Ain't us.
Its not the TDR server. Even during PEAK times, when 200-300 pages are being served at once (TDR and the other site here), the server load is less than 20%. There are two 640 megabit pipelines in the facilty, numerous T3s and dozens of T1s.
Its not the server and I don't blame it on phone lines (don't think I ever have). I do, however, often point to bad routers. There are millions of routers on the Internet, anyone of them could be the problem. If you don't know how to do a traceroute, call your provider and ask them to walk you through the procedure. I guarantee you'll find a router either dropping packets or with very slow ping times. The reasoning "well, every other site is fast" may seem like a logical explanation, but its not because of the way the Internet works. Just because you visit other sites fast means you're not hitting the router causing the problems.
As to having to shut down the browser, its usually due to memory problems or DLL conflicts. Load up enough embedded table pages (such as the TDR forum pages) and these bugs rear their ugly heads.
When TDR is slow, you'll get "server busy" messages, not slow browsing. There have been very few server busy messages since we upgraded the server in July --- and then only when we're doing intense reports or reindexing on the database.
This server can handle any traffic the users dish out --- its a dual 1 gigahertz Pentium III system with 1 gigabyte of RAM and 2 36 gigabyte Ultra-wide SCSI hard-drives... . FAST.
The problem with slowdown problems is users rarely ask their providers to help track the problem down (which would help us immensely because if it were us, we'd have a traceroute to nail the problem down). Instead, users just point a finger at the most conveniant source of blame ---- us. I guess this is natural, because providers never inform the user theres such thing as a bad router.
Ken
TDR Admin