Trouble connecting to one site

[kanna]

Not sure where to post this as I'm not sure what the problem is.

There is one website which I am having trouble loading. I've never had a problem with the site until the start of this week. It usually loads in seconds but now it's rather slow. There is streaming audio on the site and the audio will only load the first few seconds and then stops loading that altogether.

I have tried to turn the cable modem off and on again but still nothing.

I've cleared cache and cookies and temp files.

I have tried in Firefox and Internet Explorer and neither will work. I tested it at work and the site is fine. My friends tested it from their computer and the site is working. No one else seems to have this issue except me.

I've tried on another computer at home, laptop, ipads, iphones but same problem for this 1 particular site. I guess this is because we all use the same wifi connection at home. It looks like it's my internet connection but every other site works fine.

I googled and read somewhere about changing DNS server settings or using proxies but I haven't got a clue what they are.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[davehc]

I reckon you will have to tell us what site it is. (Comcast?)

 

[TrainableMan]

Internet addresses are actually all a series of 4 numbers with each series being in the range of 0 to 255 What a DNS server does is convert the "words" we humans prefer into those numbers. It also has the advantage that when you change where a website is hosted you can keep the same "words" and simply tell the dns server the new #s. But with all those changes some servers don't update as quickly as others (most are updated within 24 hours).

Your ISP normally provides you with "their" DNS server but you can use any public DNS server. Google actually offers rather quick DNS servers at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. There are many videos on youtube on how to change your dns server to google dns.

Note: One thing I do not like, depending on the DNS server you choose, when you type in an incorrect/misspelled website, some forward you to a search engine rather than returning a "website not found".


Second possibility though unlikely, it might not be your DNS server at all, your router/firewall could be set up to block certain addresses.

A third but rather unlikely possibility (because you have tried several computers at home) ... there is a hosts file maintained on your computer. Basically the address you type is processed through your hosts file first and then only if it is not found will it forward it to the DNS server. The hosts file is commonly used by anti-virus products and tools like Spybot Search and Destroy because they use it to block certain known "dangerous" websites. But since you've tried several home computers it is unlikely your hosts file is causing your issues unless all of your home computers have that same entry.

If you tell us the site we can tell you the actual #s and you could try accessing that way instead of the words.

 

[kanna]

The site I am trying to access is 5sing.com. It's a chinese site where you can listen to music (yes, I like listening to music where I don't even understand what they're singing about ).

Here is an example of a page I'm trying to load http://bz.5sing.com/1437404.html
Previously the audio would load within seconds but now it's very slow. I left it for 30mins and it only loaded a few seconds and hasn't moved any further.

I just tried to access this site http://www.angell-studio.com/en/?product-2317.html (yes, I'm into dolls too ). It has no streaming audio but the images take forever to load. I go to this site often and never had a problem before. Previously these images would take seconds to load. It's been about 20minutes and the images are still not finished loading.


I'm starting to think it has something to do with the fact that the host sites are from China?

Youtube and Yahoo Japan and other sites load very fast. The above sites used to load fast too so I don't understand why all of a sudden it's so slow.

Is it worth me changing the DNS thing?

Thanks.

 

[TrainableMan]

Try typing http://122.225.105.59/ into your browser. Is it any different than using http://bz.5sing.com/ because with the numbers there would be no DNS service call to get there. Unfortunately webpages also tend to call their own site, as well as other ad sites etc and they would use words instead of numbers so all those calls do generate dns conversion requests.

I didn't have any trouble pulling up either of the sites from here in the USA. I think changing your DNS is worth trying. But some governments and some ISPs block or throttle certain websites for political reasons or to help control bandwidth; this could also affect your ability or speed of connection.

 

[kanna]

@ TrainableMan - I'll check the site using the numbers when I get home tonight.

I'm at work and have no issues loading the sites at all. Also, on my phone, I switched off wifi and used my 3G connection and it had no problems with the sites either. So I think it's just my home connection to sites from China that's really slow.

A friend suggested it may have something to do with the router?
I don't want to play with the router settings because i don't want to stuff it up as everything else is working fine.

 

[kanna]

Okay, I've tried accessing the site using the numbers and it's still slow.

I've changed the DNS settings and still slow.

Every other site is loading fast as anything but those two particular sites are causing me grief.

It's not my computer because every other computer connected to my home internet is having the same problems with these sites.

I am at a loss now. I don't know why this is happening now when a week ago it was fine.

 

[TrainableMan]

I ran the 5sing site through webpageanalyzer and these are the results:

Analysis and Recommendations

• TOTAL_HTML - Congratulations, the total number of HTML files on this page (including the main HTML file) is 1 which most browsers can multithread. Minimizing HTTP requests is key for web site optimization. Y
• TOTAL_OBJECTS - Caution. You have 13 total objects on this page. From 12 to 20 objects per page, the latency due to object overhead makes up from 75% to 80% of the delay of the average web page. See Figure II-3: Relative distribution of latency components showing that object overhead dominates web page latency in Website Optimization Secrets for more details. Consider reducing, eliminating, and combining external objects (graphics, CSS, JavaScript, iFrames and XHTML) to reduce the total number of objects, and thus separate HTTP requests. Consider using CSS sprites to help consolidate decorative images.
• TOTAL_IMAGES - Congratulations, the total number of images on this page is 2 . Most browsers can send multiple requests, which can speed display of multiple images.
• TOTAL_CSS - Congratulations, the total number of external CSS files on this page is 1 . Because external CSS files must be in the HEAD of your HTML document, they must load first before any BODY content displays. Although they are cached, CSS files slow down the initial display of your page. Remember to place CSS files in the HEAD and JavaScript files at the end of the BODY to enable progressive display.
• TOTAL_SIZE - Warning! The total size of this page is 210466 bytes, which will load in 44.55 seconds on a 56Kbps modem. Consider reducing total page size to less than 100K to achieve sub 20 second response times on 56K connections. Pages over 100K exceed most attention thresholds at 56Kbps, even with feedback. Consider optimizing your site with Website Optimization Secrets, Speed Up Your Site or contacting us about our optimization services.
• TOTAL_SCRIPT - Warning! The total number of external script files on this page is 9 , consider reducing this to a more reasonable number. Combine, refactor, and minify to optimize your JavaScript files. Ideally you should have one (or even embed scripts for high-traffic pages) on your pages. Consider suturing JavaScript files together at the server to minimize HTTP requests. Placing external JavaScript files at the bottom of your BODY, and CSS files in the HEAD enables progressive display in XHTML web pages.
• HTML_SIZE - Congratulations, the total size of this HTML file is 5155 bytes, which less than 50K. Assuming that you specify the HEIGHT and WIDTH of your images, this size allows your HTML to display content in under 10 seconds, the average time users are willing to wait for a page to display without feedback.
• IMAGES_SIZE - Congratulations, the total size of all your images is 31302 bytes, which is less than 50K. Even with a 50K HTML page this page should load in less than 20 seconds on a 56Kbps connection. Ideally each image should be less than 1160 bytes, to easily fit into one TCP-IP packet.
• SCRIPT_SIZE - Warning! The total size of external your scripts is 173737 bytes, which is over 20K. Consider optimizing your JavaScript for size, combining them, and using HTTP compression where appropriate for any scripts placed in the HEAD of your documents. You can substitute CSS menus for JavaScript-based menus to minimize or even eliminate the use of JavaScript.
• CSS_SIZE - Congratulations, the total size of your external CSS is 272 bytes, which is less than 8K.
• MULTIM_SIZE - Congratulations, the total size of all your external multimedia files is 0 bytes, which is less than 10K.

So it is a pretty large webpage with lots of scripts. But it's still quite possible your ISP throttles information from certain sites, like ones in China. You could call them and ask if they might know why.

 

[kanna]

I've been using those site for the past few months with no porblems so I don't understand why it's happening now. Guess I'll have to call my ISP tomorrow and see what they say. I have a feeling that they'll say nothing is wrong because every other site is working fine.