Site slow down of late?

[Shawnski]

Hi guys,

I am noticing that on both my computers the site is quite a bit slower lately (like preserver slow), and sometimes (one in four or five page changes) I am getting a message that the site is trying to install an ActiveX control. IE6 on one machine IE7 on another.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[Azure]

Its slow for me too on Firefox.

[Dion]

I've had a few instances today where it took close to minute for a page to load.

[photon]

Hm weird.. Sometimes it might be because of the ad servers, if their servers are slow then it could cause the whole page to be slow, but I haven't noticed anything (though I use firefox and I think the ad servers could be slow and it'll still display everything else right away).

There are also maintenance things the board does every so often (once an hour, every few hours, once a day, etc) but that shouldn't even be noticeable really.

And it shouldn't be installing any ActiveX control, unless it's a new version of flash or something. I haven't seen that at all after a bit of testing with IE.. does it give any details as to what it's trying to install?

[Shawnski]

The warnings I get on both machines as of the last few days or so are:

"Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page. As a result, the page may not display correctly." IE6 machine.

"Your security settings do not allow websites to use ActiveX controls installed on your computer. This page may not display correctly." IE7 machine.

The IE6 unit is my surfing machine. Have checked with latest versions of Spybot and AdAware, no problems found. I rarely surf with the IE7 unit, as it is my work/gaming rig. Want to keep it clean! Odd that both are having the same problem suddenly.

[rbochan]

Originally Posted by Shawnski

The warnings I get on both machines as of the last few days or so are:

"Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page. As a result, the page may not display correctly." IE6 machine.

"Your security settings do not allow websites to use ActiveX controls installed on your computer. This page may not display correctly." IE7 machine...

Just what does this site need to use ActiveX for? I'd suspect it's the ads, and if so, they're up to no good.

[photon]

I kind of doubt it's the ads either unless something's changed with the ad company, ads are one thing but ads that install spyware are another. Is there a common ad it appears on?

I can't recall how installing the activex stuff works, I think you can start the install and it'll identify where it's coming from and more info about it and then decline it, that info would be useful (though I'm not positive that's how it works, so if you don't want to risk it I understand).

The other things on the page are google analytics and I doubt it's that, the weather thing which is flash, and the only other thing is the frappr icon.

I wish I could recreate it here so I could figure out what's causing it at least.

[photon]

Actually I went into IE7 and disabled the Shockwave Flash Object ActiveX control (Flash9e.ocx) and a few of the ads stopped working, and IE7 gave me a message saying that one of the objects on the page requested an add-on that had been disabled, so it's the flash activex control that it's requesting. It's probably looking for a newer version of flash than the one you have installed.

So you should be ok in installing that, it should get flash directly from adobe/macromedia.

[FanIn80]

Adobe just released a Flash update last week. Knowing how Adobe operates with it's other software, it wouldn't be surprising to learn there is a process in Flash that checks for a new version every time it loads.

If that's the case, then it's probably trying to display a Flashed ad here and being told to install the new version which is causing the ActiveX warnings.

[photon]

Either that or the ad provider set the version number to the most current one.. which they may do if Adobe paid them to do it

[Pagal4321]

I've been getting slowdowns ALOT at work lately. Might be because of the ad's, but the only thing that shows up is the CP banner at the top, then it stops loading.

[Shawnski]

Updating to the latest Flash player didn't alleviate anything. Got the same message on the IE6 machine. Actually got another one too.

"This page provides potentially unsafe information to an ActiveX control. Your current security settings prohibit running controls in this manner. As a result, this page may not display properly."

Something has definitely changed here in the last week. 90% of page changes take longer than Locke to self satisfy himself (even while thinking of Aeneas). That is a sad thought on its own right. In either case, it is a minute or more.

And just out of curiousity, is the site not able to be pinged? I tried to ping the main site and the forum link. Both timed out repeatedly.

Thanks for any help you might have Pho!

[photon]

Yeah the firewall blocks pings I believe.

Sounds like the browsers are setup to not run activex controls or block something going to the activex control.

Nothing's changed site code wise for quite a while.

For the activex, I'm not sure what else I could suggest other than changing the settings so it lets the activex control run, or disabling the warning somehow so you don't see it.

For the site speed you could try it in firefox just to see if it's a browser issue or an internet issue, but I'm not seeing it at all in either browser.

[Shawnski]

OK, as to the speed issue (which coincided with the ActiveX issue), rebooting my modem addressed it.

On the ActiveX issue, it is without question the caselmedia site that is causing the problem. The counts of the errors I get always match the number of caselmedia ads (top and to the right) that are trying to be posted. i.e. if two burstnet ads come up, no problem. if one burstnet and one caselmedia ads come up, I get one error. If TWO caselmedia ads come up, I get two errors.

Have watched this for a week now. No question in my mind. I trust caselmedia as much as a leaky condom.

Just an FYI from my side Pho.

[photon]

Not much we can do about it then, I would say that the control is the flash player wanting to install and/or update and I don't think installing it should be a big issue.

I've never heard of an instance of casalemedia actually trying to install spyware, the worst they do is put a cookie.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Every time I change pages here my Spybot blocks the caselmedia url, saying it's known as a malicious resource.

Kind of annoying. If it truly is safe, then what can I do about this, short of uninstalling my Spybot?

[photon]

There might be a whitelist you can set in spybot.. or a setting that will silence the warning so that it doesn't alert you each time.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Yeah, it was setting. Thanks pho.