the wait time. My name is Nigel Atkinson, how are you today?
Randall: hello
Randall: I have an issue with page load times
Nigel Atkinson: I apologize. What exactly seems to be the issue?
Randall: oftent the wait for the first handshake with your server is 2 to 4 minutes
Randall: then the page loads wuickly, in 10 to 15 seconds
Randall: occasionally, when the browser is connected quickly, the total time is 10 to 15 seconds
Randall: tech support tells me it's the 9 tiny images on my page - or they say somebody else is hogging the bandwidth in the shared server
Randall: sales just told me it's a problem with shared hosting and tried to sell me a vps
Nigel Atkinson: Our records show that, one of our specialists are working on your issue with #5080033. I have now personally contacted and he assured me that, your issue will be resolved with in few hours.
Randall: I don't expect vps speeds but 2 to 4 minutes is not acceptable even in a shared environment
Randall: yeah, your speeds improve for ten or fifteen minutes and then it's back to yelling at you
Randall: I have been researching other hosting cos
Randall: I picked StartLogic for its high ratings and good reviews
Randall: Lately you have been slipping
Randall: I like a lot of things about SL, Vdeck is great, unlimited subdomains and databases -
Randall: but nothing else matters if the page doesn't load in a reasonable amount of time
Randall: Here's what Bluehost told me:
Randall: Hello, We offer a very fast oc48 multichannel backbone connection. Sites take seconds to load not minutes. You would not have any of those problems here. If you have any further questions please let us know. Thanks, Light M. Sales Team Lead BlueHost.com 888.401.4678
Nigel Atkinson: Randall, our specialists are working. I suggest you to wait for them to resolve your issue.
Randall: This has been an ongoing problem ever since I opened my account
Randall: As soon as I pick an alternative hosting co, I'm moving
Randall: You don't have the shared servers set up right, you make persistednt connections so if someone is using a lot of bandwidth the new requests just sit there
Randall: it's disingenuous to try to sell me up to vps just because your shared servers don't work
Nigel Atkinson: I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you.
Nigel Atkinson: Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Randall: I had a client ask me about economic shared hosting (although he will probably need dedicated hosting in a month or two) and I couldn't in good faith recommend you
Randall: I am a web developer and I spend a lot of time updating little things and reloading the page, using php and mysql so it's not that simple to do it locally
Randall: It is very frustrating to wait so long and then get a 500 Internal Server Error message, whioch happens often
Randall: Here is what your sales dept said:
Randall: James C: I know this is not what you want to hear, but that is a big disadvantage of shared hosting. Randall: no, it's not a problem with other web hosting companies - not a 4 minute wait James C: It's one of those hit and miss things until tech gets the guy that's using all the bandwidth off the server. James C: The only thing that I could offer you is a Virtual Private Server. James C: If you think of it like a swimming pool, you are currently in the pool with everyone esle spashing you. Randall: I'm going to ask for a refund James C: A VPS has lanes that puts you in your own area of the pool Randall: the pool is full of piss James C: I will connect you with billing.
Nigel Atkinson: Randall, Could you please let me know what exactly you wish to do now?
Randall: It will probably take me a full day to move the 5 sites I am developing in subdomains
Randall: I am saying that if I don't see immediate improvement in the page loads, I'm outta here
Nigel Atkinson: Sure.
Randall: I am trying now to load the front page http://4m.netsperience.org/ it took 50 seconds - marginally acceptable, if that was the upper end, I wouldn't be compalining
Randall: I just wanted to talk to billing and sales because I have been getting a runaround from tech support
Nigel Atkinson: Yes, I know Randall.
Randall: I updated my ticket several times today, documenting the ups and downs in the page load times - there were a few periods when pages loaded in 10 to 15 seconds which is excellent
Randall: I have not had one response today to my communications
Nigel Atkinson: Okay.
Randall: I am not quite ready to jump ship, I hope things will improve so I don't have to, it's solely an issue with the page loads, I am quite happy with everything else, youe email server is excellent, but page loads is what hosting is all about
Randall: if you can't deliver professional service serving up relatively simple pages (10 images and 10 sql requests) then you should not be in this business
Randall: I guess that's all
Randall: thank you for listening
Nigel Atkinson: Okay.
Nigel Atkinson: Thank you for chatting with us. Please feel free to contact us at any time. We are available 24x7.

~are you netsperienced? http://netsperience.org

~are you netsperienced?
♥ follow me @decibelplaces ∞

mxgfx’s picture

mxgfx commented

It took me forever to get this to work. The tech support on the phone repeatedly told me that it wasn't possible.

It is. Open up the .htaccess file in your public_html directory and drop the following block of code in there. Read the comments and make the adjustments that you need. I found this code on another service provider's help document site. So.. for any Startlogic users out there, if you have any problems, go to another server's help section. :)

I hope this relieves some of you out there. Now you can use image cache and amfphp or other services on startlogic servers. About time.

# Various rewrite rules.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine on

  # If your site can be accessed both with and without the 'www.' prefix, you
  # can use one of the following settings to redirect users to your preferred
  # URL, either WITH or WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix. Choose ONLY one option:
  #
  # To redirect all users to access the site WITH the 'www.' prefix,
  # (http://example.com/... will be redirected to http://www.example.com/...)
  # adapt and uncomment the following:
  # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$ [NC]
  # RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
  #
  # To redirect all users to access the site WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix,
  # (http://www.example.com/... will be redirected to http://example.com/...)
  # uncomment and adapt the following:
  # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.com$ [NC]
  # RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]

  # Modify the RewriteBase if you are using Drupal in a subdirectory or in a
  # VirtualDocumentRoot and the rewrite rules are not working properly.
  # For example if your site is at http://example.com/drupal uncomment and
  # modify the following line:
  # RewriteBase /drupal
  #
  # If your site is running in a VirtualDocumentRoot at http://example.com/,
  # uncomment the following line:
  RewriteBase /

  # Rewrite old-style URLs of the form 'node.php?id=x'.
  #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
  #RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=([^&]+)$
  #RewriteRule node.php index.php?q=node/view/%1 [L]

  # Rewrite old-style URLs of the form 'module.php?mod=x'.
  #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
  #RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^mod=([^&]+)$
  #RewriteRule module.php index.php?q=%1 [L]

  # Rewrite current-style URLs of the form 'index.php?q=x'.
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]
</IfModule>
decibel.places’s picture

decibel.places commented

I signed up with BlueHost last night - the clincher was I clicked on live support and a person was on within 10 seconds - very knowledgeable and helpful, all the right answers - like they will allow db connection with NaviCat which I also use for client sites on RackSpace - when I asked StartLogic how to connect with NaviCat they said "you can't"

Meanwhile I was waiting for over 20 minutes for StartLogic live support (after writing 2 emails and unable to submit an onsite ticket) because they apparently changed the pw to a database and I couldn't log into it from the site (data on pages not showing up) or even in phpmyadmin, prompted to enter the pw and when I did it said it was wrong.

Watch out with the .htaccess file - I asked them to enable default index.htm(l)and index.php files for urls with trailing slash and they did - but disabled my clean urls, I ended up fixing it myself too - so I guess I did have a problem with clean urls just remembering.

And this morning I got a phone call from BlueHost confirming my order - I like the personal touch.

Ugh - now I gotta move stuff - I tried archiving directories on StartLogic last night and it just timed out. BlueHost has archive decompression on the filemanager, I don't want to move everything with ftp... haven't tried the dbs yet

~are you netsperienced? http://netsperience.org

~are you netsperienced?
♥ follow me @decibelplaces ∞

seanray’s picture

seanray commented

Look like you have made a right decision. For drupal hosting, you will need to know the speed of their database server. Startlogic is not good at it, this is a site for blog, simple html page, not for Drupal.

Bluehost is definitely a good choice, another great Drupal hosting company are HostMonster and ANhosting, I already have a drupal site in HostMonster now, currently, I am working on setup my Drupal application in ANHosting and have it support multiple sites. Looks like pretty good now.

Best Drupal Hosting | Affordable Web Hosting | Discount Web Hosting

decibel.places’s picture

decibel.places commented

Yes, my pages were taking 3 minutes sometimes at StartLogic - other times 15 seconds...

BlueHost has reasonable speed, but recently I observed they had 845 domains crowded on my IP - their answer: "upgrade"

At HotDrupal I have 12 IP neighbors - that makes a BIG difference! I haven't moved any sites in yet, working on getting SVN going (some say SVN is possible at BH - but I think they have changed things up since the recebt DDoS attacks a week or two ago)

~are you netsperienced? /\_][_][_/\ Reliable Web Hosting - cheap!

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decibel.places’s picture

decibel.places commented

I have found BlueHost adequate, it is currently my primary host.

I have also signed up with HotDrupal, I have a few sites in dev there, they have ffmpeg and Subversion installed

I am also offering rather inexpensive reliable shared hosting - starting at $4 per month! - see the sig. My clients using it have been happy.

~are you netsperienced? /\_][_][_/\ Reliable Web Hosting - cheap!

~are you netsperienced?
♥ follow me @decibelplaces ∞