Identifying IP addresses and limiting access.

[Hectic]

Okay my site is dog slow.
I'm using shared hosting from Afrihost.

First off, I know just about nothing about hosting and scratched around and tried things and I'm sure anybody with a little bit of knowledge will tell me how bad my site is, but that is not that is not the issue for me atm, although I would obviously accept any advice. I don't have money to spend on the site though.
I'm using SMF software and a couple of mods.

For the last 3 weeks or so the site has been really slow. You can sit and wait for 40+ seconds for a page to change.
I've logged several tickets with Afrihost and most of the time they came back with info that said that they can see that the resources were limited due to high cpu usage.
All the members seems to be affected and it is not limited to an ISP or SP.

I would receive errors like these:
I typed in GT6 in the search bar.

An Error Has Occurred!
Due to high stress on the server, the search function has been automatically and temporarily disabled. Please try again in a short while.

It is a permanent error though.
The same with other folders I need to query.

They also said that it was due to high overseas visitors that have access to the site and that I should use "AWstats that is available in my CP and then limit the IP address.

I'm not sure which IP's belong to who though.
It is mainly a SA forum, but I do have overseas guys that visit the forum and that is legit.

I can check up on their IP in account details.

In general though, how do i check IP addresses or know where they originate?
I know some of the Telkom 105.x ranges and some of Afrihost, but not sure about the other SA ISP's, including Cell SP's.

Other times I'm told by the support staff that I should wait an hour and that there are backups running or that they were moving servers last week and that is why my site is running slow this morning. WTF?

Other times I would receive a mail @ 16:00, telling me that the site is running fine. This after I complained 08:00 in the morning.
There are times that the site is fast, but it is in the minority.

I have complained again this morning and the latest message indicate that the site is being looked at by the administrators, so I will have to see how that goes.

Any help regarding the IP addresses would be appreciated.

Thx.

Not sure if I must post pics of any stats that might provide some insight?

 

[koffiejunkie]

Okay my site is dog slow.
I'm using shared hosting from Afrihost.

I've not used them personally, but based on what I've read on this forum, this is your problem.

They also said that it was due to high overseas visitors

Like, that's the point of the internet - no geographical borders.

In general though, how do i check IP addresses or know where they originate?

whois should tell you who the ip belongs to, and a DNS tool like dig or nslookup can give you the reverse DNS (if there is any) which should give you a clue too.

Generally though, in my experience working for a big hosting provider, blocking based on geographic location is a piss poor attempt at trying to deal with the symptom and ignoring the problem.

 

[Hectic]

Thx for the feedback Koffiejunkie.
Will try your suggestions.

The forum is not big. We have about 212 members of which about 40 active on a daily basis.
I'm not sure if they are referring to spam or what.

I have limited the access to the forum and every new member must be approved.

This is just so frustrating.