New site - comments + speed issues

[paultel]

Hi there,

Have just launched this new site. ALL comments welcome, but particularly concerned about download speed at present.

Speed was absolutely fine, 1-2 sec over 2mb connection, up until about a week ago. Now I'm getting sticky patches of 3-8 hours where page downloads fall back to 15-30 sec over same 2mb link. This is the same for both brochure and product pages.

I'm not using Act_section_tree.js, and I'm not uncomfortable with the size of images - since I know the site runs fast enough other things being equal.

CLook are the hosting the site and whilst they've been helpful, they are of the opinion that the fault is either a). a script issue, or b). at my end. (they base this on okay download speed observed at their end, okay traceroute, and no issues raised by other users on same server).

From my end, when the slowdowns occur, the problem is just the same for Explorer, Firefox, and Opera. Plus a totally separate machine (sharing same router and line connection) exhibits the same slow down. The bit I can't get my head around is, if it is as CLook suggest a problem at my end, why I don't experience similar slowdowns with any other sites that try I connect to?

With respect to it being a script issue, the intermittent nature if the problem makes me think it probably isn't. But then, I don't really know much about scripts and their operation.

I would be grateful of ANY feedback re download speed, and of any suggestions that might help me better isolate/identify the problem.

http://www.immunoworks.co.uk

TIA

Paul

ps: I know I haven't gotten around to the SEO stuff yet

[leehack]

I like the look of the site, looks nice and fresh, excellent.

Page loaded completely for me in 3 seconds on a 4mb connection on all browsers.

Two things i didn't like, these are more personal than site wide problems though, is the grey headers do not look uniform without a border around them. I think they will knit into the site far better with a border around them as everything else has.

The other thing i like the navbar to change colour as well as underline when you hover over them. I also like the link for the page that i am on, to be a different colour personally showing exavctly which page i'm on.

Apart from those 2, which are personal things, i think it looks excellent, really nice job.

[completerookie]

snappy and fast on a 1mb link

[completerookie]

just took a closer look, there seems to be two images missing on the opening page.
aaa_logo_green_people_03.gif
and
aaa_logo_flexi_bar_02.jpg
when I try to load them direct, its a FileNotFound error

[completerookie]

surprising what you see when you start snooping,

I LIKE the idea of the plus and minus buttons on the products to increment the quantity count, BUT have you ever tried clicking on the MINUS button repeatedly, it generates a negative quantity.
Not sure how actinic is going to react to me ordering "-4 of some nice thing"
I've looked at the simple code behind the scenes and perhaps you need to turn it into a simple JS function and do a simple bit of checking before you increment or decrement the number.

then, being that sort of awkward person I am, I thought "what happens if I put a couple of letters in the field and then decrement" - answer, it turns the value into "NaN" ( Not a Number ) - all of these probs could be trapped for within the JS function including an error message if appropriate.

just thought I would mention it.

[paultel]

Lee,

Thx for the +ve comments and taking the time to try out diff browsers. I like the sound of your menu bar ideas, will take a look at doing something along those lines when I get a quiet moment.

Cheers


Paul

[paultel]

Kevin,

Thanks for your time and effort. Glad to hear the site is snappy - hope that's the same for everyone. Oddly, the two files that you mention download fine for me, both as part of the home page and when called directly.

Re the plus & minus buttons, I cant remember where I found the code, but AFAIR if you do try and buy an impossible quantity Actinic just returns a "that's not a valid amount" message. As for improving/fixing it, I've still have some learning to do first.

Cheers
Paul

[RuralWeb]

Nice site - loads well for me.

[completerookie]

re-the two missing images, strangely enough, they've turned up now in IE6 !
not sure wwhats going on though.

[pinbrook]

Now I'm getting sticky patches of 3-8 hours where page downloads fall back to 15-30 sec over same 2mb link. This is the same for both brochure and product pages.

Try and post the next time this happens to you, those who are online at the same time can then try to see it is happens to them too.

For me right now its very fast....

[RuralWeb]

Now I'm getting sticky patches of 3-8 hours where page downloads fall back to 15-30

Get hold of some server monitoring software - this will ping the server every few minutes and report back to you. This will tell you if the server is down/slow.