Even on a good day, this website is really slow and laggy compared to most sites I go to. Today, it's taking the better part of a minute to change EACH page! It's not my connection either, I play games on line and have the highest available speed from my ISP. It's definitely a problem with THIS site.

How is it hosted? Whatever it is, it needs serious improvement.

Working fine on my end

I'm with Chris on this one, maybe it's because I'm testing out the iPhone app, gotta say I like it... So far! Lol

These past two days have been slow for me too. It seems that at off peak hours it works the fastest...but not after diner time for sure.

I notice it being a tad slow on initial startup (maybe 45 seconds to load first page of forum). After that, it is better. I usually have 10-15 threads open in different tabs, so any slowness is probably from my machine at that point, not the site.

Is this site being hosted off an old Pentium 4 machine in someones' bedroom, through a standard DSL line or something? I'm thinking more upload speed is needed.

The problem is the ads take a long time to load. There are several threads in the Website Problems forum that address this. I have all ads blocked and the pages load instantly.

I thought it was just slow from my home with a cable connection but it timed out on my Work PC.

Bruce

It's the ads. The solution:

1) Use firefox. Really. Use firefox--IE is best avoided *always*.
2) Install the adblock plus plugin and subscribe to a filter list (the default works just fine). I haven't seen an ad in years.

Additionally, in the User CP section of the forum, you can:
1) Set the number of posts/page to the max (40 I think)--this maximizes signal/noise (more content/page-load).
2) Disable signatures and avatars (less to download w/all the images, and lots of animations can slow down rendering/responsiveness if your computer is taxed).

A little slow here too most days and it seems to be just this site for me.

It's the ads. The solution:

1) Use firefox. Really. Use firefox--IE is best avoided *always*.
2) Install the adblock plus plugin and subscribe to a filter list (the default works just fine). I haven't seen an ad in years.

Additionally, in the User CP section of the forum, you can:
1) Set the number of posts/page to the max (40 I think)--this maximizes signal/noise (more content/page-load).
2) Disable signatures and avatars (less to download w/all the images, and lots of animations can slow down rendering/responsiveness if your computer is taxed).

I second this! Before Firefox's Ad Block Plus plugin, this site would take forever to load for me. Now it loads at the speed of a normal site.

Check out the following website and download the rules.xml and then follow the directions on how to install and turn on inprivate filtering in IE 8 if you are using it.

Internet Explorer 8 InPrivate Filter - Rules.xml NEW! (http://www.windows7newsinfo.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=fca8e6f7c16ad59ab79dcb221fca12bb&topic=774.msg1834#msg1834)

Hope this helps, it did mine

Or, whoever runs this site could just get rid of all the ads, surely they know I do not come here to look at ads!

And I don't look at the ads anyhow. They are an annoying distraction.

Yeah, it's definitely this site. I visit other types of forums and do not have the issues, very long loadtimes or inability to load pages, as I do with this site. And Firefox? I downloaded Firefox 3 when it first came out and it crashed my last computer - no thanks.

Yeah, it's definitely this site. I visit other types of forums and do not have the issues, very long loadtimes or inability to load pages, as I do with this site. And Firefox? I downloaded Firefox 3 when it first came out and it crashed my last computer - no thanks.

1) firefox has come a long way since 3.0.0
2) no application should be able to crash the computer--that would be an OS deficiency ;)
(I'm not saying it doesn't happen w/MS windows--just that it's not really firefox's fault.)

I'd actually venture to say that firefox is more stable than Windows :)
Windows has become a lot more stable in recent years. I haven't heard of firefox crashing windows in a long time.

Also, firefox is a lot safer to use than IE.

If you become a paid member, many of the ads go away. You can't have it both ways. This is not a nonprofit site.

I am on Firefox and its slow for me too.

I am on Firefox and its slow for me too.

Do you use the ad block plus addon ?

I didnt until a little while ago, it has improved a bit.

Or, whoever runs this site could just get rid of all the ads, surely they know I do not come here to look at ads!

And I don't look at the ads anyhow. They are an annoying distraction.
Do you think servers, hosting and bandwidth are free ?
This is a for-profit site and how much it makes is driven by traffiic.

(and for the people who think running a particular browser is going to have significant faster load times are dreaming, most all commercial sites have default dwell times on ad content, simple coding in java and flash make sure somethings going to stay in your face for at least a few seconds, if not they would never be able to sell you anything),
:smoker:

Do you think servers, hosting and bandwidth are free ?
This is a for-profit site and how much it makes is driven by traffiic.

(and for the people who think running a particular browser is going to have significant faster load times are dreaming, most all commercial sites have default dwell times on ad content, simple coding in java and flash make sure somethings going to stay in your face for at least a few seconds, if not they would never be able to sell you anything),
:smoker:

Um, no, that's not entirely true.
I see zero ads, and I rarely encounter forced-dwell-time ads in either of the browsers I use (Firefox and Konqueror). IE may very well suffer much more from that kind of crap. Also, any site that uses forced dwell times with in-page javascript popups instantly 1) lose me from ever wanting to return, and 2) absolutely *do not* earn my click on the popped-up ad--it is a cosmic FAIL attempting it with me. It's too !@#$ annoying.

I browse with Java disabled, and usally with Flash also disabled.
Ad block plus in Firefox eliminates *all* of the ads on this forum and just about every other site.

You are partially correct regarding the browser not affecting download times, but only in so far as the exact same content from the same servers, and assuming both support HTTP/1.1 or better, compression, parallel and pipelined requests. Individual browsers *do* affect render times--absolutely--they are each a completely different implementation that do things differently, some arrangements they can each do faster than the other.

Also, whether or not an ad is displayed to the user does not really affect whether they get paid. Most ad-based revenue is based on clicks-thrus, and some are even tracking end-to-end purchases (if a purchase resulted from a click originating on the ad displayed on your site).

I don't know about the majority of folks, but I can't count on even one hand how many times in 14 years of using the Internet that I have clicked on a banner ad. So, they are losing no revenue from me not displaying them--in fact, I am possibly saving them costs by not even downloading any ads in the first place--saving them bandwidth. (Ads are pretty heavy on the bandwidth). I realize that they probably don't actually host any of the ad content themselves, but if they do, well, I'm not downloading it.

I'll bet that the majority of their revenue comes from people paying for membership subscriptions *because they want to get rid of the slowness caused by the ads*. That, and hopefully kickbacks from the many fine supporting vendors on the site--now that is a symbiotic relationship.

Now, I don't know the exact bandwidth usage of this site, but I can guesstimate that a $100-200/month hosting plan would easily cover it. I know some hosting providers that could handle the traffic for even less. Whether they have that kind of deal in place is another matter.

In short, I highly doubt they get much revenue directly from the ads. Unless I'm just clueless and a majority of CT patrons are enjoying the ads, clicking on them frequently, and making purchases because of it...

I've been an IE user for more years than I'd like to remember, so I'm fairly new ti Firefox. How do I invoke this Ad-block of which you speak? Thanks.

I've been an IE user for more years than I'd like to remember, so I'm fairly new ti Firefox. How do I invoke this Ad-block of which you speak? Thanks.

Google search it. Download it and run it.

I use Google Chrome Browser with it and find Chrome to be faster than both IE and Firefox.

I've been an IE user for more years than I'd like to remember, so I'm fairly new ti Firefox. How do I invoke this Ad-block of which you speak? Thanks.

1) Click on the tools menu bar entry
2) Click on the "add ons" entry
3) Click on the "get add-ons" item
4) Type "adblock" in the search box and click the magnifying glass
5) Find Adblock Plus and click "add to firefox"
6) It will ask to restart firefox, let it, and when it does it will open a second window with configuration options for adblock plus. It will offer you to add a filter list subscription--just accept the default and you're good to go.

Ads?? I have yet to see any ads. There have not been any ads displayed on this site on my PC. You may think I'm kidding but I'm absolutely serious. Where do they show up? I don't have any addons to my Firefox.

I've always thought this site was slow, but today is the first day it is providing decent performance.

Ads?? I have yet to see any ads. There have not been any ads displayed on this site on my PC. You may think I'm kidding but I'm absolutely serious. Where do they show up? I don't have any addons to my Firefox.

I've always thought this site was slow, but today is the first day it is providing decent performance.

I honestly can't remember where all the ads show up. But if I look at my ad block data for this page, it shows 17 items being blocked. It's also possible that not all of them display anything--some may just be bugs tracking stuff. A few most obviously are looking at the data in some of the urls that adblock is blocking.

When I was at the dealer the other day, he tried to pull up this site in IE. I could not believe how slow it was--it literally took minutes per page load. It was never that bad in Firefox even without the adblock add-on for me.

Other pages he pulled up came right up, so it wasn't simply a matter of the connection they have.

OMG what a difference!!!!!!! I have never been on a forum this slow before. Sure they need to make money but back off a little bit in the amount that are infiltrating this site. Now with the ad blocker I see none of them and this site work like a charm like all the others i visit.

OMG what a difference!!!!!!! I have never been on a forum this slow before. Sure they need to make money but back off a little bit in the amount that are infiltrating this site. Now with the ad blocker I see none of them and this site work like a charm like all the others i visit.
If it was faster, I would probably visit it more often. Guess that's the reason many opt for a membership.

You dont need a membership. Just install the ad blocker through firefox.

Where is this site hosted from? What are the exact specs on the server? What are your upload/download speeds? I've done computer work for a long time and like tech info.

I have my own site that is hosted through Managed Way in Southfield, MI. It was originally hosted at one company, which was bought by another, which was bought by another, and now, after 8 years, it is still up and running fine, and the pages and videos download FAST.

www.loudmouthtim.com (http://www.loudmouthtim.com)

Make sure you don't have a lot of other 'tabs' or sites open at the same time. Java runs on a lot of these and takes up processor speed.
I agree with others, use AdBlock, close any other tabs, and it should work as fast as your computer can process the info.

Another trick is if you've been surfing and land on this site, restart Firefox and it will work faster.

Where is this site hosted from? What are the exact specs on the server? What are your upload/download speeds? I've done computer work for a long time and like tech info.

I have my own site that is hosted through Managed Way in Southfield, MI. It was originally hosted at one company, which was bought by another, which was bought by another, and now, after 8 years, it is still up and running fine, and the pages and videos download FAST.

www.loudmouthtim.com (http://www.loudmouthtim.com)

It is the ads....... Use ad blocker and it works like it should!!!! Read above posts I did and I installed it and the site is just fine now plus no pop ups or add all over the screen.

Love the site, but wish it worked faster, if it did I'd actually visit it more often, just saying.

Instead of using Internet Explorer, try using Mozilla Firefox as your browser. You can download it for free at:

Mozilla | Firefox web browser & Thunderbird email client (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/)

Instead of using Internet Explorer, try using Mozilla Firefox as your browser. You can download it for free at:

Mozilla | Firefox web browser & Thunderbird email client (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/)

That's what I'm using now.

That's what I'm using now.

Get the Ad Block Plus add-on. Seriously. It makes a night-and-day difference.

Im on a DSL running the latest firefox, on an i7 Imac... and this is the slowest website I have been to in years.

I am a member of many forums and they all load much faster than this site.

Im thinking all the ads on the left and behind the scenes stuff just suck

(edit: I just DL some ad blockers for firefox 4... lets see if that helps. The ads do seem to be gone so far)

I think this site is slow - every page takes three seconds to load from here in Vancouver BC and I am on 30mps download speed/s. I am not a paid member but I am already tired of seeing the UPGRADE rectangle box in the center of the page for three seconds EVERY TIME I open a page on this site. I have asked the webmaster (twice now) if I upgrade will that box go away? If not I will go away.

I think this site is slow - every page takes three seconds to load from here in Vancouver BC and I am on 30mps download speed/s. I am not a paid member but I am already tired of seeing the UPGRADE rectangle box in the center of the page for three seconds EVERY TIME I open a page on this site. I have asked the webmaster (twice now) if I upgrade will that box go away? If not I will go away.

I gladly paid and I get no notices. Also use Mozilla with Adblock plié (free) and site is fine Only slow if I have 10 other tabs.open).
There is an untapped wealth of information here and we'd all hate to see u go and miss out on the knowledge. Just do what ya gotta do but I hope you stay.

Yeah this site is torture for me too.I would visit alot if I wouldnn,t have to spend my whole time waitin.We use a aircard so we aren,t fast anyway but this site is mostly unbareable for me.Don,t get me wrong I love it here but the waitin is pure torture.Other sites I use have lots of ads too and they aren,t bad,just a second or two or so to change the page.Here I can take minutes to change per click.:werd::(

Get the Ad Block Plus add-on. Seriously. It makes a night-and-day difference.

^^ What he said. And to add a little more, you can also use Ad-block to block animated signatures, animated avitars or anything else you find annoying. I pretty much block anything that is flashing or moving on a forum I want to read.

^^ What he said. And to add a little more, you can also use Ad-block to block animated signatures, animated avitars or anything else you find annoying. I pretty much block anything that is flashing or moving on a forum I want to read.

I just disable signatures and avatars in the forum settings--saves bandwidth, rendering time, and makes the pages much cleaner to read through.

I just disable signatures and avatars in the forum settings--saves bandwidth, rendering time, and makes the pages much cleaner to read through.

Some of them I don't mind but the flashing animated ones get blocked immediately. I have a hard enough time reading as it is :)

Well, even if all this ad block stuff does work, then there is STILL a problem with the way this site is hosted or at what upload / download speeds, or server specs or whatever, because NO OTHER SITE I ever go to needs to have things disabled or ad block in order to run reasonably fast.

Again, it is *not* the server, hosting, or connection of the site--but the *content* that is the problem.
The content includes directives telling your browser to access 3rd party content from *other* sites. It is downloading all these other pieces of content from all these other locations that slow it down. That is why blocking your browser from fetching them makes such a big difference.

Also, one thing to point out, is that this is not an enthusiast website run by Dodge fans. It is a commercial website, one of over a hundred all run by the same company (see AutoGuide.com Forum Network - Automotive Enthusiast Forum Network (http://www.autoforums.com/pages/communities/index.php) ), run for the sole purpose of attracting eyeballs for *ad revenue*.

If the ads interfere with the ability of the site to perform it's "intended" function w/respect to attracting those eyeballs in the first place, I feel no remorse in simply blocking them out of the way. I count it as essentially a FAIL in their model.

And you're right when you point out that no other site performs so poorly. It was *this* site that inspired me to install the ad blocking--before this site, no other site I frequent had ads so obtrusive or that negatively affected the accessibility and usefulness of their site.

I would hope management would take note and seek to remedy it.

I now use the Auto Guide app on my iPhone because it's faster than visiting this site on my desktop. This site is slow.

I can barely get by on these computers as it is let alone tryin to do all those funcions and things you all say to do.I betch all the Ford and Chevy guys would have a field day with this.:disgust:

Again, it is *not* the server, hosting, or connection of the site--but the *content* that is the problem...

Ditto that and then some.

I did a quick analysis of this site and found this site is loading 65 individual objects (15 should be a maximum for load times); loading 40 separate images, again 10-15 should be a limit (and an upper limit at that); the total page is is just under 900K, which is way, way beyond a reasonable limit (100K); then adding another 136K for just scripts loading. Overall the top page is loading a meg worth of ads, scripts, images, etc.

Most website guidance manuals say to measure the readers attention span in milliseconds when it comes to page loading. This site is over, by a factor of 10, the suggested loading recommendations for good website development.

I'm all for a site making money I guess but this is a tad extreme with the ads. Anyway, what he said... its all about the content as to why this site is soooo slow.

Hey guys. I am sorry again for the slow load times. It should not be like this and I am going to be looking into it for you all.

My computer is 3 years old and I always have multiple tabs open. I never experience a wait. ATT Uverse fast down load speed but this is not slow for me...:scratchhead:

It should be better now. Is it?

Not better. IMHO still the same slow site.

Loading this page with yslow reveals the sorry state of affairs:

Overall grade: D

Each single page load incurs:
- Grade F - 103 total HTTP requests
- Grade F - 102 static components not on a CDN
- Grade F - 18 static components w/o a far-future expiration date -- thus even w/caching they get requested and fully downloaded every time

600K of total content, with a minimum of 200K after compression and caching--which is still quite large.

Loading this page with yslow reveals the sorry state of affairs:

Overall grade: D

Each single page load incurs:
- Grade F - 103 total HTTP requests
- Grade F - 102 static components not on a CDN
- Grade F - 18 static components w/o a far-future expiration date -- thus even w/caching they get requested and fully downloaded every time

600K of total content, with a minimum of 200K after compression and caching--which is still quite large.

Can you please copy and past either in here or in a PM all the details the yslow gave. That will help me get a better understanding on what is going on.

Thank you

It's trivial to run it yourself--and then you can use it to test any changes to track improvement.
Just install firefox, then in the add-ons install firebug, then yslow (which requires firebug). After restarting firefox (required after installing add-ons) there will now be a yslow button on the bottom right corner of the browser. Just load the page you want to test and click that button and it will run the analysis.

I concur...I tried it myself even though I rarely use Firefox (gasp!). It was very easy to do.

Using Firefox already and find this site really slow to turn pages, even timing out sometimes while doing it. Would love to go on here more often, but it just takes too long. Would getting the premium membership make it faster and by how much?

Premium membership aint going to speed up loading the pages. There less commercials but I rarely see sites running slow like this one does..

Using Firefox already and find this site really slow to turn pages, even timing out sometimes while doing it. Would love to go on here more often, but it just takes too long. Would getting the premium membership make it faster and by how much?

Firefox alone isn't enough--have you installed and configured the Ad Block Plus addon as well? That really is the key.

Firefox alone isn't enough--have you installed and configured the Ad Block Plus addon as well? That really is the key.Is that the only way to get this site to move faster? Been on many forums, but this one really moves slow, it's so frustrating. Ran across only one other slow site like this which had a lot of adds, the last time on it was last year. This site is amazing, but wish the speed was improved.

Is that the only way to get this site to move faster?


Unfortunately, this seems to be the case. At least it's extremely easy to setup ABP.

I think some people are missing the point here.

It's not that ad block plus may be easy to set up.

It's that we should not HAVE to set it up in the first place!:disgust:

Here's an idea - if, what 2ndgen said is true, and some big company is running a hundred sites like this for different cars with ads thrown all over the place, and all they really care about is their ad money, then someone here needs to copy this site. Set up a whole new site and message board. Proboards or something.

Change the URL to something like challengertalk2.com , Set up the message board, and we will all just dump this site and go there. Never come here again. We will get fast page loads with no bull**** ads, and the big company who is not putting US first instead of their money, will lose money.

WINNING! :D

I tested my own website ( www.loudmouthtim.com (http://www.loudmouthtim.com) ) with Yslow. (Ruleset - Yslow V2)

Results:

Grade - A
Overall Performance Score - 95
Empty Cache Statistics:

HTTP requests - 4 (24.1 Kbytes total)
1 HTML / Text - 2.1 Kbytes
1 Javascript file 11.7 Kbytes
2 Image 10.2 Kbytes

I designed this site back in late 2002, using all hard-coded HTML. I designed it specifically to load fast on dial up connections, as high speed internet was not commonly available back then. Remember those days? :eek:

And I never really changed it much, even though it is still updated with new videos being added even to this day.

If you're bored, see #39 "Richard Sings Again", then explore some others! :D

This challengertalk website had an overall score of 69, and a 940.1 Kbyte total on the HTTP request.

I opened a thumbnail pic this morning on here and it had a virus attached to it and wiped out my home computer. My son is on his way over now to try and fix it .

Unfortunately, this seems to be the case. At least it's extremely easy to setup ABP. Just wish it had the speed of other forums around, without having to do anything to get it. The time needed to access this site can be very hard to deal with and it's such a great site, wish something else could be done.

Thanks for the firefox add-on suggestions. Each page was completely unclickable for me (mouse wouldn't respond) for a good 5-10 seconds for every load. With firefox and adblock it's quick and snappy. YSlow is cool too. I may run that on my business' website and get on the IT guy.

Thanks for the firefox add-on suggestions. Each page was completely unclickable for me (mouse wouldn't respond) for a good 5-10 seconds for every load. With firefox and adblock it's quick and snappy. YSlow is cool too. I may run that on my business' website and get on the IT guy.


Please be nice to your "IT guy"

You dont need a membership. Just install the ad blocker through firefox. Got Firefox, but how to do this?

Got Firefox, but how to do this?

1) Select "Add-ons" from the "Tools" menu.
2) Type "adblock plus" in the search box.
3) Find it in the list and click on the "Install" button.
4) Follow whatever prompts come up, including the one that says to restart Firefox.
5) When Firefox comes back, it should popup an extra window. This extra window prompts you to add a filter subscription. I believe it defaults to "English EasyList" or "Fanboy's List". Either or both are fine--add at least one of them.
NOTE: If you miss this last step, ABP is installed but still doing nothing--you must have a filter subscription.

If this window does not appear, or you close it by accident, you can get to it by:
1) Click on the new ABP icon to the right of the search box at the top right of the window.
2) From the resulting menu select "Preferences".
3) In the resulting window, from the "Filters" menu select the "Add filter subscription" option--this will produce yet another window.
4) In this window select a filter subscription and add it--add as many as you like.

Once you've browsed a bit with ABP installed, if you open up that first preferences window again it will show you a count of how many times each filter has been used--thus how many things it has actually blocked for you. My counts are in the 100s of thousands--it really does work...

Also, if there is a website you frequent that the filter interferes with, you can add exceptions to the rules on a site-by-site or even per-page basis to exclude them from being filtered. This is trivial to do--just visit the site, then click on the ABP icon and select one of the "Disable..." options. If you poke around the menus in the preferences window you can see where you can later modify this as well--it's all pretty straight-forward.

This site IS a little slow, especially on my 3g mobile devices. As has been stated, the dns queries to resolve the ads and all other images and links can really put a choke hold on bandwidth.

Adblock plus really isn't that hard to set up, and it's definitely worth the time to get it going. It will make your entire web experience better.

I have access to host domains on a set of shared (reseller) servers. It's probably not the best resource out there, but I might be able to set up an alternative to this forum if the demand was there. Especially if there were a few tech savvy people out there who might want to dedicate some time to helping run it... non profit, just enthusiast run.

Challengertalk is as heavy laden and slow performing as a tank. How heavy is it? So heavy that the ads and other crap like the stupid smileys resemble one highly irritating neon sign. I'm out of here.

Challengertalk is as heavy laden and slow performing as a tank. How heavy is it? So heavy that the ads and other crap like the stupid smileys resemble one highly irritating neon sign. I'm out of here.

My computer is 5 years old (the best AMD chip with 4 GB Ram) and I'm using Mozilla Firefox with AdBlock Plus and I have absolutely no problem at all. Even with the instructional posts with pages of pictures.
I do have ATT's fastest download speed.
If you're that upset with the site, Check your connection speed, equipment, etc. I cannot understand any of the complaints as I have no problem what so ever. Good luck to you and God Bless,,
:notallthere: :scratchhead: