Pages load ridiculously slow for some IE users

Poster: silknet01
Dated: Monday March 6 2006 - 22:43:41 GMT

I'm scratching my head on this one.

I've recently upgraded from 5.04 to the latest version of the Milonic Menu system.

As soon as I did this I got calls/email from some users about the site suddenly being really slow. I can't replicate the problem at my end.

I did some testing, and as soon as I send them to a similar page without the Milonic menu or a page with the old 5.04 menu all is well. The probably is clearly the menu.

To be fair, I did test the roblem with another popular DHTML menu system. The same slow results.

The users complaining all have IE6. I've had them visit http://www.cyscape.com/showbrow.aspx so I have a snapshot of their browser settings. I don't see anything unusual except for an older version of Java. They can't seem to download a newer version of Java.

Any suggestions as to where else I ought to look?

David

Poster: Migru
Dated: Tuesday March 7 2006 - 0:33:11 GMT

Hi

can´t you provide a url of that "slow" page ?

Michael

Poster: silknet01
Dated: Tuesday March 7 2006 - 2:24:27 GMT

http://www.castanet.net/slowmenutest.html

That likely won't help as it only appears in some versions of IE and I have been unable to replicated the problem on my own PCs. However, I've had enough calls and emails to know it's a real problem.

I have a user at my disposal who has been very useful with pinpointing the problem specifically to the menu.

David

Poster: vikenk
Dated: Tuesday March 7 2006 - 2:43:30 GMT

Hi,

Just to clarify: Is it the menu only that's loading slow, or the whole site is loading slow?

For what it's worth, it loaded up quick for me on my hi-speed connection. I have IE6/XP-SP2.

Poster: Migru
Dated: Tuesday March 7 2006 - 7:26:19 GMT

Hi

it is always better to report ALL conditions and circumstances, which could be responsible for your "slow motion" .
- op system
- browser version
- menu version
- type of connection
and of course don´t forget, these are not the only ones which could cause a PC or network "going slow".
You can trace bugs only, if you can reproduce / replicate the problem.
There was a user recently who had "combined" two different milonic files versions in his computer, both not the latest, but had reported that he had downloaded the latest versions. (Maybe he had, but forgot to install....)

The castanet page loads pretty quick here this morning. Nothing unusual.

Michael

Poster: Migru
Dated: Tuesday March 7 2006 - 7:39:49 GMT

Hi David,



had a look at your slow page and I´m not really astonished.
The menu is in a td cell, but was implemented not following instructions given here:

http://www.milonic.com/tablemenu.php


I´ve tested the page not only with FF as I´ve done before but in fact, there might be a problem with IE.

that is why



has to be considered rather relatively.


Michael

Poster: Andy
Dated: Tuesday March 7 2006 - 11:29:29 GMT

hi,

For testing purposes, can you please create a copy of slowmenutest.html that has some changes to the menu code tags.

What I need is for you to add http://www.milonic.dev/ to the script tags. Don't worry if you cannot see milonic.dev, it's only on our internal network but I need it to test the menu.

The trouble is I cannot test the menu properly because when I pull a copy of your site down, the menu loads instantly, I only see the problem on your server and I'd like to get to the bottom of this.


Here is what I need:




Cheers,
Andy

Poster: silknet01
Dated: Tuesday March 7 2006 - 17:21:50 GMT



Thanks.

I am told by affected users that the entire page loads slowly. When I remove the menu from the page and have them visit the same page, they say that the page loads quickly.

I've tried this same test with another popular DHTML menu program with affected users and they report the same results.

I wonder if it might be a java issue on the affected browser? Here's a snap shot of an affected user's browser:

Your browser: IE 6.0 (WinXP) | Screen: 1280 x 1024 |
Flash: 8 | Cookies: Enabled [more]
Browser type and version
Browser IE
Fullversion 6.0
ServicePack ;SP2;
BrowserBuild 6,0,2900,2180
Gecko False
GeckoBuildDate
Version 6
Majorver 6
Minorver 0
ContainerBrowser
ContainerVersion 0
ContainerFullversion
Crawler False


Browser security
SessionCookies True
PersistentCookies True
JavaScriptEnabled True
VBScriptEnabled True
JavaEnabled Enabled
ActiveXEnabled True
SSL True
SSLActive False
SSLKeySize 128 bits
SSLEnabled True
Firewall False
OpenPorts 80, 1755, 554 are open ports
PopupsBlocked Not tested
ImagesEnabled True
HighSecurity False



Display and Layout
Width 1280
WidthAvail 1050
Height 1024
HeightAvail 827
StyleSheets True
PNG True
FontSmoothing True
FontColor True
FontSize True
FontsInstalled arial, verdana, times,
helvetica are installed fonts
TextSize Medium
Tables True
TableBGColor True
TableBGImage True
ColorDepth 16.77 Million Colors (32-bit
True Color)
Frames True
IFrames True
DisplayXDPIActual 96 DPI
DisplayYDPIActual 96 DPI
DisplayXDPILogical 96 DPI
DisplayYDPILogical 96 DPI


Plug-in Information
Plugin_Flash Version 8 (Version 8,0,22,0)
Plugin_FlashVerEx 8,0,22,0
Plugin_Director Installed (Version
8.5.1r102)
Plugin_DirectorVerEx 8.5.1r102
Plugin_QuickTime Installed (Version 7.0.4)
Plugin_QuickTimeVerEx 7.0.4
Plugin_Acrobat Installed (Version 7.0.7)
Plugin_AcrobatVerEx 7.0.7
Plugin_RealPlayer Not installed
Plugin_RealPlayerBuild
Plugin_MediaPlayer Installed (Version
10.0.0.3990)
Plugin_MediaPlayerVerEx 10.0.0.3990
Plugin_JavaVer Not installed
Plugin_iPIXViewer Not installed
Plugin_SVGViewer Not installed
Plugin_CrystalReports Not installed
Plugin_Viewpoint Not installed
Plugin_Authorware Not installed
Plugin_Mapguide Not installed
Plugin_Citrix Not installed
Plugin_Custom Not installed



Connection details
Broadband True
ConnectionSpeed Not detectable due to an invalid reading. This typically occurs when testing over a local network connection. Speed detection is meant only for determining speeds around T3 and slower.
ConnectionType lan
IPAddr 24.70.212.111
Country CA
Firewall False
OpenPorts 80, 1755, 554 are open ports
Proxy False
ProxyString
Referrer
CompressGZip True
AOL False
AOLVersion 0
MSN False


System Details
Platform WinXP
OSName OSName N/A (applet not scriptable)
OSVersion OSVersion N/A (applet not
scriptable)
OSArch OSArch N/A (applet not scriptable)
NETCLRInstalled True
NETCLRVersion 1.1.4322
WinInstallerMinVer 2
NetMeetingBuild 4,4,0,3400


Java Information
JavaApplets True
JavaVersion Java N/A (applet not
scriptable)
JavaVendor Java N/A (applet not scriptable)
MSJVMBuild Not installed
Plugin_JavaVer Not installed
JavaEnabled Enabled

Scripting Capabilities
ActiveXControls True
ActiveXEnabled True
JavaScript True
JavaScriptEnabled True
JavaScriptVer 1.3
JavaScriptBuild 5.6.8820
VBScript True
VBScriptEnabled True
VBScriptBuild 5.6.8820
XML True
MSXML Version 4
XMLHttpRequest True
DHTML True
FileUpload Yes

Results from BrowserHawk 9.0.1.4 Enterprise
Edition
Browser definitions: Version 9.00, 11/8/2005
8:03:40 PM

Poster: Migru
Dated: Tuesday March 7 2006 - 17:26:00 GMT

Nevertheless, the menu is wrong implemented


had a look at your slow page and I´m not really astonished.
The menu is in a td cell, but was implemented not following instructions given here:

http://www.milonic.com/tablemenu.php

You´re completely ignoring this. The menu as such has to be in the head section or as recommended just after the body tag. And the main menu only has to be embedded in the table. You have the entire menu in the table.

Michael

Poster: silknet01
Dated: Tuesday March 7 2006 - 17:35:00 GMT



Thanks for the suggestion.

I've recoded http://www.castanet.net/slowmenutest.html to make the call absolute as per the proper specs from Milonic.

I was aware that I hadn't properly implemented the relative call, but I had a cosmetic issue with the menu occasionally showing up before the rest of the site. The fix was to call the menu script later in the page, almost anywhere, rather than in <head>. The cell seemed to be a convenient place to do it to remember where it was.

Thanks.

David

Poster: silknet01
Dated: Tuesday March 7 2006 - 17:37:58 GMT



Thanks for looking at this Andy. It's greatly appreciated.

I've created the revised document at http://www.castanet.net/slowmenutest2.html

I've also moved the call to the actual menu script back to the header of the document.

David

Poster: Migru
Dated: Tuesday March 7 2006 - 17:49:12 GMT

Hi

the index / start page loads extremely quick, as it is now and with the local setup here. It looks as if the menu loads first and then the rest. Clicking on any submenu starts loading pages, I must say fairly slow, the menu always loads quick.
( http://www.castanet.net/slowmenutest.html )

Your version 2,
http://www.castanet.net/slowmenutest2.html
does not show the menu. (is this due to testing environment?)


Michael

Poster: Andy
Dated: Wednesday March 8 2006 - 13:59:09 GMT

What kind of a delay are your users seeing?

I only see about 1 second and this, to me is perfectly acceptable. I also cannot reproduct the problem of long loading menus so at a bit of a loss with this one.

Poster: John
Dated: Wednesday March 8 2006 - 14:06:41 GMT

Using http://www.castanet.net/slowmenutest.html I see no delay at all. The menu and complete page pop up immediately.

Poster: Migru
Dated: Wednesday March 8 2006 - 14:40:10 GMT

Hi

in fact, the pages are loading quick. My observations on some slower parts were made due to local traffic, it seems.

Michael

Poster: silknet01
Dated: Wednesday March 8 2006 - 16:43:43 GMT



Thanks for looking at this guys. I really appreciate it.

I get the same results that you guys do. A short one second delay then the page comes up. I can't seem to replicate it either, yet I do have several users complain about it so I don't think I'm chasing my tail on it.

The affected users complain that the page takes 20-30 seconds to load. A page without the menu takes just 1 second to load. They are on high speed connections and say my page with the menu is the only page affected.

I'm thinking maybe it is a Java issue with the browser? Maybe I should get into this guys machine, clean up the Java, reinstall and see what happens?

Poster: John
Dated: Wednesday March 8 2006 - 16:50:05 GMT


Definitely sounds like a good place to start. I'm running Version 1.5.0 (build 1.5.0_06-b05).