VERY slow load times, can you help please?

Quick version:
I have slow websites here on DH. This is an example: http://www.bitsbox.com/testwpspeed/
It's a test Wordpress blog I have installed to show the very slow page load times even on a new, clean WP install.

I have seen other DH sites that are quicker.

My last times for my test site http://www.bitsbox.com/testwpspeed/ were 19 seconds first hit, then 16 on next page load.

What times do you get please?

Any suggestions? I really dont know what to do next.


Longer post:
I am posting here to see if I can get some help, assistance or just a simple check from you guys reading this.

I am talking to support about my VERY slow page load times at all of my domains. They are very helpful when I actually get a response but the wait times (sometimes more than 48 hours) are making this a bit hard to solve.

I have a couple of wordpress sites hosted here at DH. Both moved from my old host, they are both a great deal slower here. Now, I dont expect miracles on a shared server but there is clearly something wrong when a page takes 10-30 seconds to load.

I have found several other WP blogs (from these forums) that are clearly much faster than mine an example is http://bdotson.us/

One of my sites is bigger with more posts than the comparison site so I created a test WP install at http://www.bitsbox.com/testwpspeed/ and the load times are nothing short of pathetic (I have just loaded the home page in 27 secs).

I have tried the wp-cache plugin but it makes no difference to first page load times and certainly doesnt help with dynamic pages. Also, it's no good if a user posts a comment and has to wait 25 seconds for the page to reload, they will leave, as would I.

Pings are fair, I'm in the UK and get <180ms to DH servers. (remember I get fab times to other DH sites). I have tried from 2 ISP accounts and both are slow.

I have read about traceroutes helping but I dont see how I can have bad latency if other DH sites work much faster??

Can I ask for your help, what next?
What times are you lot getting at that test site?

Many thanks

In reply to:

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http://www.bitsbox.com/testwpspeed/

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Very slow for me, also. Watching the status line on firefox, takes about 1 full second to "lookup", after resolving DNS it was approximately 20 seconds till page displayed.

Ping time (from an ATT adsl route originating in Southern California) was average 12ms.

Something is "borked"

--rlparker

rlparker, thanks very much for your reply. I feel like I am going mad over here :) Just having someone else 'see' the problem is a way forward!

I have the same exactly, FF shows a DNS resolved: "Waiting" after 1 sec, then I have a long wait, then the page starts to load in about 2-7 seconds.

I wonder if there is a way to find others on my server so I can test their site load times too?

Do you know if all of my domains on my DH hosting account are physically on the same one server? I wondered if I asked to have my site moved, whether I would get all my domains moved or if it was a domain at a time?

Any hoo, thank you rlparker, your reply, yet again has helped a fellow user. Many thanks.

Dreamhost is foo thats why

erm, well thanks newmanney. That's really helpful. I look forward to your next syllable with great eagerness :)

I may sound like a broken record (that's a big vinyl CD that spins around and uses diamonds instead of frickin' laserbeams to get sound off the disc), but after a quick DNS lookup, the page loaded up blazingly fast. Less than 5 seconds total after hitting Enter.

-Scott

I read Scott's post, and went back and tested again. Like he said, the page loaded fast for me *this time* - around 3.5 seconds total from hitting "enter" (of course, This time I had the page cached). So I cleared my cache and tried it again. Same fast response (between 3.5-4 seconds).

Maybe they "fixed" something ?

--rlparker

Yes, the speed has got much better. I have been in contact with Support too about a transfer of servers to resolve. It all looks like good news.
Thanks all.