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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Microchip Direct website speed?
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9078 |
Is anyone else having sluggish speed from the MCD website? Everything works OK, but it just takes ages - like it is on a dial-up modem or something! 
Searching for parts, signing in, adding to cart, and purchase - all of these steps DO complete, but they take ages for each one. Is it just me, or is anyone else seeing this too? I sent a report to MC about this, but they suggested I try IE, which I simply hate the guts out of, but I might do that for the purposes of testing. I have tried Opera(my main browser) and Chrome - both are just as sluggish with the MCD website, but every other site on the planet is just fine, so - I don't know..... Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| hitsware Guru  Joined: 23/11/2012 Location: United StatesPosts: 535 |
Seems to snap right along for me. I.E. though .... Came on my new 8.1 BingBox so I went with it. I'll have to say that after my years of alternate browsers with Linux I.E. works best of all in one important (to me (and not to change the subject)) area ..... YouTubes. If MC suggests it perhaps they have good reason ? |
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BobD Guru Joined: 07/12/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 935 |
I just gave it a bit of a hammering with 8 windows open and a bit of searching. It was sluggish in parts but OK with most of it. Probably doing an inventory database update but they wouldn't say so even if the phone jockeys knew. BTW, IE11 works better than Chrome. The UI is a handicap for Chrome. Google could fix it but won't. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9078 |
Thanks guys, I will have a look with another browser. Every time I visit MCD, it is ALWAYS slow, no matter when I order, which was starting to make me wonder if it is something here causing that, and it would seem that others here are not having that issue. Lets see....I have IE....what version.....(checking)...... ....11 It is set to auto-update, so I guess this is the current one. ...checking MCD website with IE 11.... It's even WORSE! 
When I go to the MCD site, and type in something like PIC32MX470F512H, it gives me two choices, I click on one of them, and there is about 20 seconds of "Busy" icon movement on that tab, then the page just stays where it is - it does not even show me the page for the PIC32 in question. The same thing happens if I click on the PIC32 Microcontroller menu option on the left - thinky-think, then the page just stay at the home page. Opera and Chrome at least take me where I want to be, but it is slow. Interesting issue. 
I will try Firefox.... EDIT: Firefox works just like Opera or Chrome - slow, slow, slow, but it does give me the pages. Each request takes an average of 20 seconds per page, and page loading is like in the days of dial-up too - very slow, and you can see each and every image and box being drawn one at a time - strange. I am running fully up to date anti-virus, and a quick scan shows no problems to report. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| hitsware Guru Joined: 23/11/2012 Location: United StatesPosts: 535 |
> I am running fully up to date anti-virus For an experiment you might turn all that off ............. |
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TassyJim Guru Joined: 07/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5923 |
Using Firefox From the main page microchip.com (not the store) Searching for PIC32MX470F512H took about 2 seconds Using the menu for 32bit Micros was slower - abut 4-5 seconds for a full load. From the store (microchipdirect.com) Searching for PIC32MX470F512H took about 7 seconds Using the menu for 32bit Micros was about the same. Jim VK7JH MMedit MMBasic Help |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9078 |
Good point. Will try that now..... Nope, no help. Oh well - I'll keep an eye on this one, but don't care really. All the other sites on the net are fine speed wise, it is just MCD. It is pointing towards something here being the cause, if everyone else seems to get OK response times from MCD, so I will just put up with it. I don't order from MCD more then once every month or so, so it is no big inconvenience. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5036 |
Generally the browser has little effect on a web sites overall speed, except maybe a second or two if the page has lots of images. The MC guy suggesting you use IE didn't really know what he was talking about. All the major browsers are pretty good now, performance and security wise. It comes down to personal preference, I use 3 daily. Chrome for general surfing as it knows my log in details for YouTube, gmail, etc. IE because its a little faster and loads quicker and I'm not logged in. And Firefox when I'm developing web pages because I like its javascript debugger more than the other browsers. Safari I wouldn't poke with a old stick, works fine on a Apple device, but is a joke on a Windows machine. Sounds more like a problem with their server and/or hosting company. These days to save money and IP addresses, most web sites live on a shared server, and this means one web sites speed can be affected by the workload on another web site on the same server. If MC get a few complaints, they should contact the hosting company and get them to look into it, chances are the server admin isn't aware of it until someone lets them know. Had a similar issue with this site a year or so back. Couple of emails to the hosting company and it was sorted. Could also mean the MC site has outgrown their server package, and need to migrate to a higher hardware/bandwidth option. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| hitsware Guru Joined: 23/11/2012 Location: United StatesPosts: 535 |
Except it 'seems' the problem is confined to Grogster ......... |
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| piclover Senior Member  Joined: 14/06/2015 Location: FrancePosts: 134 |
My bet is that it's a CDN (Content Delivery Network) issue: depending on where you are located, you'll hit a different CDN server, and sometimes, some servers can get real slow. To overcome this issue, you could use a DNS server not located in your country (since when resolving the host name for a website using CDN, the IP address which is returned is one of a CDN server located in the same country/location as the requesting DNS server). There are a few free DNS around (Google's, for example, if you are not afraid of being tracked in your browsing habits), or even via TOR, either by using a fully TORified connection, or by only using the DNS proxy offered by TOR (just uncomment the "DNSPort 53" line in the torrc file and use 127.0.0.1 (i.e. your own computer) as the DNS server address): with TOR, each time you ask to "Change identity" (in Vidalia) or restart the TOR service, you get a new exit node which country may change each time (verify the current exit node with Vidalia's TOR map). This way, you can experiment with many different CDN servers and see if the problem comes from there. |
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MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
It happens a lot when a site uses google apis. It slows down everything because all javascript has to be executed before you can manipulate anything on the screen. If a single javascript file takes long to load it slows down the whole site. You could disable it by adding ajax.googleapis.com to your hosts file, but that would probably cause websites not to work properly. Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9078 |
Owwwwwwww - the hidden "Deep Internet".
Thanks for all the other comments, everyone. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| DaveC166 Regular Member  Joined: 13/09/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 44 |
Hi Grogster, I have the same slow response with MCD's website as well, using IE or chrome. They musnt apericiate Kiwi customers |
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bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2870 |
Grogs, Its OK this side of the `ditch' Mick Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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