Author Topic: Problems with PHP 4.3.10? Forum pages loading slow.... (Read 3108 times)

409bob · « **on:** January 27, 2005, 05:06:59 AM »

Alot of the members of my forum are complaining of slow loading pages lately. I too have noticed it sometimes.

I checked the maker of my forum (vBulletin) and there is mention of a bug in PHP 4.3.10 They said the unsearlize function is abit messed up in php 4.3.10 PHP and that it has a crippling bug for some servers.

Here's a copy of part of that thread:

Performance Hit Since PHP 4.3.10 / 5.0.3

Many people have noticed that vBulletin (any a lot of other PHP applications) suddenly started to run significantly slowed than normal after installing PHP 4.3.10 or 5.0.3 in order to patch the security flaw in previous versions of PHP.

This cause of this slow-down has been identified as a problem with the unserialize() function in PHP. For more details, see http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=31332

This problem has now been fixed by the PHP developers, though the fixed version has yet to be released in a 'stable' version. However, the latest CVS snapshots of PHP 4.3.x and 5.0.x, available from http://snaps.php.net/ contain the fix and restore the original speed of unserialize().

While we would not recommend running a 'dev' version of PHP on any production server, we understand that the performance problem has been a major issue for some people. If you are badly affected, you may want to consider running a 'dev' version of PHP at your own risk in order to overcome the performance problem.

Will Lunar be doing anything to fix this? It's really frustrating when pages load slow or don't load at all.

thanks,

Bob

BTW, I'm on the Lyra server. My forum is at: http://www.348-409.com/forum/index.php?s= It doesn't seem to be slow all the time so it may appear fine if you go there to test it.

Milton · « **Reply #1 on:** January 27, 2005, 05:11:08 AM »

Actually, vBulletin isn't allowed by Lunarpages. It's too resource intensive for a shared environment. You might want to consider switching to phpBB.

409bob · « **Reply #2 on:** January 27, 2005, 05:29:02 AM »

Supposedly, it's happens with other PHP programs too. It's a problem with PHP, not vBulletin.

I purchased the full version of vBulletin a few years ago and have loved it since day 1. I have no plans of doing away with it. I recall reading that was ok to have vBulletin here as long as it didn't cause any problems. So far, mine has not.

Can I expect no help on this from Lunar then???

GMTurner · « **Reply #3 on:** January 27, 2005, 05:47:47 PM »

You're looking for help/support for software that is not recommended for use on LP hosted sites. LP does not offer assitance with scripting issues. The upgrade to 4.3.10 was because of security issues in previous versions. So, my guess is that you will probably not be able receive much assistance since very few users will have experience with vBulletin and what would you expect LP to do in regards to PHP? Go back to a previous version with known security risks or to a relatively untested development version which could cause problems and instability for the entire server?

Sorry if this seems harsh, but I think it's the reality of the situation when you use a product (regardless of how great you think it might be) which is not recommended or supported on LP...

409bob · « **Reply #4 on:** January 28, 2005, 04:27:48 AM »

Supposedly, this is a problem with the PHP version that you guys have and nothing to do with vBulletin. If you want to ignore this potential problem just because I have vBulletin, that make no sense to me. I know you guys have it in for vBulletin and if you want to keep losing customers over it, fine by me.

Looks like I'll be going to another webhost then. Sure glad my renewal is coming up. I'd rather give my money to a company that helps it's customers rather playing cyber nazi's and ordering them as to what forum they have to use.

Later, much....

GarveysIT · « **Reply #5 on:** January 28, 2005, 04:30:23 AM »

i suppose if you went to another host and they disallowed phpbb, but someone used it anyway, and because of this, your site, and a few hundred others loaded it half the speed, you wouldn't mind that.

GarveysIT · « **Reply #6 on:** January 28, 2005, 04:32:59 AM »

Quote from: 409bob

This problem has now been fixed by the PHP developers, though the fixed version has yet to be released in a 'stable' version.

lets all risk getting our sites hacked

GMTurner · « **Reply #7 on:** January 28, 2005, 01:50:14 PM »

First, I don't work for LP... I'm a customer, just like you... the other people that have posted here are also customers, but based on their experience and the help they've provided to other users have been made moderators of the forums... just wanted to make sure that point was cleared up in case there was any confusion...

Personally, I'm thankful that LP takes the time and effort (and the risk of lost business) to help protect their customers from scripts which they know cause problems on their servers. Many hosts simply ignore the fact and end up loosing more customers because they don't stop certain scripts from interferring with the operation of other sites. I'm fairly sure that when a stable version of PHP is available that contains the fix, then LP will make the move, but it would be foolhardy for them to make the move prior to that.

The real issue here, apart from the fact you are using vBulletin, is that there is a bug in PHP... unfortunately, at this time there is nothing that can be done about that without the potential of creating greater instability with PHP (by using a non-stable version) or opening PHP up to known vulnerabilities (by using an old version). If you really want a host that is willing to put all of their customer sites at risk by making a choice between those two options, good luck and I hope things work out for you. And sure, the new version of PHP although not stable would probably not great any major problems, but when the vast number of users depend on the stability of PHP, it would be unwise for a company to put that stability at risk.

Just my 2.5 cents...

maranave · « **Reply #8 on:** January 29, 2005, 04:03:12 PM »

Does Lunarpages plan to implement the "fixed" version of PHP 4.3.10 or do we have to wait until the next stable release for this to be fixed?

How would I go about installing the "dev" version of PHP on my site?

Lupine1647 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 29, 2005, 04:12:56 PM »

You can not install the dev version on your lunarpages' account, you can however install it on your local machine. You can contact feedback@lunarpages.com and request that the development version of this PHP version be tested and installed.

maranave · « **Reply #10 on:** January 29, 2005, 04:36:57 PM »

Is this against TOS or simply not possible?

Lupine1647 · « **Reply #11 on:** January 29, 2005, 04:52:05 PM »

it's simply not possible since you're not allowed to have access to some areas on the server and can not execute programs such as PHP within your account space.

maranave · « **Reply #12 on:** January 29, 2005, 05:03:41 PM »

Thanks for your help Lupus.

I shall contact support (as you suggested) and, hopefully, this will accelerate it's priority

Author Topic: Problems with PHP 4.3.10? Forum pages loading slow.... (Read 3108 times)

Lupine1647

Lupine1647