Multisite WP-Admin and WP-Login INCREDIBLY Slow

Another interesting development. Just to rule out rewrite issues, I went to the Network Setup screen, copied the lines both for wp-config and for .htaccess, and when I went to find the .htaccess file in the folder, discovered it was missing.

So, I created the .htaccess file, pasted the rules in, restarted Apache, and now it seems to be slower, not faster. I should also note that this site, the one that I’m particularly concerned about, is nested in a folder whose parent folder also has a WordPress install, with its .htaccess file.

Not sure if that triggers any thoughts in your mind, Mike, but if so, I’d love to hear them!

Thanks again!

Wyatt

Akismet is the only one installed, and isn’t enabled. This is a new site that I’m developing…quite slowly.

Solved it. Turns out that you were right, jkhongusc. It was a problem with both wp-cron.php, and WordPress’s new auto-update feature, timing out because they couldn’t connect to the localhost using the website’s domain name and curl. I had example.com defined in /etc/hosts, but not www.example.com. The plugin pointed me to the error. (Nice plugin recommendation, by the way!) So dumb…

For those having similar issues, the way to solve this is simple. Just add the following two lines to your /etc/hosts file:

127.0.0.1     example.com
127.0.0.1     www.example.com

Thanks for all your help, guys!

Hi MarkDenis,

Are you paying a web host to host your sites, or are you self-hosting? If you’re self-hosting, what platform are you hosting on? (e.g., Ubuntu Linux, Windows, Mac, SUSE Linux, etc.)

Thanks,
Wyatt

Hi MarkDenis,

Unless you’re paying for a dedicated server or VPS, you won’t have access to your server’s /etc/hosts file, which is what you need to edit. Accordingly, you should contact your host. If you want to determine for sure that it’s a DNS issue (which will help your host), download the WP Query Monitor plugin and install it on your WordPress site.

Activate the plugin, then reload the admin page. WP Query Monitor will help you to pinpoint what is slowing you down. If you get any errors relating to HTTP requests, particularly HTTP requests that call files using your domain (e.g., example.com/wp-admin/something.php), then your host has a problem with their DNS setup.

When your website is doing the DNS lookup for your domain–in other words, when it asks the world wide web, “What’s the IP address for this domain?”–it gets the external IP address for your host’s network. So it then sends its request to that IP address, and the host’s router freaks out. It doesn’t know what to do. Some routers handle it well (usually commercial-grade), some don’t (usually consumer-grade).

By putting the entries above in your /etc/hosts file (which, again, you probably can’t access; it’s a system file that only your host can access, unless you’re on a dedicated server or VPS), you bypass your server’s request to the outside world, telling it, “Hey, for this (or these) domains, just send the request to yourself.” In other words, you’re doing what the router should be doing automatically.

That tells me that your host is an amateur, and you’re probably overpaying (€15.95 is way too much). You’re better off using a host that WordPress recommends. My company (Eleora, Inc.) hosts WordPress sites, but only for clients. Bluehost is a decent alternative, and one that WordPress recommends, but they load up their shared servers to the max, so you don’t get the best performance.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Wyatt