Why is the main plusnet site so slow (sorry - there's no better forum for this.

[#1]

Quote from: tonycollinet

I don't think it is caching. Most of the delay is a complete lack of response from the time of clicking, to the pages starting to load. Once page is loading, it is reasonably quick.

Looks like it was the caching! The explanation will be that the load on the servers has been considerably reduced which will then mean faster response as well as a quicker load when it does start.

[#2]

https URL's don't cache - however the Plusnet page has quite a lot of links:-

https://portal.plus.net/images/general/background.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/header_bg.png
https://www.plus.net/images/general/plusnet_logo.png?refresh=oct10
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/search.png?refresh=oct10
https://www.plus.net/images/google_header_test/googlelogo.png?refresh=oct10
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/navigation_bg.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/nav_residential.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/nav_business.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/nav_help.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/nav_member.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/general/nav_community.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/banners/plus_banner.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/banner.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/announcebox.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/bill.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/h3_myaccount.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/h3_helpandsupport.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/membox_bg.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/myaccount_icon.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/member_centre/help_icon.png
https://portal.plus.net/images/referrals/refresh0509/referrals_mem_cen_sq.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/1pixel.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/portal/poll_result.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/arrow_grey.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemapBG.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemap-products.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/sitemap-sitelinks.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemap-business.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemap-member.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemap-community.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemap-help.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemap-company.gif
https://portal.plus.net/images/brand_refresh/home_page/sitemapBG-rounded.gif

Is this really necessary?

[#3]

Quote from: A

https URL's don't cache

So why when I go to view my Firefox cache do I find 5 pages of items for https://portal.plus.net including all the ones you have listed?

[#4]

OK - surely https websites didn't ought to cache - it's a clear security hole.
My (Linux) Firefox 6 stores it's cache information in 1,000's of files randomly named by some hexadecimal string.
So I can't easily say what is in my cache or where it came from.

[#5]

Yes you can!
about:cache lets you see what is in there - but the interface is very unfriendly! https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cacheviewer/?src=api lets you sort and filter.
(NB If you are on an up to date FF you will need to use https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-on-compatibility-reporter/?src=api to make it work)

[#6]

Didn't know about that.
There seems to be some mighty pieces of javascript though;
https://portal.plus.net/assets/sdc_tag.js is 28,446 bytes...
Seems to be "// PlusNet WebTrends tracking code"

[#7]

Quote from: A

https URL's don't cache

There are many instances where caching of contents served over HTTPS is entirely acceptable (i.e. no privacy issues by others viewing it in a cache) such as general images like the ones posted.
To influence the client's behaviour regarding what can be cached, the server sends a 'cache-control' header in its response to each request. The response can be tailored by the server for different file types, locations, etc. In the case of one of the above images it is set to 'public' thus indicating to the client that it can indeed be cached (for ~11months as Bob mentioned):

Cache-Control: max-age=28512000, public

Mathew