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I often read Seasoned Advice using Firefox on a Linux netbook, so it's kind of a pokey computer. And I've noticed that on some days, pages basically are in "loading" mode forever, where "forever" means "5 to 10 minutes, when I start clicking the stop button".

This will continue, for every page I go to on Seasoned Advice that day. The next day, things will be normal again.

Anyone else experienced this? Anyone know why it happens?

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    I experience this regularly too. It doesn't last "all day", but usually several times a day the page will load forever, often only displaying the background image. I haven't put any time into diagnosing what is going on; it's only a minor annoyance.
    – hobodave
    Feb 21, 2012 at 15:51
  • Is it only this, and not other stackexchange sites? Does it sometimes load partially without static elements (e.g. the CSS and fixed images) which come from the CDN? Does it happen no matter what network you're on?
    – Cascabel Mod
    Feb 21, 2012 at 21:26
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    There's some basic information-gathering steps here: meta.stackexchange.com/a/100103 that might produce something useful, if you don't mind taking a few minutes to post it.
    – Shog9
    Feb 25, 2012 at 3:17
  • Jefromi, this is the stackexchange site I spend the most time on. It's possble it happens on stackoverflow too, but I don't hit it there as often.
    – FuzzyChef
    Feb 28, 2012 at 4:52
  • Shog9, next time it happens, I'll get that info.
    – FuzzyChef
    Feb 28, 2012 at 4:53
  • I asked some of those questions because I did have a problem for a while with the CDN and a large corporate network fighting.
    – Cascabel Mod
    Feb 29, 2012 at 21:15

1 Answer 1

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So, I've confirmed that this is because of issues with content from cdn.sstatic.net, and from gravatar.com. Both of these seem to get hung and load forever.

For example, today cdn.sstatic.net is being unresponsive. Their status page says that as of 3/13 they are having routing issues in Los Angeles. According to my traceroute, I go through Level 3 in Los Angeles, so I suppose that explains it (although it doesn't explain why sstatic.net hasn't been able to resolve a routing issue in 4 days).

Gravatar is probably the other "loads forever" issue, since I expect they often get oversubscribed.

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    I have, on occasion, had problems with gravatar - although I don't seem to recall it interfering with page load times, it was just that the gravatars themselves loaded slowly (or not at all).
    – Aaronut
    Mar 17, 2012 at 20:52

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