Downloading is very slow

[wolfspyryt]

When visitors try to download it takes a very long time for the download to complete. Often they get a timed out message. What can I do to increase the speed. Most downloads are 1-2mb only. http://www.watchawear.com/watches/watch-faces.html is a category to test.

[ColinM]

Hi
I had no trouble downloading and it was not slow. There was about five seconds whilst the connection was established, "waiting for http://www.watchawear.com" which is typical of any download but the download itself was fast. Tried with Firefox, Chrome Edge and Opera with no distinguishable difference. My interrnet connection is regular copper not fibre optic.
Colin

[wolfspyryt]

I have received hundreds of complaints of it hanging and timeouts.

[ColinM]

Hi
I do not doubt you were getting queries, it is just that I cannot reproduce the problem! 
Do you know what device people were using, or what browser?
Colin

[wolfspyryt]

Colin,
It was on multiple android phones, including both my Samsung s6 and s5.
Also on chrome, Firefox and several stock browsers on the phone.
It seems to be regardless of either.
When it's not timing out, people are commenting it's taking 15-20 seconds. This includes my phones and Samsung tab 4 tablet on WiFi or 4G network.
Same files on dropbox are instanot download.
Hope you can help, as I'm losing members by the dozens each day as they switch to using dropbox over my site. Traffic is dropping as well. From 10k visitors per day to 5k.
Terry

[ColinM]

Hi
Have just tried with Firefox on my Samsung S6 Andriod phone with Firefox.  There are two stages: some initial connection time and then the actual download.
The actual download seems quick but the connection time is slow.

Two observations.  The connect time speed is generally a function of the hosting web server.  You could see if switching to php 7 would help as it is about twice as fast.
Secondly I see you are using a Table based layout.  This is not good on mobile devices.  You might be better off converting to one of the <div based layouts.
If you need help with a new layout let me know - I presume you have a test site

Colin

[wolfspyryt]

Colin,
Those are both excellent answers. I have the hosting company investigating the server end of my dedicated server.
I will update the php as soon as possible, as I was certain I did, but see obviously I did not.
Also, the table vs. div layout... is that meaning on the individual file pages, category pages or both?

[ColinM]

Hi

Also, the table vs. div layout... is that meaning on the individual file pages, category pages or both?

It is a complete switch of all layout types. 
The most challenging one to do is the paginated sub categories one which is also in the Categories section of the Layouts.
You are probably using 'Standard Categories Layout for paginated Subcategories' or a variant of it. The one you want is "Standard Categories Layout for paginated Subcategories 3.2" or a variant.

If you go to the edit one of these layouts you will see a question "Use for Subcategories?" This needs to be set to No for the ones you do not want and to Yes for the v3.2 one.

The other layouts are selected as normal using the Activate facility as usual.
The two most important Layouts are the Files layout and the Download Details layout.

Colin

PS I have just sent you a PM