Facebook & Google slow to load, if at all

[ScottyK]

OK, this one has me stumped.

My main desktop is running 14.04, and normally it runs like a champ. Lately I've noticed that Facebook, and Google (and subsites like YouTube) take quite a while to load, if at all. I have to refresh several times to eventually get the sites to load. Both sites will just "hang" and not load. When it does finally load, it's like the 56K day again as data comes across.

I'm using FIrefox, so I checked to see if it was a problem with the Browser. Chrome and Konqueror both display the same behavior.

Next I checked to see if any add on's were interfering. I turned everything off (like add block and the privacy plug in). Behavior continued.

I use a customized hosts file, so I restored it to a default blank and restarted the computer, behavior continues.

Then I fired up a VM, and tried connecting within the VM in the same computer. In that VM, the sites load perfectly.

Swapped out the network cable just in case, but that didn't do anything.

Other computers in the house have no problems loaded the sites.

So far I've noticed that it's ONLY Facebook and Google. other search engines load perfectly.

[oshunluvr]

Have you tried changing DNS?

Try installing and running "namebench" to find the best DNS for your location.

[ScottyK]

Thanks! I'll let this run overnight and see what it reports.

[Feathers McGraw]

Weird. What's the query time when you manually look up one of those domains?

dig google.com

I wonder if it's one specific part of the page that is waiting for a timeout (something loaded from a subdomain or CDN, perhaps?). Developer tools in Firefox will show you all the domains involved in each query, might be interesting to test a few.

[ScottyK]

changing DNS servers appears to have done the trick. Everything is loading correctly now. Weird. Thanks for the suggestion!

[oshunluvr]

I'd rather be lucky than good !

[ScottyK]

I had to go back and mark this "unsolved", because the behavior is back. Google is working perfectly, but Facebook refuses to load. I'll get maybe a quarter of the page to appear, and messages and "recent items" refuses to display.

Now in a new twist, the same behavior is now being display in my Windows VM on the same machine. Google is working perfectly in the VM, however.

Verifed the change in DNS servers...

 scott@Kubuntu-desktop:~$ nm-tool | grep DNS
    DNS:             8.8.8.8
    DNS:             8.8.4.4
    DNS:             12.127.16.67

typing the "dig" command gave me this..

scott@Kubuntu-desktop:~$ dig facebook.com

; <<>> DiG 9.9.5-3ubuntu0.5-Ubuntu <<>> facebook.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 21283
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;facebook.com.                  IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
facebook.com.           231     IN      A       31.13.69.197

;; Query time: 26 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.1.1#53(127.0.1.1)
;; WHEN: Sun Oct 25 11:49:37 CDT 2015
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 57

and just out of curiousity I ran dig on kubuntuforums.net

scott@Kubuntu-desktop:~$ dig kubuntuforums.net

; <<>> DiG 9.9.5-3ubuntu0.5-Ubuntu <<>> kubuntuforums.net
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 25830
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;kubuntuforums.net.             IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
kubuntuforums.net.      3599    IN      A       23.239.29.201
                                                                                                                                                              
;; Query time: 77 msec                                                                                                                                        
;; SERVER: 127.0.1.1#53(127.0.1.1)                                                                                                                            
;; WHEN: Sun Oct 25 11:50:42 CDT 2015                                                                                                                         
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 62

[Feathers McGraw]

Hmm, that's pretty quick.

In Firefox, go to developer -> network and reload the page. You should be able to work out which component of the page is making it slow to load, e.g:

[ScottyK]

I might be on to something. Trying to upload pictures to Facebook tonight and it absolutely would not do anything. So I switched to the windows Notebook, and surprisingly, it didn't work either. Finally I decided to try the stock Internet Explorer to upload, and that displayed the same behavior.

So I pondered what the two computers had in common, since it wasn't the OS or browser. Then I looked down at the switch both computers were plugged into. I unplugged the notebook from the LAN and activated the built in wireless, and suddenly the uploading worked flawlessly. I uploaded several pictures with no problem. I went back to the desktop (with LAN) and it still won't upload anything.

The switch the computers are plugged into is a D-Link DES-1108. I didn't think there was anything I could configure on those??

[SecretCode]

I think this is unlikely but you could check for duplicate IP addresses.

Does the D-Link switch also provide the wireless access point? Or is it connected to another box that runs wireless and the broadband connection?

[ScottyK]

The D-Link switch has no wireless. It's connected to the main router in the other room. Swapped it out with a Netgear Gigabyte switch. Still displaying the same behavior. The windows notebook on the switch is doing the same thing. But as soon as I unplug the LAN cable and go wireless, everything loads correctly.

The only thing left I can think of is the actual CAT5 cable from the switch to the router? But if it was a bad cable, wouldn't that make all sites I visit not load?

So far it's JUST Facebook and Google that won't load correctly if at all. Anything else I type in loads correctly and fast on both computers. Torrents are running normally. Email is good. Speedtest reports I'm running at about 75% of where I'm supposed to be.

And this is nothing new. I recently moved the computers into a different room in the house. Before I moved, I noticed it was doing the same behavior, and it was going through a different wire to the router. But the wife used the same connection, and doesn't have a problem.