📝 Forum_Slowdown_Hotspot_Diagnosis.mdTheme:

Forum Slowdown Hotspot Diagnosis

Transcript — 25/09/2026

Andrew

system not loading pages within 2 minutes

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--20:17:06:930 AEST]

I can't reach the forum from here because the sandbox's network blocks it, so I can't time it myself. Which system is slow: Live, or Clone/Dev? The commands below assume Live.

My main suspect: you just finished the ISEmedia image/video classification. If any of it ran on Live, torch, CLIP or llama-mtmd could still be running or have left the box swapping. That hurts a lot on a 2 GB droplet. The other likely cause is the Slowloris-style attack coming back. These commands tell the two apart:

uptime; free -m; dmesg | tail -20                          # load, swap use, OOM kills
ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -12                             # python/llama/whisper eating RAM?
ps -C httpd --no-headers | wc -l                           # near 150 = workers exhausted
netstat -ant | egrep ':(80|443) ' | awk '{print $6}' | sort | uniq -c   # lots of SYN_RECV/ESTABLISHED?
mysqladmin -u root -p processlist | head -30               # long-running or locked queries
curl -so /dev/null -w 'ttfb=%{time_starttransfer} total=%{time_total}\n' \
  -H 'Host: forum.drugs-and-users.org' http://127.0.0.1/index.php   # server-side time, no TLS/network

How to read the results:

The local curl is fast but your browser is slow: the problem is the network or TLS. That's the same OCSP/IPv6 issue you traced to slow handshakes earlier.
The local curl is also slow:
- High swap, or a leftover ML process: the classification is the cause.
- About 150 httpd workers with lots of connections: the attack is back.
- Queries piling up in MySQL: the database is the bottleneck.

Paste the output and I'll narrow it down.

Andrew

C:\Windows\System32>pathping 128.199.200.202

Tracing route to forum.drugs-and-users.org [128.199.200.202]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  0  Andrews-NUC [10.115.121.71]
  1  10.115.121.20
  2  192.0.0.1
  3     *        *        *
Computing statistics for 50 seconds...

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--20:17:28:107 AEST]

This trace doesn't settle anything yet, but it does tell us something about your connection:

Hop 1 (10.115.121.20): your local gateway, probably a phone hotspot or 4G/5G router since it's on a 10.x range.
Hop 2 (192.0.0.1): this address is reserved for carrier translation gear that carries IPv4 over an IPv6-only mobile network (DS-Lite or 464XLAT). So your IPv4 traffic to the server is being tunnelled through your carrier's IPv6 network. That fits the carrier IPv6 routing issue you suspected before.
Hop 3 onward (* * *): this is often just carrier equipment ignoring ping-style probes, so on its own it isn't proof of a fault.

The useful part is still to come. Let the 50-second statistics finish and paste that table. Loss at hop 1 or 2 means the problem is at your end. Loss that starts at a later hop and carries through to the end points at the carrier's path.

Meanwhile, these two Windows commands time the page directly (curl is built into Windows 10):

curl -so NUL -w "dns=%{time_namelookup} connect=%{time_connect} tls=%{time_appconnect} ttfb=%{time_starttransfer} total=%{time_total}\n" https://forum.drugs-and-users.org/index.php
curl -4 -so NUL -w "connect=%{time_connect} tls=%{time_appconnect} ttfb=%{time_starttransfer} total=%{time_total}\n" https://128.199.200.202/index.php -k

If connect or tls is large: the problem is the network or the TLS handshake.
If those are small and ttfb is large: the server itself is slow, and the server-side checks from my last message are the next step.

A quick way to settle it is to load the forum from a different network, such as phone data with Wi-Fi off, a neighbour's Wi-Fi, or a web-based site-speed checker. If it's fast there, the fault is your carrier's path to the server.

Andrew

C:\Windows\System32>pathping 128.199.200.202

Tracing route to forum.drugs-and-users.org [128.199.200.202]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  0  Andrews-NUC [10.115.121.71]
  1  10.115.121.20
  2  192.0.0.1
  3     *        *        *
Computing statistics for 50 seconds...
            Source to Here   This Node/Link
Hop  RTT    Lost/Sent = Pct  Lost/Sent = Pct  Address
  0                                           Andrews-NUC [10.115.121.71]
                               44/ 100 = 44%   |
  1 1750ms    44/ 100 = 44%     0/ 100 =  0%  10.115.121.20
                               56/ 100 = 56%   |
  2  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  192.0.0.1

Trace complete.

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--20:18:58:833 AEST]

The problem is on your side of the link, right at the first hop. The server and the carrier look fine from this.

Hop 1 (10.115.121.20): this is your own gateway, the first box after the NUC. It's losing 44% of packets and taking 1750 ms to answer. A healthy local gateway answers in 1–10 ms with no loss. With that much loss, TCP keeps retransmitting and backing off, which is how a page takes more than 2 minutes.
Hop 2 (192.0.0.1), 100% loss: you can ignore this. The "This Node/Link" column shows 0%, so the device simply doesn't answer probes. It isn't dropping your traffic.

A 1750 ms round trip to the very first hop usually means one of two things:

Something is filling your upload. A saturated uplink makes the gateway queue everything behind it. Likely culprits:
- an rsync or push between Clone and Live, such as the ISEmedia/audio JSON transfers
- VM traffic
- cloud backup or sync
- a Windows update
Check Task Manager → Performance → Ethernet/Wi-Fi, or Resource Monitor → Network, and sort by send rate.
The link to the gateway itself is bad. That could be weak Wi-Fi or hotspot signal, a flaky USB tether, or an overloaded or overheating router or phone.

To tell them apart:

ping -n 30 10.115.121.20

High latency or loss, and it clears when you pause the big transfer: it's saturation (cause 1).
Still bad with everything idle: reboot the gateway or router, or move closer to it. If it's a phone hotspot, check its signal and temperature.

There's no reason to touch Live for this. The server-side checks from my first message only matter if this ping comes back clean and pages are still slow.

Andrew

where do i run those commands ?

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--20:37:38:903 AEST]

Run everything on the NUC. You don't need Live for any of this.

The ping: in the same Command Prompt window you ran pathping from:
```
ping -n 30 10.115.121.20
```
Healthy results are replies under about 10 ms with no "Request timed out" lines.
To see what's using the upload: press Win+R, type resmon, and press Enter. Open the Network tab, expand Processes with Network Activity, and click the Send (B/sec) column header to sort by it. Anything pushing a lot of data will be at the top, for example vmware-vmx (Clone or Dev traffic), rsync/ssh, OneDrive, or a browser upload.

For a quicker look, press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager and go to Performance → Wi-Fi/Ethernet. If the Send graph is pinned at the top, the upload is saturated.
If 10.115.121.20 is your phone's hotspot: also check it on the phone itself. Look at the signal bars, whether the phone is hot, and how many devices are connected.

If the ping is bad and nothing is sending much, restart the gateway (router or hotspot) and run the ping again.

Andrew

mysqladmin ? what ?

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--20:38:13:990 AEST]

That was from my first list, for the Live server, and you can skip it for now. The pathping shows the fault is between the NUC and your gateway. Live and its database aren't involved yet.

In case it's useful later: mysqladmin is MySQL's own command-line admin tool, installed with the MySQL server. You'd run it in an SSH session on Live, not on Windows:

mysqladmin -u root -p processlist

It asks for the MySQL root password, then lists every query currently running and how long each has taken. A pile of long-running or "Locked" queries would mean the database is the bottleneck. You'd only need this if the gateway ping comes back clean and pages are still slow.

Andrew

run on the NUC ? wdym --- is thisn fucking windows dos box or ssh to liev ?

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--20:38:46:559 AEST]

Sorry, "the NUC" was ambiguous. It's the Windows command prompt, the same box where you ran pathping. No SSH.

Windows command prompt, now:

ping -n 30 10.115.121.20

Then run resmon (Win+R → resmon) and check the Network tab, sorted by Send.

SSH to Live: nothing for now. mysqladmin and the other Linux commands are only for later, if the ping comes back clean.

Andrew

NO - ths:

uptime; free -m; dmesg | tail -20                          # load, swap use, OOM kills
ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -12                             # python/llama/whisper eating RAM?
ps -C httpd --no-headers | wc -l                           # near 150 = workers exhausted
netstat -ant | egrep ':(80|443) ' | awk '{print $6}' | sort | uniq -c   # lots of SYN_RECV/ESTABLISHED?
mysqladmin -u root -p processlist | head -30               # long-running or locked queries
curl -so /dev/null -w 'ttfb=%{time_starttransfer} total=%{time_total}\n' \
  -H 'Host: forum.drugs-and-users.org' http://127.0.0.1/index.php   # server-side time, no TLS/network

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--20:39:16:648 AEST]

That block is Linux. You run it in an SSH session on Live, logged in as root. None of it works in the Windows command prompt.

One thing to expect: your SSH session goes over the same flaky link to the gateway, so it may feel laggy. The last command, the local curl, works around that because it runs entirely inside Live. If it shows a small total (well under a second), the server is fine and the slowness is your local link.

Andrew

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 18:44:40 up 4 days, 11:57,  1 user,  load average: 0.16, 0.22, 0.49
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2006       1215        791         14         45        563
-/+ buffers/cache:        606       1400
Swap:         2047        760       1287
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=212.73.148.8 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=53 ID=55596 PROTO=TCP SPT=44503 DPT=58360 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=91.231.89.249 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=45 ID=19058 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=51262 DPT=2436 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=94.102.49.193 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=44 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=116 ID=6893 PROTO=TCP SPT=23320 DPT=7443 WINDOW=10251 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=195.206.182.212 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=48 ID=0 PROTO=TCP SPT=24390 DPT=9443 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=195.184.76.178 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=47 ID=26497 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=50066 DPT=4402 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=153.217.174.105 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=44 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=239 ID=8791 PROTO=TCP SPT=41636 DPT=8001 WINDOW=1300 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=195.184.76.18 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=46 ID=33925 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=11958 DPT=30011 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=89.248.165.203 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=243 ID=32108 PROTO=TCP SPT=46009 DPT=6334 WINDOW=1024 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=200.25.16.78 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=239 ID=20269 PROTO=TCP SPT=60001 DPT=7108 WINDOW=1024 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=66.132.186.236 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=53 ID=28461 PROTO=TCP SPT=3688 DPT=43684 WINDOW=42340 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=184.105.247.203 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=240 ID=54321 PROTO=TCP SPT=57608 DPT=4080 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=193.176.29.16 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=48 ID=0 PROTO=TCP SPT=48264 DPT=9600 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=217.146.80.117 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=48 ID=0 PROTO=TCP SPT=58291 DPT=14440 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=170.64.194.156 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=249 ID=52827 PROTO=TCP SPT=51993 DPT=52021 WINDOW=1024 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=213.209.159.16 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=50 ID=0 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=61000 DPT=30074 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=65.49.1.36 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=240 ID=54321 PROTO=TCP SPT=58257 DPT=6080 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=165.154.11.202 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x60 TTL=51 ID=7865 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=47839 DPT=4731 WINDOW=29200 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=64.62.156.146 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=240 ID=54321 PROTO=TCP SPT=38566 DPT=6081 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=57.152.35.166 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=56 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=40 ID=58068 PROTO=UDP SPT=39551 DPT=1521 LEN=36
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=45.56.111.60 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=44 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=237 ID=54321 PROTO=TCP SPT=49362 DPT=1935 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root         1  0.0  0.0  19360   312 ?        Ss   Sep21   0:02 /sbin/init
root         2  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:00 [kthreadd]
root         3  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:15 [migration/0]
root         4  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:05 [ksoftirqd/0]
root         5  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:00 [migration/0]
root         6  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:01 [watchdog/0]
root         7  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:06 [migration/1]
root         8  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:00 [migration/1]
root         9  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:05 [ksoftirqd/1]
root        10  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:00 [watchdog/1]
root        11  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:32 [events/0]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      7 ESTABLISHED
      2 LISTEN
      5 TIME_WAIT

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--20:39:56:—]

Hold on, I need to fix the header first.

Claude: [25/09/2026--20:45:01:289 AEST]

(Please ignore the line above. I wrote a header before running the timestamp code. This one is the real time.)

Live is healthy, so the server isn't what's slowing the pages.

Load (0.16): the server is basically idle.
Memory: 1.4 GB is effectively free once cache is counted. The 760 MB in swap is probably left over from earlier heavy jobs rather than active thrashing. vmstat 1 5 would confirm it: if the si/so columns stay near 0, swap isn't in use now.
dmesg: every line is your firewall dropping random port-scan SYNs to ports like 2436 and 7443. That's normal internet noise, and it means the firewall is doing its job. No out-of-memory kills are shown.
httpd workers (13): nowhere near the 150 limit, so there's no Slowloris-style attack.
Connections: 7 established and 5 in TIME_WAIT, which is quiet. No flood.
ps: the output came out in PID order, so this ps version ignored the sort option. Not needed now, but ps aux | sort -nrk 4 | head works on CentOS 6.
mysqladmin and curl: there's no output from either. They may not have run, or the output got cut off.

Please rerun just this line on Live:

curl -so /dev/null -w 'ttfb=%{time_starttransfer} total=%{time_total}\n' -H 'Host: forum.drugs-and-users.org' http://127.0.0.1/index.php

If total comes back well under a second, the server is fully cleared. Everything so far points to the 44% loss and 1750 ms delay between the NUC and your gateway, so the Windows ping -n 30 10.115.121.20 and the resmon check are the next useful steps.

Andrew

Live  root@forum:18:46:34:/bin# slowdiags
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 18:46:38 up 4 days, 11:59,  1 user,  load average: 0.11, 0.18, 0.44
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2006       1229        776         15         49        565
-/+ buffers/cache:        615       1391
Swap:         2047        759       1288
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=66.132.186.236 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=53 ID=28461 PROTO=TCP SPT=3688 DPT=43684 WINDOW=42340 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=184.105.247.203 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=240 ID=54321 PROTO=TCP SPT=57608 DPT=4080 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=193.176.29.16 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=48 ID=0 PROTO=TCP SPT=48264 DPT=9600 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=217.146.80.117 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=48 ID=0 PROTO=TCP SPT=58291 DPT=14440 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=170.64.194.156 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=249 ID=52827 PROTO=TCP SPT=51993 DPT=52021 WINDOW=1024 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=213.209.159.16 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=50 ID=0 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=61000 DPT=30074 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=65.49.1.36 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=240 ID=54321 PROTO=TCP SPT=58257 DPT=6080 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=165.154.11.202 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x60 TTL=51 ID=7865 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=47839 DPT=4731 WINDOW=29200 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=64.62.156.146 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=240 ID=54321 PROTO=TCP SPT=38566 DPT=6081 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=57.152.35.166 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=56 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=40 ID=58068 PROTO=UDP SPT=39551 DPT=1521 LEN=36
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=45.56.111.60 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=44 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=237 ID=54321 PROTO=TCP SPT=49362 DPT=1935 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=66.132.172.159 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=52 ID=23423 PROTO=TCP SPT=38065 DPT=64147 WINDOW=42340 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=212.73.148.21 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=53 ID=20329 PROTO=TCP SPT=53108 DPT=18082 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=212.73.148.12 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=53 ID=7687 PROTO=TCP SPT=60223 DPT=6619 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=176.65.139.218 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=44 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=234 ID=54321 PROTO=TCP SPT=54051 DPT=8088 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=195.184.76.196 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=45 ID=29196 DF PROTO=TCP SPT=39066 DPT=3019 WINDOW=5840 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=193.163.125.99 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=44 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=239 ID=38315 PROTO=TCP SPT=38967 DPT=3389 WINDOW=14600 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=167.94.146.47 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=53 ID=56351 PROTO=TCP SPT=39570 DPT=15501 WINDOW=42340 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=65.49.1.148 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=40 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=240 ID=54321 PROTO=TCP SPT=37545 DPT=7047 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
DROPPED: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=04:01:41:ad:31:01:fe:00:00:00:01:01:08:00 SRC=212.73.148.38 DST=128.199.200.202 LEN=52 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=53 ID=54942 PROTO=TCP SPT=39556 DPT=51939 WINDOW=65535 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root         1  0.0  0.0  19360   312 ?        Ss   Sep21   0:02 /sbin/init
root         2  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:00 [kthreadd]
root         3  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:15 [migration/0]
root         4  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:05 [ksoftirqd/0]
root         5  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:00 [migration/0]
root         6  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:01 [watchdog/0]
root         7  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:06 [migration/1]
root         8  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:00 [migration/1]
root         9  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:05 [ksoftirqd/1]
root        10  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:00 [watchdog/1]
root        11  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Sep21   0:32 [events/0]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      6 ESTABLISHED
      3 LAST_ACK
      2 LISTEN
      6 TIME_WAIT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mysqladmin: [Warning] Using a password on the command line interface can be insecure.
+--------+------+-----------+----+---------+------+----------+------------------+
| Id     | User | Host      | db | Command | Time | State    | Info             |
+--------+------+-----------+----+---------+------+----------+------------------+
| 293966 | root | localhost |    | Query   | 0    | starting | show processlist |
+--------+------+-----------+----+---------+------+----------+------------------+
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ttfb=0.003 total=0.004
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
dns=0.001 connect=0.001 tls=0.085        ttfb=1.335 total=1.339
connect=0.000 tls=0.083         ttfb=1.135 total=1.138
Finished ! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Live  root@forum:18:46:40:/bin#

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--20:47:05:234 AEST]

Live is cleared. The server hands out a full page in about 1.3 seconds, so the 2-minute loads come from the link between your NUC and your gateway.

MySQL: the only query running is your own show processlist, so the database is idle.
Local HTTP (ttfb=0.003): this one is too fast to be SMF building a page. Your http→https redirect is almost certainly answering it, so it doesn't count as a page test.
HTTPS runs (tls≈0.085, ttfb≈1.1–1.3s): these are real SMF page renders, and they are the useful result. The TLS handshake takes 85 ms, so the old OCSP/handshake slowness isn't happening now. SMF takes about 1.2 s to build the page. That's a bit slow but it's nowhere near 2 minutes. You could look into it separately another time.
Apache and connections: 17 workers and a handful of connections. It's quiet.

So the delay is almost all in the 44% packet loss and 1750 ms round trip to 10.115.121.20. Next is the Windows side: ping -n 30 10.115.121.20 and the resmon Network tab sorted by Send. That will show whether something is flooding your upload or the gateway link itself is sick.

A small fix for slowdiags: the ps line is still coming out in PID order. Swap it for ps aux | sort -nrk 4 | head -12 if you want it to list the biggest memory users.

Andrew

now, what do i run in win 10 dos box ?

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--21:00:18:011 AEST]

Run these one at a time in the Windows command prompt on the NUC and paste the output back:

ipconfig | findstr /i "adapter IPv4 Gateway"
ping -n 30 10.115.121.20
ping -n 30 128.199.200.202
netsh wlan show interfaces
netstat -e & timeout /t 10 >nul & netstat -e
curl -so NUL -w "dns=%{time_namelookup} connect=%{time_connect} tls=%{time_appconnect} ttfb=%{time_starttransfer} total=%{time_total}\n" https://forum.drugs-and-users.org/index.php

What each one tells us:

ipconfig: shows which adapter the NUC is using and confirms 10.115.121.20 is your gateway.
Ping to the gateway: the key test. Healthy is under about 10 ms with no "Request timed out" lines.
Ping to Live: shows how much of that loss carries through to the server.
netsh wlan: Wi-Fi signal % and link rate. If you get "no wireless interface", the NUC is wired or tethered, and you can ignore it.
netstat -e twice, 10 seconds apart: subtract the first "Bytes Sent" from the second and divide by 10 to get your upload rate. A large number means something is flooding the uplink.
curl: the same page-timing test you ran on Live, now from your end. Compare connect/tls with Live's 0.001/0.085.

If step 5 shows heavy sending, open resmon (Network tab, sorted by Send) to see which program is doing it.

Andrew

why 10.115.121.20 ? and don't let it keep going ! fuck, try 3 times and then abort ! WTF ?

C:\scripts>slowdiags

C:\scripts>ipconfig   | findstr /i "adapter IPv4 Gateway"
Ethernet adapter Ethernet:
Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi 2:
Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 10:
Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 13:
Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet1:
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.199.1
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
Ethernet adapter VMware Network Adapter VMnet8:
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.233.1
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi 3:
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.119.71.71
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::f099:d2ff:fe21:bfb2%12
Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network Connection 3:

C:\scripts>ping -n 30 10.115.121.20

Pinging 10.115.121.20 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--21:06:06:690 AEST]

Why 10.115.121.20: it was hop 1 in your earlier pathping, so it was your gateway at that point. Your ipconfig now shows the NUC on a different adapter (Wi-Fi 3) with a new address, 10.119.71.71. So the Wi-Fi reconnected since the pathping and got a new address, and 10.115.121.20 doesn't exist any more. That's why every ping times out. A gateway that changes like this is typical of a phone hotspot or 4G/5G modem.

On the endless ping: that was my mistake. I gave you -n 30 when a short test was all we needed.

The slowdiags.bat in the sidebar fixes both problems:

It reads the current IPv4 gateway from the routing table, so it no longer relies on a hard-coded address.
Every probe is capped:
- pings are 3 tries with a 1–2 s timeout
- tracert stops after 6 hops
- curl gives up after 30 s

Drop it in C:\scripts, run it, and paste the output. If it prints No IPv4 default gateway found, that's the answer: the hotspot is only giving the NUC IPv6, and IPv4 has to go through the carrier's translation box (the 192.0.0.1 hop).

[Attached file: slowdiags.bat — v1.0]

@echo off
rem slowdiags.bat v1.0 - Windows-side slow-page diagnostics (NUC)
rem Auto-detects the current IPv4 gateway; every probe is capped (3 tries / short timeouts).
setlocal
set LIVE=128.199.200.202
set GW=
for /f "tokens=1,3" %%a in ('route print -4 0.0.0.0 ^| findstr /r /c:"^ *0\.0\.0\.0 "') do set GW=%%b
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
echo Current IPv4 gateway: [%GW%]
if "%GW%"=="" echo No IPv4 default gateway found - link is down or IPv6-only
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
if not "%GW%"=="" ping -n 3 -w 1000 %GW%
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
ping -n 3 -w 2000 %LIVE%
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
tracert -d -h 6 -w 1000 %LIVE%
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
netsh wlan show interfaces | findstr /i /c:" Name" /c:"State" /c:"SSID" /c:"Signal" /c:"Receive rate" /c:"Transmit rate"
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
echo Upload check (Bytes Sent, 10s apart):
netstat -e | findstr /i "Bytes"
timeout /t 10 /nobreak >nul
netstat -e | findstr /i "Bytes"
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
curl -s -o NUL --max-time 30 -w "dns=%%{time_namelookup} connect=%%{time_connect} tls=%%{time_appconnect} ttfb=%%{time_starttransfer} total=%%{time_total}\n" https://forum.drugs-and-users.org/index.php
echo Finished !
endlocal

Andrew

how do i pause it at the end ?

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--21:08:12:308 AEST]

I added a pause line just before endlocal, so the window now waits for a keypress at the end. The updated slowdiags.bat is in the sidebar.

If you'd rather edit your own copy, put this line after echo Finished !:

pause

Andrew

remove the pause and have it output to a file

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--21:13:58:863 AEST]

Updated slowdiags.bat (v1.1) is in the sidebar. The pause is gone, and everything now goes into a log file in the same folder as the script, e.g. C:\scripts\slowdiags_20260925_211500.log.

Log name: a timestamp is added on each run, so earlier logs never get overwritten.
Console: only a start line and a final Done - output in ... line showing the log's path.
Run time: about 30 seconds to a minute, with every probe still capped.

Paste the log contents back, or attach the file.

[Attached file: slowdiags.bat — v1.1]

@echo off
rem slowdiags.bat v1.1 - Windows-side slow-page diagnostics (NUC)
rem v1.1: output written to a timestamped log beside this script; pause removed.
rem Auto-detects the current IPv4 gateway; every probe is capped (3 tries / short timeouts).
setlocal
set LIVE=128.199.200.202
set GW=
for /f "tokens=1,3" %%a in ('route print -4 0.0.0.0 ^| findstr /r /c:"^ *0\.0\.0\.0 "') do set GW=%%b
for /f %%t in ('powershell -NoProfile -Command "Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd_HHmmss"') do set TS=%%t
set LOG=%~dp0slowdiags_%TS%.log
echo Running diagnostics, writing to %LOG% ...
(
echo slowdiags run %TS%
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
echo Current IPv4 gateway: [%GW%]
if "%GW%"=="" echo No IPv4 default gateway found - link is down or IPv6-only
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
if not "%GW%"=="" ping -n 3 -w 1000 %GW%
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
ping -n 3 -w 2000 %LIVE%
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
tracert -d -h 6 -w 1000 %LIVE%
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
netsh wlan show interfaces | findstr /i /c:" Name" /c:"State" /c:"SSID" /c:"Signal" /c:"Receive rate" /c:"Transmit rate"
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
echo Upload check - Bytes Sent, 10s apart:
netstat -e | findstr /i "Bytes"
timeout /t 10 /nobreak >nul
netstat -e | findstr /i "Bytes"
echo ------------------------------------------------------------
curl -s -o NUL --max-time 30 -w "dns=%%{time_namelookup} connect=%%{time_connect} tls=%%{time_appconnect} ttfb=%%{time_starttransfer} total=%%{time_total}\n" https://forum.drugs-and-users.org/index.php
echo Finished !
) > "%LOG%" 2>&1
echo Done - output in %LOG%
endlocal

Andrew

[Attached file: slowdiags_20260925_211747.log]

slowdiags run 20260925_211747
------------------------------------------------------------
Current IPv4 gateway: [10.119.71.175]
------------------------------------------------------------

Pinging 10.119.71.175 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 10.119.71.175: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.119.71.175: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.119.71.175: bytes=32 time=108ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 10.119.71.175:
    Packets: Sent = 3, Received = 3, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 25ms, Maximum = 108ms, Average = 67ms
------------------------------------------------------------

Pinging 128.199.200.202 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 128.199.200.202: bytes=32 time=418ms TTL=50
Reply from 128.199.200.202: bytes=32 time=420ms TTL=50
Reply from 128.199.200.202: bytes=32 time=552ms TTL=50

Ping statistics for 128.199.200.202:
    Packets: Sent = 3, Received = 3, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 418ms, Maximum = 552ms, Average = 463ms
------------------------------------------------------------

Tracing route to 128.199.200.202 over a maximum of 6 hops

  1   205 ms    27 ms     3 ms  10.119.71.175
  2   130 ms    40 ms     4 ms  192.0.0.1
  3     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  6     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Trace complete.
------------------------------------------------------------
    Name                   : Wi-Fi 2
    State                  : disconnected
    Name                   : Wi-Fi 3
    State                  : connected
    SSID                   : AndroidAPAE
    BSSID                  : f2:66:d2:21:bf:b2
    Receive rate (Mbps)    : 144.4
    Transmit rate (Mbps)   : 144.4
    Signal                 : 62%
------------------------------------------------------------
Upload check - Bytes Sent, 10s apart:
Bytes                    1720358654        71649781
Bytes                    1876762298        72955576
------------------------------------------------------------
dns=0.007472 connect=0.172474 tls=1.464243 ttfb=3.097528 total=5.104576
Finished !

oh, this is just academic - i fixed the problem by rebooting my phone and the NUC !

Claude

Claude: [25/09/2026--21:19:42:149 AEST]

That fits everything we saw. The phone hotspot's link to the NUC had gone bad, with 44% loss at the very first hop, and rebooting both cleared it. The log confirms it: 0% loss all the way through, and a page now loads in about 5 s instead of 2 minutes.

Some things in the log are still worth knowing:

Something was downloading heavily during the test. In netstat -e the first column is Received and the second is Sent (my "Bytes Sent" label was wrong). Received went up by about 156 MB in 10 seconds, roughly 125 Mbps. Upload was only about 130 KB/s. That's probably Windows Update or a sync catching up after the reboot. Traffic like that inflates latency on a hotspot, which likely explains the next two points.
Latency is high: 25–108 ms to the phone, where under 10 ms is normal, and about 460 ms to Live. It should improve once that download finishes.
TLS took 1.46 s from your end, compared with 0.085 s measured on Live itself. That's the mobile link, not the server.

If pages get slow again, run slowdiags first. A lot of loss at hop 1 means reboot the phone and NUC. A clean hop 1 with slow pages means check Live.

Andrew

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