Customers commenting that new site is slow...

[Legends]

Hi George

Your site does seem a little faster this morning, but it is still quite slow when using the left hand menus and also slow moving in and out of the cart and checkout areas (these use scripts too).

It seem that when Actinic uses scripts it slows down the page loads on your site.

Is there any software that can be installed by the host that can improve this? I only ask because my new host seems much faster than my old hosts when moving in and out of the cart and chechout.

I appreciate comments, as it looks like I'm not the only person with this problem. A request for a walk through on how to create the lh box without the `nologin` links might also be pending.

I will go along with George on this, anything to speed up my site would be useful.

Cheers

[Kev@Flexi.Net]

Hi George,

Just checked your football haven site here and I'm seeing delays of 30-40 seconds or so after clicking a link, once the initial page has loaded the rest of the graphics etc seem to load quickly.

I'm on 2Mb connection here, and I use a 512Kb or 1Mb connection at home so have got used to pages loading in 5 seconds or less and would normally have given up waiting. With the advance of broadband takeup having a fast server is getting more and more important as peoples perceptions of speed and their patience change to match the speed of their connection.

Kev

[george]

Latest update.

Phoned Claranet today. Was advised last week by Actinic support to check that Clara had the latest version of ActEncrypt installed (v1.1.2) which would possibly improve the script timings. First guy I spoke to did not think there was a problem with my site so wouldn't go further with it.Second phone call the `support person` understood what I meant with the Actinic issue but, even after consulting with his supervisor, said that there were Actinic scripts running on their servers so they `must be alright`. I explained would it be possible for somebody to look into the possibility that there has been a Actinic script upgrade, and can you check it is the latest one that is running? He then went on to state that it was my problem not Clara's.

Surely Clara's quality cannot deteriorate so much in a couple of weeks?

Okay. Then spoke to Actinic support who are getting the development team to have a look at the issue. No reponse so far but I'll keep news posted if it helps others.

Now. At the moment I have the choice to be patient, or go back to V6 with my original layout (not near so good, but it worked!)...or?

Visitors. Since upgrading to V7 with this Smart Theme the number of our site visitors have virtually halved. Maybe there's something in this that Google does not like either.

I'm starting to get a bit stressed with this situation, I am spending a lot of time on this without really getting much further forward. If there is a bright side, I said if, its that we will hopefully find a solution to the problem for future use.

[Bob Isaac]

Latest update.

Visitors. Since upgrading to V7 with this Smart Theme the number of our site visitors have virtually halved. Maybe there's something Google does not like either.

What about a 'standard' HTML HomePage that leads to your shop site. If Google doesn't like something in the new theme then you can put all the info you want Google to find on that Homepage.

[george]

Will possibly have to do that Bob...annoying though, I kind of expect that from my "homepage".

[Highlander]

Problem resolution

Ok guys...

So Claranet gets a big zero out of 10 for customer service. I plan to move as soon as possible.

Before doing so it is important to resolve exactly what the issues are.

To my mind there are three major areas:

1 Claranet
2 Scripts
3 Actinic v6/7

To resolve the first generate a portable page. We load and time this page on various Claranet platforms. We also get non Claranet users to test on theirs.
This should give us some useful bench marks.

Then we generate some pages without scripts and repeat the exercise. This should resolve the script issue and firm up not only how big a problem this is but how much is down to our friends at Claranet.

Finally generate a simple page in 6 and 7.

Any takers?

Regards,

Niall

[george]

Surely as "Partners" of Actinic, Clara have to be able to run the software as good as if not better than most.

Is it a major job to get these lh links hardcoded, removing the script operation as this could be what google does not like?


Incidentally my first post on this `situation` was made on the 8th July, eleven days ago. Just thought I'd mention that.

[Darren B]

If your thinking of moving, have a look at pinbrook, jo is an active member on this forum and im sure she could set you up a test area for you to play with

i moved last year after a few problems with internetters and everything has been good, a couple of problems with ftp but that is more down to broadband, network traffic and the much documented actinic problems, which are being fixed as we speak.

also you'll find Jo is more than helpful if you get stuck they are always willing to have a look.

Cheers
Darren

[Legends]

Incidentally my first post on this `situation` was made on the 8th July, eleven days ago. Just thought I'd mention that.

George makes a valid point here, some of us using this smart theme and version 7 seem to be suffering slower speeds, reduced visits and maybe problems with google. Has Actinic nothing to add to this discussion!

I would go back to version 6 if I could but that option is not available to me now as when I upgraded to 7 I also upgraded from catalog to developer.

Come on Actinic, join the party!

[taliesyn]

Latest update.

Phoned Claranet today. Was advised last week by Actinic support to check that Clara had the latest version of ActEncrypt installed (v1.1.2) which would possibly improve the script timings. First guy I spoke to did not think there was a problem with my site so wouldn't go further with it.Second phone call the `support person` understood what I meant with the Actinic issue but, even after consulting with his supervisor, said that there were Actinic scripts running on their servers so they `must be alright`. I explained would it be possible for somebody to look into the possibility that there has been a Actinic script upgrade, and can you check it is the latest one that is running? He then went on to state that it was my problem not Clara's.

Surely Clara's quality cannot deteriorate so much in a couple of weeks?

Okay. Then spoke to Actinic support who are getting the development team to have a look at the issue. No reponse so far but I'll keep news posted if it helps others.

Now. At the moment I have the choice to be patient, or go back to V6 with my original layout (not near so good, but it worked!)...or?

Visitors. Since upgrading to V7 with this Smart Theme the number of our site visitors have virtually halved. Maybe there's something in this that Google does not like either.

I'm starting to get a bit stressed with this situation, I am spending a lot of time on this without really getting much further forward. If there is a bright side, I said if, its that we will hopefully find a solution to the problem for future use.

Well Clara's e-mail servers have become absolutely useless. We have one small site hosted on there, and trying to get the e-mails from their servers is a complete nightmare. So if that's any indication of a deterioration in quality, then I agree with you. We never used to have any problems with them.

[george]

Nearly 700 page views, 39 replies but none from Actinic. (No offence meant to anyone thats taken the time to reply).

Is there anything I can do here? Or is it my problem?

Losing faith fast.

[Legends]

Nearly 700 page views, 39 replies but none from Actinic. (No offence meant to anyone thats taken the time to reply).

Is there anything I can do here? Or is it my problem?

Losing faith fast.

Hi George

Don't loose faith mate, just keep at it, surely sooner or later Actinic will put in their 2p worth.

After all they have a few disgruntled users who are going round in circles wasting time and putting pressure on hosts, but without any official recognition of the problem from Actinic we still don't know if there is anything hosts can do about it.

All I want is for Actinic to look at the problem and confirm that it is the theme, the version or the hosting that is causing the speed problem, at least then we will have something to go at.

If any one from Actinic is looking at this can you at least aknowledge that you are investigating the problem and when you might be able to answer our concerns.

Sorry to be so direct, but there are one or two very frustrated users at the moment.

[Nadeem]

Hi Ian

We have been speaking to George regarding this issue on the telephone. Myself and Tracey are working on this issue and also have requested a snapshot from George, so we can investigate:

1. We are proposing to upload to a test server
2. Getting development to check the SMART Theme
3. Seeing if the javascript on the left hand side is causing the drop in google rank?

Kind Regards

[Legends]

Thanks Nadeem

Please let us know if there are any short term measures we can take to improve the situation, it is good to know you are looking in to it.

In the mean time are any other users using other themes that are performing well? I may just switch themes untill the SMART theme as been looked at.

Thanks for all your input.

Cheers

[Nadeem]

Hi Ian

To be honest, George issue is the only one i have heard on the phone. What i want to do, is to upload Football Heaven to a test server and pass the snapshot over to the developers for a investigation into the Smart Theme.

I will post on this thread if a short term fix becomes available.

Kind Regards