Diagnosing and Reporting Slowness in iCarol

Diagnosing and Reporting Slowness in iCarol

Reporting Slowness in iCarol

Sometimes you might notice iCarol isn’t running as fast as you’d like it do. This can be caused by any number of factors related to your network connection, iCarol’s servers, or a combination of both. In most instances, you’ll notice the slowness will resolve by itself within a few hours, but sometimes a designated Support Contact may wish to reach out to the iCarol Support Team to report the issue.
 
When a designated Support Contact reports slowness in iCarol, general statements about the slowness are not helpful when trying to determine the root cause. Instead, specific details are needed in order for further investigation to occur, including but not limited to:
  1. Who was effected; was it all users in iCarol at the time, or only some users? If only some users were effected, provide the names of those users.
  2. What internet browser and version were being used at the time the slowness was experienced? It's important for our investigation to note if this was only happening on one browser, or if it was happening across multiple browsers. 
  3. Where were the users physically located who were experiencing the slowness? For example, were the users all working remotely in their homes/offices, or were all users experiencing the slowness in the same physical location?
  4. What areas of iCarol were effected? For example, was the slowness only occurring when searching for resources in a contact form (call report)?
  5. What did status.icarol.com say at the time the slowness was occurring? Did the current status and comments reflect any irregular activity, or were all statuses appearing to be working as expected (indicated by a green check mark under the 'Current Status' column)?
  6. When did the slowness begin; approximately what time? If the slowness is no longer occurring, approximately what time did it end?
  7. Why did the slowness occur? Of course you can’t answer this question yourself, but if there are any patterns you notice yourself about the slowness, or the users experiencing the slowness that you think might be helpful for our investigation, please provide those additional details.
The more specific the information you provide, the better we’ll be able to troubleshoot what caused the slowness.

Diagnosing Slowness in iCarol

When looking at how much bandwidth you need to access iCarol, the recommendation is a minimum of 0.5Mbps per user. This is a very low requirement for bandwidth so it's likely your organization meets these requirements. After you confirm your organization meets these requirements, if you're still experiencing prolonged slowness, the information in this help article will guide you to run some speed tests to help us further troubleshoot some possible causes of the slowness you're experiencing. 

In addition to providing the details Reportign Slowness details from above, if you or someone at your organization has basic skills and knowledge about troubleshooting issues on websites, you’ll be able to help us greatly in our investigation by first reviewing the following information and providing the details requested in there to help further diagnose the slowness.

If you are experiencing issues with your iCarol system that are difficult to describe, where information may not be populating, saving, or loading as quickly as you expect, complete the following diagnostic tests prior to submitting a case to Support. The results of these tests may help us to eliminate local network issues, and find the root cause of the issue faster.

When a designated Support Contact submits a case, please include a document with the following screen shots, the time/date you completed these tests, and what browser version you were using:

Test One: Use a Timer Extension

It can be useful to use a timer extension to see exactly where the slowness is occurring. A timer extension will break down the process of loading a page and tell you how long each step is taking.

Most browsers have a timer extension you can download and use. Some browsers may call these ‘extensions’ or ‘add-ons’, and each browser will have a different name for the tool.  For example, Google Chrome's extension is called ‘Page load time’.  The first step to using a timer extension or add-on is to find and download it. Once this is done, you will usually find the timer extension in the tool bar of your browser.

To use the timer extension to time page loads in iCarol, complete the following steps:
  1. Navigate to the page that is loading slowly
  2. Click the timer extension icon in the tool bar of your browser
  3. You should see a chart or a list of events or actions, and how long each of those events or actions took
  4. In general, it should not take more than 5 seconds to load a page in iCarol.
    1. The exception is when searching resources, especially if the resource database is very large; some resource searches can take up to 10 seconds.
  5. If the total load time for the page is greater than 5-10 seconds, refer to the timer extension chart or list to see where the most time was spent. Each timer extension will call the events or actions by a slightly different name, but there should be enough similarities to recognize the names of most of the events or actions between browsers, using the following information:
    1. Slow ‘Request’ and ‘Response’ times may indicate an issue with the iCarol servers
    2. Slow ‘Redirect’, ‘DNS’ or ‘Connect’ times may indicate an issue with the internet connection or network being used
    3. Slow ‘DOM’ or ‘Load Event’ times may indicate issues with the computer itself
  6. If the issue seems to be with your computer, network, or internet connection, please consult with a member of your IT team or your internet service provider. If the issue seems to be with iCarol's servers, please take a screenshot of the timer extension results

Test Two: Complete a Speed Test

  1. Login to iCarol, as an affected user and reproduce the slowness issue
  2. In a separate browser window/tab, go to www.speedtest.net
  3. Choose the appropriate location, depending on which server your iCarol system is on, by clicking on the white dots, and selecting a server from the popup menu (any server in the corresponding location will do):
    1. NA0 server (most iCarol systems): Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    2. NA1 server (few iCarol systems): San Antonio, Texas, United States
  4. Click ‘Begin Test’
  5. Allow the test to complete and take a full-page screen shot of the results, including the browser type and system time
If you are unsure where the locations listed above are located on a map, click here to see where Toronto, Ontario, Canada is located, or click here to see where San Antonio, Texas, United States is located. This information will help you locate the appropriate server on the website noted above.

Test Three: Complete a Trace Route to iCarol server in Command Prompt

For Windows Computers:
  1. Open the Windows Command Prompt
  2. Enter the following tracert: webapp.icarol.com
  3. Press ‘Enter’ on your keyboard
  4. Allow the Trace to complete, take a screenshot of the results; do not close the Command Prompt yet
For Mac Computers
  1. Open Safari and enter http://pingtest.net/ in the Smart Search field
  2. Click ‘Begin test’
  3. An alert appears saying ‘Do you want to trust the website www.pingtest.net to use the ‘Java’ plug in?’ Click ‘Trust’ and then ‘Run’ in the ‘Do you want to run this application’ window
  4. You should see your IP and ISP name at the bottom left of the globe; verify if this is correct
  5. Click ‘Begin Test’, and take a screenshot of the results

Test Four: Complete a Ping to the iCarol server in Command Prompt

For Windows Computers:
  1. Use the same Command Prompt window as opened in Test Two
  2. Type in exactly ping webapp.icarol.com
  3. Press ‘Enter’ on your keyboard
  4. Allow the ping to finish, and take a screen shot of the results
For Mac Computers
  1. Launch the Network Utility
  2. Click ‘Traceroute’
  3. Enter the domain name ‘webapp.icarol.com’ to perform a traceroute
  4. Click ‘Trace’
  5. Allow the trace to finish, and take a screen shot of the results

We know that these tests can feel a bit technical, and not everyone is comfortable with running them. If you would like additional support to walk through the steps please request that in your case. 

Otherwise, after you have finished running these test, make sure all the screenshots are included in a document and have a designated Support Contact go to 'Help' in the left side menu to submit a case with the screenshots as an attachment, and an explanation of the slowness that is occurring. Remember to make sure the additional details outlined in this related help article are also included.

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