[Next_rim]

This is specifically addressed to admins, but maybe some other users can support my observations.

I've stumbled across sc2sea some 2 weeks ago, since it is probably the only forum my workplace IT people don't block. Nice website, cool content, cool people and everything.

However...

In week 1, starting may 10th and up to may 13th, the site consumed 420 Mbs of traffic. This might not be that much in the modern world, but other websites (like WSJ) only consumed 3-4 during same time span. In fact, last week 80% of my traffic was sc2sea. The pattern of usage is the same. I'm a messy and disorganized person, and I always have over 20 different pages opened, even if I'm not browsing the web anywhere close atm. sc2sea gets refreshed much more often, pages load 999 times slower than other websites, and in general the web structure seems to be heavier.

I just came back from lunch and forgot to close sc2sea. In 40 mins the site consumed 70 Mbs of traffic.

I smell either website inefficiency, or some freaky config on my side. Some help?

Browser: Mozilla Firefox 2.0.200, no add-ons
OS: Windows XP SP2
Hardware: Intel Core 2Duo E7500, other specifications are unknown to me (workplace computer)
Type of connection: I assume my company has a high-speed corporate plan from an ISP. It's also a commercial bank, with insane security and firewalls. Go figure.

[HDPhoenix]

I suspect its the constantly updating chat box to be the issue?

[Next_rim]

HDPhoenix,

I thought so too until today, when the sc2page I had opened was a forum page with no chat in sight.

[nirvAnA]

hmm i have no idea why that is the case, but if it truly took 420mb in 3 days from everyone then the site will be long dead, we cant support that much traffic.

would like to hear what other pple say. only thing that gets refresh while on the site is the chatbox but that should hardly take up any bandwidth.

[Aean(:]

How do you know how much traffic sc2sea.com is consuming? curiousity.

[Next_rim]

Aean(:,

I ran out of traffic on May 13th, so I requested a report from our IT department. They gave me details on my traffic use. sc2sea was domain #1.

Nirvana,

Apparently, the chatbox is eating much more than intended, at least on my config.

Here, I ran some tests with bandwidth monitor.

1) I closed firefox and waited for bandwidth to clear
2) I opened scsea blog post
3) I waited for few seconds and opened WSJ homepage. It finished loading, then i closed it.
4) I then opened google homepage just to see what happens.
5) I took a traffic spike for no reason. As if sc2sea 100% reloaded on me
6) After google, I opened the Economist homepage to see the scale.

[Makra]

Wow, are you really in Russia? Would that have anything to do with it?

[Next_rim]

Makra,

It gets even better ) Right now I live and work in Almaty, Kazakhstan. And yes, i'm considering a possibility that distance has something to do with this.

I'm thinking about running more traffic tests when I get home tonight, to see if it is specifically my office setup that is causing trouble.

[Starcraftmazter]

Run the website on a specific browser that you use for nothing else, and run a netstat on it. Alternatively, do some sort of packet inspection if your router allows it (things like frequency and number of packets).

It's possible that videos embedded on the site get preloaded or something of that sort (although I dont believe youtube works this way by default?). Try and disabling all multimedia (again, on some separate browser just for testing purposes).

The chatbox should not be responsible for any serious bandwidth. It's basically like IRC but even less bandwidth, which is basically nothing.

I know that international bandwidth in Russia (and I presume surrounding countries) comes at a high premium. I can imagine a scenario where traffic which comes through some series of routes is counted at some multiplier of it's quantity - but in reality I don't think this can be the case, because I've never heard of this happening.

[Dox]

My tablet comes with bandwidth monitoring as part of the Sierra broadband module. I'll leave it connected at work tomorrow and run some similar tests.

[ToRXypha]

i do notice incredibly long loads when i load the page or refresh, im in adelaide australia and the connection here has huge bandwidth, believe its the best you can get here, while other pages are instant load sc2sea does take nearly a full minute to load the homepage

[noobinater]

Possibly unrelated but ever since I've come here I've noticed the pages refresh themselves (previously opened tabs in firefox highlight red for unopened) for no reason. Perhaps it's to do with the livestream list or vent details refreshing from time to time?

[Next_rim]

Well, I got same picture from my home computer.

Browser: Firefox 4.0.??? (don't remember, the latest patch anyway)
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
Hardware: i5 2400-k, Zotac GTX-470, Asus MB.
ISP: Comes with Cable TV package. I guess you would call it cable internet? 1024 mb channel with a router, shared between 2 laptops and a PC.

I think sc2sea just refreshes too much. Unlike other websites, where only some particular element is refreshed (like a feed banner), sc2sea reloads 100% of the content.

[xpaperclip]

A problem might be the Quick Find Player List which is huge and gets loaded on every page. This is an issue on iOS Safari especially, because it also doesn't tuck into a little box so you get a massively long page.

Edit: Also, a huge amount of CSS is actually in the page itself as opposed to in a separate cachable file.

[nirvAnA]

yea i could disable the qfplayer list so it only shows on the home page. could also change it over the weekend so the intial list isnt displayed.

thanks for the feedback guys, will look over these over the weekend, yea coudl defeintly recorganise the css. waiting on dox;s report!

please keep the feedback coming!