Webgui slow?

sbn · Dec 22, 2005, 5:11 PM

I currently have m0n0wall as my main firewall and have been using pfsense to test routing to a second network. Since using m0n0wall I can not help but make this comparison, although maybe I shouldn't because pfsense has really evolved into something far removed it seems. Anyways, here is my issue. I have found the webgui to range from either very slow to just plain unresponsive

Just last night I switched the m0n0 drive with another drive, and installed 96.4. When setting up an IPSEC tunnel, often the pages would just hang whenever I would make a change. This became very difficult when trying to switch between the logs and config pages.

My first thought would be to consider the hardware, but I have used numerous devices ranging from an Intel 500Mhz w/256MB RAM to an AMD 64 3400+.

I don't know if anyone else has experienced this or not, but I just thought I should at least bring this topic up.

sullrich · Dec 22, 2005, 6:39 PM

I am not seeing any slowdowns on my 500mhz boxes or 800 mhz boxes.

Please describe the process that you took to slow it down.

Also, did you enable SSH?

Jesse7 · Dec 22, 2005, 9:14 PM

@sbn:

I currently have m0n0wall as my main firewall and have been using pfsense to test routing to a second network. Since using m0n0wall I can not help but make this comparison, although maybe I shouldn't because pfsense has really evolved into something far removed it seems. Anyways, here is my issue. I have found the webgui to range from either very slow to just plain unresponsive

Just last night I switched the m0n0 drive with another drive, and installed 96.4. When setting up an IPSEC tunnel, often the pages would just hang whenever I would make a change. This became very difficult when trying to switch between the logs and config pages.

My first thought would be to consider the hardware, but I have used numerous devices ranging from an Intel 500Mhz w/256MB RAM to an AMD 64 3400+.

I don't know if anyone else has experienced this or not, but I just thought I should at least bring this topic up.

I experienced this when my HDD became full. Ntop can fill up your HDD by about 1 gig or more per day.

I also think Ntop really makes a big performance hit in general on your pfbox, even though the CPU usage seems really low I think HDD activity slows down the webgui.
My pf used to run really well on .90. Nice and fast but anything I have used after that with ntop has been noticibly slower. I can't get to my PF box for a while so I can't really test if what I am saying is true or not. It is just an observation I made.

sbn · Dec 27, 2005, 9:45 PM

It is slow just doing a basic install, without any packages, on hard drives between 6-10GB. I know memory is not an issue has I have put between 256-512MB. Most of the time the issue is not just speed, but just unresponsive. Since the pages are loading up through a LAN that discounts bandwidth. I am going to see what the new beta version does and get back.

One disclaimer that I should point out is I do not run the live CD, these are all installed on the hard drive. That is one reason I am looking at Pfsense over m0n0wall is the installation feature which allows extra packages. At the moment although m0n0wall can be installed on a HD, there are no packages available.

Dec 28, 2005, 4:31 PM

I have pfSense installed on about 6 different machines, ranging from 300mhz Celerons, up to a Pentium 3. I have never experienced slowness with the webgui on any of these boxes. And since lighty became the http server du jour, the webui got even snappier.

billm · Dec 29, 2005, 7:47 AM

If the shaper is enabled, please turn it off (especially if you have a slow WAN connection) and try again.

–Bill

Leoandru · Dec 31, 2005, 10:12 PM

I started using pfSense just last week and I dont particularly find the wegui slow, sometimes unresponsive but not slow.

sullrich · Dec 31, 2005, 11:03 PM

@Leoandru:

I started using pfSense just last week and I dont particularly find the wegui slow, sometimes unresponsive but not slow.

If you have 128 megs of ram, its going to speed up quite a bit now that fast-cgi is enabled and fully working for beta 2.

sullrich · Jan 7, 2006, 12:58 AM

On beta 2 with a Soekris 4501, the average page load time is now 3 seconds, down from 9-12s.

hoba · Jan 7, 2006, 2:00 AM

Most pages are even below 2 seconds now on the wrap (benched with fasterfox) ;D

I just benched comparable pages (captive portal) between a m0n0 1.21 and pfsense 1.0beta2 and they are equal when using the pfsense-theme (m0n0 like one with the side navigation). Even when using the metallic theme most pages are loading in less than 2 seconds now.

rds_correia · Jan 14, 2006, 6:33 PM

So hurry up with b2 ;D.
Just kidding guys, take your time ;).
Cheers

sbn · Feb 4, 2006, 11:36 PM

Last night I installed the latest beta version on a 400Mhz w/256 RAM. After connecting to the GUI and hopping through the setup pages, I went to the sections to configure for my use. Setup password ok, snmp ok, then went to the IPSEC page and from there it went down hill. I filled out the parameters for my VPN connection, then went I went to see the page just hung. After a while I just figured it wasn't going to load. So I tried to browse to the index page, though it never loaded. I reboot the machine and was never able to pull up a gui.

It was then I decided to pull swap out the drive and install in a 600Mhz w/768 RAM. This actually was worse. Upon first load of the webgui it came up fine. But the first link I hit (next?) it just hanged there. Never did get the gui up again.

Is there some way I can look at a log/debug of this? I don't think what I am describing is helping any in terms of determining the cause of the problem.

sullrich · Feb 4, 2006, 11:45 PM

Did you do a full reinstall or an upgrade? If you did a upgrade please reinstall from ISO.

Also, please start a new thread as this has nothing to do with the webGUI being slow, broken is completely different.