TheBoy

FF login has warnings about being insecure. IE/Edge won't log in for me.

I'm certainly experiencing a lot of http > https redirection issues on this site. To the point, I can't even get IE11 or Edge to allow me to login to the site.

The php error posted on the previous page is fairly common, more so on shared hosting, and will happen no matter who your hosting provider is. I'd simply report it to your hosting company. However, the main issues I can see (redirection issues, which is causing lots of usability problems with many browsers) is *NOTHING* to do with your host, thats down to whoever supports the website. I suspect that the attempt to https the site hasn't been properly planned, and most browsers are not allowing the forced redirects. Changing hosts will not improve this (in fact, probably make it worse), you need to fix this before changing hosts. The move from http to https on www.omegaowners.com took us several months to plan and implement, involving a lot of changes before just enabled the redirect to https (that we still haven't enforced yet - but we have ensured that people going to the https site will have a good user experience). Apologies if the above sounds harsh, but I don't want you to put a load of effort in, only to get yourself in a worse condition. As currently, I don't think you understand the issue. Which means you can't fix it. And adding more unknowns (like changing hosts) into the mix only confuses the issue more. When(If) it comes to changing hosts, there are pitfalls to be aware of. Certainly we at OOF fell into some. A particular classic one was around MySQL. I suspect you too use MySQL. MySQL/MariaDB (MariaDB is a fork of MySQL) is a particularly rubbish database, but as its the M in LAMP, its what most most (non robust) web software is written to use. The standard way to backup a MySQL database in a consistent manor is mysqldump... ...which because MySQL is rubbish, locks all tables for the duration of the backup. Now, on OOF, a backup is done hourly, and a backup takes approx 15mins. That meant, until we implemented workarounds, our forum was unavailable for 15mins every hour!!

That is disgraceful. Servers are generally reliable, modern server OS's are generally reliable, and modern forum software (assuming usual maintenence is done) is generally reliable. And assuming you have good backups of the database and the web directory (for themes, attachments and so on, even if the server(s) caught fire, any hosting firm could bring up a new server for you within an hour or so, and allow another 2-4hrs to restore data. I can't imagine your forum setup is in any way unusual. It p**ses me off, as it gives us reprobates who work in IT a bad, lazy, incompitent name, Rant over. I'll go and kick the cat or something to calm down.

I worked for a large company and got TUPEd out to an outsourcer for 10yrs, before getting TUPEd back into the original company. In my experience, IT outsourcing never works effectively (or cheaply). I'm surprised, given what I've seen of Blackboots and WIM's web presence, and the likely IT resources you're likely to have at HQ, you can't do this in-house by occasionally taking a little bit of time from one of the more IT literate staffers there Obviously, there might be an awful lot more that I can't see. I certainly run bro's business IT, including all PoS stuff (which I wrote) for his 2 shops, and all the backend servers (including web presence) and email on his own on-site servers. And obviously run the Omega forum on my dedicate, on site servers. And obviously hold down a full time, pretty intense, IT job.

Is that outsourced, or do they have in-house peeps? (assuming you can say on a public forum)

BTW, neither Edge (for Windows) or IE is working. Edge wont even allow me to log on, and IE won't allow posting, I think due to the flicking between http and https all the time.

My own (rather bitter) experience of running forums on shared hosts isn't great - our own site www.omegaowners.com only lasted less than 3 weeks before our hosting company disconnected us when we launched in 2006. Thats how it ended up on a dedicated server, and has always stayed that way... ...and has remained very reliable considering we run it on a shoestring.

Guess redirect is http to https, down normally in .htaccess or httpd.conf (or apache2.conf if using Debian or s***ty Ubuntu)

Looking at the forum stats, I don't think you're busy enough to warrant worrying too much about disk layout, but definately look at any DB optimsation routines, reindexing etc. Posting for me is a bit erratic - sometimes near instant, but sometimes a bit of lag

About normal for an ADSL2 line if you are about 1m from your local exchange. That speedtest.net site is a pretty poor way of testing end to end speed though, due to its popularity, and also because of all the bloaty ads it loads whilst doing the test. But certainly at that speed, you should not be experience general web browsing issues, which includes forum browsing/posting.

As a fellow forum admin, I can suggest that if the forum runs at an acceptable speed for reading, but is slow to reload the new page after posting, you have database efficiency issues you probably need to address. Not sure what back end databse you run here, but you might want to look into table size, indexes, and any optimisation routines recommended by both the forum software vendor and the database vendor. If its a dedicated server, you might want to check disk layout is optimised for usage (DB data and transaction logs on RAID1/10, and forum code/images/javascript/css etc etc on RAID5). If you're on a shared server, you won't have this luxury.

Erratic scrolling will be a local (to you) computer issue, most likely your system is struggling to do what is being asked. This can be embedded ads causing trouble, an old machine, or a compromised machine. It could be the mouse, check if its only when using scroll wheel, or if also happens when using scroll bar on right of browser window.

I see you're hosted by Zen Internet. Give them a call, they are good enough that they should be able to give you the info you need

Ah, OK, guess you're on a shared server then, which may explain the variable page loading times I see on WIM. Most admin panels, such as cPanel, should have a option to display Unix load index, or if you have shell access, the unix command "uptime" will give it without admin rights. If you're still not able to get it, I'll dig out or write some cgi-bin stuff for you to upload to get the info (would be a webpage that you give a unique name to (that only you know))

This is usually due to high server load or database locking (or mostly a combo of both, with one causing the other), meaning the read thread following the post thread gets hung. Are your www and db servers on the same server, and what are the load averages like?

Given my driving style is not much different to chrisgixers, and I generally expect 10k from rear Dunlop RTs and 20k from fronts, I would imagine that chrisgixer would be looking at 8 (rears) and 15 (fronts) approx.? Although he does seem to get better longevity from his tyres, maybe due to motorway commute as opposed to my Milton Keynes commute.

I would add, IMHO, the Omega in standard form does have a natural tendency towards high speed understeer, and with chrisgixer fitting 265's at the rear, thats only going to highlight that further, as he will be able to get the power down earlier and harder due to better traction, and the rear will hold on better in a bend, where my 235's will start to break away at the back (and front at same time, as both of mine are pretty well balanced, thanks to Tony's hard work all those years ago).

Thats me. A model driver. Miss Daisy . Thats the nicest, kindest thing you've ever said about me Tony For the benefit of others contributing on this thread, whilst I'd like to claim I'm a bit steady, I'm afraid that might not be the truth. I usually get around 10k from a set of tyres, and about 5k from front pads. Not something I'm proud of, but thats reality. Having been in the car with the OP, I'd suggest our styles are not a million miles apart

Hi liner33, I think chrisgixer's issue with the Falken range is not so much outright grip - IMHO they provide reasonable grip, certainly well within the midrange territory - but directional stability. I did once drive his car with Falkens that had done a few thousand miles, probably about 1/3rd or half worn, and it was lethal. Honestly, you were fighting the steering wheel like those American 1960s films, just to keep it on your side of the road. This was at one of our omegaowners car meets, so to prove if it was chassis or tyres, we swapped wheels over with my car (running SP9000s at the time), and the problem moved to my car. I believe he sent the tyres back to manufacturer for testing, and they stated no problem found. I think part of the problem may be what works on one car might not work on another. Take P6000s for instance. Every single car I'd ever had them on I thought they were utter trash. So imagine my horror when I bought a new Rover 25 and it came with P6000s . Yet the thing went round corners better than any other FWD car I'd driven. I tried all sorts of other tyres on it, none worked like the P6000s. Another part of the problem, hinted at in an earlier post, is is the tyre ruined if overdriven early in its life? I had a full set of SC5's put on one of the Omegas at the same time as WIM did the geo. While initially the straight line stability was OK, the level of grip was appalling. Within a couple of weeks, straight line stability from the fronts was just not there. (Un?)fortunately, the fronts only lasted 3k before being absolutely spent - and that was without trying. The rears made it through to 5k. The short life I put down to having such poor levels of grip, they were constantly sliding around, even when driving relatively sedately. I've suffered similar with GY F1A2, although out of the 6 tyres I've had, 2 had shown air pockets in the rubber towards the end of their life, and 2 had shown worrying inside edge sidewall cracking at half worn, for which Dunlop Goodyear are giving me a 40% credit after inspecting them, an admission they were faulty. For me, the best tyre that was available for the Omega was the old SportMaxx TT. Not trackday levels of grip, but still very good. However, its stability and predictability was absolutely bang on. The replacement, RT, had better levels of grip (or at least the first couple of sets I had - the current set are lacking a bit, don't know what's changed with them?) It seems to be a minefield out there, with tyre review sites being almost meaningless, and the only option is some very expensive experimentation, which is an unacceptable IMHO. And this new(ish) stupid EU kack labelling has made matters worse.

chrisgixer - I had the Michelin Pilot Sport 3's on the chavmobile when I first got it, admittedly down to about 6mm tread. I still remember the look of sheer fear on Lazydocker's face as we drifted ever closer to a truck on the BP roundabout when doing the high speed LPG calibrations I soon wrecked those tyres, as they simply lack the all round grip, they were far too easy to overdrive, and they ended up, to use your term, clown car tyres. Yet I know that PS3 is the tyre of choice for Porsche Boxsters... ...admittedly in different sizes though. I have run Dunlop RT's for a while, and up until this last set, have been delighted with them. Very well suited to the Omega, though lacking the outright stability of the previous TT's which I had several sets of. However, I'm disappointed with the current set on my MV6, they are easily upset by road imperfections, and seem to lack the overall level of grip that the previous set had I wonder if anyone from WIM/Blackboots can comment if Dunlop have changed the tyre, or moved its manufacturing facility etc, using their insider contacts? If we have variances in the tyre's compound or where its made, that adds yet another consideration when working out what works and what doesn't. As to the Falkens, I've driven bad ones (chrisgixer's - an enthusiastic driver - this car simply would not go straight, it was dangerous to drive down the road and keep it in your lane) and "good" ones (another local omegaowners.com member who drives like Miss Daisy - these had excellent stability, were silent, and had reasonable levels of grip despite being at the end of their life). Does this suggest its possible to destroy a tyre early in its life by over driving it? If so, that could explain why I've had a shocking time with Conti SC5 and GY F1S2. This could be yet another problem with tyre recommendations, and why tyre threads on omegaowners.com usually end up somewhat passionate. Sorry chrisgixer, doesn't help with your predicament , I'm just trying to understand why tyres work for some, and are a complete menace for others, even if the cars aren't massively dissimilar.

OUTSIDE shoulder, NSF, pulls a bit to left as well. By sight, camber doesn't look too dramatic, in fact, "normal". As I'm sure WIM staff know, this car gets launched, thrashed, and generally abused. And when Mrs TheBoy drives it, she aims for every pothole available (and you maybe saw the TV programme about Brackley's potholes!). So, I wouldn't be surprised if its a bit, errr, "in need of a WIM session". The other Omega drives staright, with a slightly offset steering wheel, but has had new front wishbone bushes and new rear springs, so needs doing as well.

Are we talking about the one you did the geo on on Sat? Never really had it working right. Initially too soft/wallowy when cornering, but reasonable stable in a straight line, so lowered/firmed. The Omega Elites are known to be excessively soft. The one you did the wheel balancing on, between it being "perfect" and now, its had Sport Maxx TTs replaced for Sport Maxx RTs (and a geo last week, though not much needed doing, other than a gentle tweak) - though its probably done less than 250 miles, so still knocking the release agent off (he says, hopefully!!).

Indeed. I have the option to work from home anyway. So the expense (not just tyres, but more rims, and storage) isn't, IMHO, justified. As said, they may/do offer improvement, but are not a necessity. IMHO, of course.

Do you use winter tyres? Whilst I accept they will give a little more grip in cold conditions, I'm not sure we have the climate (in our part of the country) to *need* them enough to warranty the cost?