A while back, our support team in Armenia reported that our website was running extremely slowly for them, despite the fact that our backend and CDN are both located in us-east-1. Initially, we thought there was an issue on our side, but after checking server load, the database, cache, and logs, everything appeared fine. Speedtests from the agents returned great results, and major websites like Google and YouTube loaded instantly. The problem seemed to be isolated to our backend, but the browser's DevTools revealed a Time To First Byte (TTFB) of around 2 seconds, suggesting a slow server response. Intriguingly, as the day went on, the issue resolved itself without any changes made. In future tests, using a VPN resulted in immediate improvements in load times. It seems the internet path between certain ISPs in Armenia and our backend could be problematic, reinforcing the idea that a high TTFB doesn't always point to a backend issue. What strategies do you use to troubleshoot similar performance problems that affect specific ISPs or regions?
4 Answers
We've faced similar issues, especially with clients in restricted regions. For instance, a client in Russia experienced extremely slow performance mainly due to Cloudflare traffic being throttled from that location. We had to find ways around it using DNS tricks for that user. It’s a tricky situation, and exploring CDN alternatives might be worth considering, especially in sensitive regions.
This sounds like a classic case of network-related issues that many people overlook! It's important to consider all three aspects: server side, client side, and network side. Even experienced devs sometimes forget how a user's ISP can affect performance. CDNs help mitigate some of these route issues, but not completely. When in doubt, DO get the user to test from different connections, like you mentioned with the VPN—it often provides valuable clues that troubleshooters need to see the real situation.
Absolutely! I think the common mistake is to jump straight to conclusions. That DevTools TTFB can really mislead you, just like your situation shows.
Are you using CloudFront? It can sometimes complicate the picture, especially if your origin latency is good but the CDN performance is inconsistent for specific users or locations.
Yes, we are using CloudFront, which really made this situation confusing. The origin latency was low, but user experience can still vary dramatically based on their ISP.
This is why I have uptime monitors set up globally! They alert me if my site is slow anywhere, even if it's hosted far away. I get useful diagnostics and a waterfall view of network requests, so I can address issues before users complain.
We used to rely on synthetic monitors, but it seems like moving to Real User Monitoring (RUM) solutions might give us clearer insights into our actual user experience.
Could you share which CDN might work better for Russian users? We're facing similar performance issues and are exploring our options.