Boldchat impacting page load time???

[paulbeckett]

Hi

We currently have a v7 site which contains "Boldchat" live messenger code.

On occassions our pages can take some time to load, even on the fastest computer with fastest Broadband connection (e.g. 20mg +).

We have checked with out web hosts and our dedicated servers are not being stretched.

Therefore it has been a mystery as to why we are having the performance issues.

However we are currently upgrading to v9 and the new site (in dev) currently has the code for Boldchat and the page slow despite the fact it is pretty much an empty site with no users on. We think it might be Boldchat code slowing down our page loads. I tend to agree with his theory but would like to do a bit more research before I drop the useful functionality.

• Has anyone else come across performance issues in using Boldchat?
• Is there any way of really testing this theory and getting some stats?
• How do people find the page load on www.kjbeckett.com?

I have a feeling I may need to just drop the idea of live messenger services if they do really slow down the site that much.

Paul

[Darren B]

Probably because its an external hosted chat session, i mentioned the other day about relying on these sorts of things being hosted by someone else, unfortunately you relying on there servers and the connection be 100%

However your site seems fine to me, maybe when your online it maybe different?

[acompton]

Load time is ok for me.

[pinbrook]

if you can place the code to load boldchat at the bottom of the page, thus allowing the rest of the page to load before it starts with boldchat

[paulbeckett]

Hi Jo / all

Thanks for your input!

One the new (development) site we have put the code at the end of the page but it is still having issues.

Considering the current server is dedicated and not being hammered and we are still having some performance issues (every so often) I think it must be the Boldchat code.

Is there anyway of monitoring the page load of this specific part?

Darren, I agree, I don't like the idea of relying on this external party. We can beef up our servers to the max and they could still be the weak link in our chain. I am really considering dropping this live messenger service but it is useful.

Paul

[Darren B]

Paul go for your own hosted live chat service, at the end of the day you control it. If your site is down then it makes no difference if the live chat is hosted elsewere as people cant get to it, yet if the live chat go's down then it reflects on you.

There are a number of paid for options with all the benifits of page tracking e.t.c that you can install yourself.

Currently we are testing an open source simple live chat to see if there is an advanage to installing a paid for solution with all the bells and whistles

[paulbeckett]

Darren

Great suggestion. I didn't realise that it would be possible to host something like this myself.

I will have a search on Google and look at the options available.

Any recommendations from anybody based on experience?

Paul

[paulbeckett]

We have now totally removed Boldchat from our current site and we are sure that it has made significant improvements to the page speed.

From my broadband line, the page load seems to be instant despite have quite a few images on page.

Even though the Boldchat code was at the very end of the page it was clearly still impacting performance of the site.

Paul