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Chris Moy
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p.1 #1 · Smugmug

Is it just me or is Smugmug down

Oct 08, 2009 at 02:27 PM

unabacia
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p.1 #2 · Smugmug

down again; 2nd time this week

Oct 08, 2009 at 02:34 PM

Chris Moy
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p.1 #3 · Smugmug

Didn't realize this was the second time

Thanks!

Oct 08, 2009 at 02:37 PM

Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #4 · Smugmug

Maybe its crashed from all the PBasers moving because pbase was down for a couple of days

Oct 08, 2009 at 04:17 PM

Chris Moy
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p.1 #5 · Smugmug

Oct 08, 2009 at 04:21 PM

bitmaker
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p.1 #6 · Smugmug

After almost 4 years with Smugmug I gave up on them a couple months ago. They spend way too much time out of service, the weekends are hell even when just viewing images, and upload speed can be painfully slow/problematical any time. Also, there are cheaper alternatives that actually offer more. My wife is trying to get away from them (after renewing her subscription just 3 months ago) but they aren't making that easy. Finally, they refuse to embrace browsers other than IE (which we don't use).

Smugmug was good in the past but they certainly aren't what the use to be.

Oct 08, 2009 at 05:25 PM

Chris Moy
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p.1 #7 · Smugmug

They are SLOW uploading!

40 photos took all night!

Besides the slow upload I've been happy, for now.

It's back up and running!

Oct 08, 2009 at 05:28 PM

globalkiwi
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p.1 #8 · Smugmug

bitmaker wrote:
Smugmug was good in the past but they certainly aren't what the use to be.

Which raises the question, what's the best alternative? What are you considering shifting to?

Oct 08, 2009 at 05:46 PM

Lars Johnsson
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p.1 #9 · Smugmug

Chris Moy wrote:
They are SLOW uploading!

40 photos took all night!

Besides the slow upload I've been happy, for now.

It's back up and running!

Are you shure it's SmugMug and not your connection that is so slow? Normaly I upload 40 photos in a couple of minutes at SmugMug

Oct 08, 2009 at 05:50 PM

Jeff Langevin
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p.1 #10 · Smugmug

What uploader are you using? When I use the java plug-in its pretty quick. I uploaded a slew of stuff last week and I'd estimate that 40 photos would have taken me under 25 minutes. Are you on cable or DSL? Upload speeds are very different from download speeds on those. I'm on Verizon FiOS which is known for much better upload speeds. Just saying it might be your ISP rather than SM.

That being said, I also am frustrated by the down time. Last week it went down right while I was doing some updates to my layout and it made things look pretty bad until I was able to get back in and finish. I'm also interested in alternatives (specifically ones that won't break the bank right now).

Oct 08, 2009 at 05:56 PM

Jeff Langevin
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p.1 #11 · Smugmug

I was doing full-size images too, so we're talking upwards of 4-500MB.

Oct 08, 2009 at 05:58 PM

bitmaker
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p.1 #12 · Smugmug

I might give Zenfolio a try. I've spoken with two friends who've been with them for a while and they're both (mostly) happy with Zenfolio. The downside is, again, the IE issue. Like Smugmug, Zenfolio plays best with IE. One of my friends uses Safari and he states the upload speeds are very fast on his DSL. Zenfolio is a bit less expensive than Smugmug, and offers right-click-protect for all accounts (SM only offers the feature on the two more expensive accounts).

Another option is to go to a multi-rendering engine browser like Lunascape. It moves easily from Trident (IE) to Gecko (Firefox) to Webkit. So, for anyone preferring browsers like Firefox, Opera, and Safari one could easily switch Lunascape over to IE rendering to upload images and then easily get back to their preferred browser rendering engine.

Edited on Oct 08, 2009 at 06:10 PM · View previous versions

Oct 08, 2009 at 06:09 PM

Chris Moy
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p.1 #13 · Smugmug

I'm on DSL, Verizon. Uploading is sooooooooo slow!

This is what I use to upload on my McBook Pro...

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Oct 08, 2009 at 06:09 PM

Jeff Langevin
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p.1 #14 · Smugmug

Yup, that's the same java applet that I use. But as for Verizon, their basic tier only has 128kb/s which is pretty slow. Could also be your phone line quality. Either way, I'd bet a buck that its a Verizon slowness issue rather than a SM issue.

Oct 08, 2009 at 06:39 PM

bitmaker
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p.1 #15 · Smugmug

We're on a 1.0Mb/s up DSL line here and it doesn't make any difference. There are simply times when uploading to Smugmug is a pain. Doesn't matter what uploader we use... and the upload challenges are much worse than they were just a couple years ago. Coupled with the frequent "maintenance" shut downs along with the trouble just viewing images, and we've had enough.

Oct 08, 2009 at 07:10 PM

Chris Moy
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p.1 #16 · Smugmug

It's actually a bit faster here at work, also Verizon DSL. Might be our phone lines.

Oct 08, 2009 at 07:14 PM

Jeff Langevin
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p.1 #17 · Smugmug

Trouble viewing images? Curious to hear about this. I've had an account for a while, but just started using it so I haven't seen this. Do images just not display, slow load?

Oct 08, 2009 at 07:19 PM

luke_28
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p.1 #18 · Smugmug

Check their blog - http://smugmug.wordpress.com/

It is an issue with the infrastructure of their site and many are experiencing problems.

Oct 08, 2009 at 07:22 PM

bitmaker
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p.1 #19 · Smugmug

Jeff Langevin wrote:
Do images just not display, slow load?

It'll do both. If it's really bad, images will take forever to load... often minutes.

If they are experiencing problems with their "infrastructure", that's their problem... and it's been a problem for awhile. Shouldn't be the customers problem... they are afterall paying for a service.

Oct 08, 2009 at 07:32 PM

luke_28
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p.1 #20 · Smugmug

bitmaker wrote:
I might give Zenfolio a try. I've spoken with two friends who've been with them for a while and they're both (mostly) happy with Zenfolio. The downside is, again, the IE issue. Like Smugmug, Zenfolio plays best with IE. One of my friends uses Safari and he states the upload speeds are very fast on his DSL. Zenfolio is a bit less expensive than Smugmug, and offers right-click-protect for all accounts (SM only offers the feature on the two more expensive accounts).

I've been with Zenfolio for three years and I'm very happy with them. The only downside I find with ZF is the lack of customization vs. SM. Otherwise, I think they are as good or better in the other areas.
I don't use IE, but use Firefox and have no issues with ZF. I use the plugin for LR2 and uploads are easy.

Oct 08, 2009 at 07:37 PM

Jeff Langevin
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p.1 #21 · Smugmug

Hmmm... that's bothersome as I have a pro account with them. I can deal with not getting into the admin on occasion due to normal maintenance. But its been down outside of that scheduled time pretty frequently lately. My main issue is if my galleries don't load. That's unacceptable...

Oct 08, 2009 at 07:41 PM

bitmaker
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p.1 #22 · Smugmug

luke_28 wrote:
I've been with Zenfolio for three years and I'm very happy with them. The only downside I find with ZF is the lack of customization vs. SM. Otherwise, I think they are as good or better in the other areas.
I don't use IE, but use Firefox and have no issues with ZF. I use the plugin for LR2 and uploads are easy.

Thanks for the info!

Oct 08, 2009 at 08:23 PM

Rockies Photo
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p.1 #23 · Smugmug

I've been with SM for 2 years. However, a month ago, I decided to switch my primary hosting to Zenfolio. I have grown, very tired of all the downtime/ maintenance/ upload issues, with Smugmug. I had a Pro Acct, & dropped down, to a Power User, as the Svc & CC Fees' were higher & killing my profit margins', more than other hosting sites. I utilized MacDaddy, as my uploading tool of choice, as I was not aware, that SM, had added PhotoMechanic, as an upload tool. Connection speeds are of No Issue, on my end. I have a 10 MEG DL / 1 MEG UP, Cable Connection. Also, I have not found that IE is preferential over FireFox, as I use FF, as my browser of choice, and have yet to encounter any problems.

There would be times, while I'm uploading, that suddenly, I started getting errors with MacDaddy, & I switched over to SM, to only notice, that site was down. Sometimes' its down for 10 minutes, sometimes' its' 4 hours. Either way, that does not work for my needs, when I'm Bulk Uploading xxxx images at time. Since I switched to Zenfolio, they have had, one instance of downtime, however, they sent out an email about 3 days in advance, so you could work around it. I am extremely happy with Zenfolio. Although, you don't have the level of customization, that I have found so far, IMO, it is more streamlined & easier to use/ navigate, than Smugmug. I'm not bashing Smugmug, but the up/ down time has been a pretty steady inconvenience for me.

James

Oct 09, 2009 at 02:38 AM

ham1
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p.1 #24 · Smugmug

bitmaker wrote:
Finally, they refuse to embrace browsers other than IE (which we don't use).

I would love to report back any issues you are facing. We test heavily on FF, Safari, and IE.

What other browsers don't we support well?

Markham

Oct 09, 2009 at 10:37 PM

ham1
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p.1 #25 · Smugmug

bitmaker wrote:
My wife is trying to get away from them (after renewing her subscription just 3 months ago) but they aren't making that easy.

I am very sorry to hear this. Please give me the URL to your wife's SmugMug account and I will definitely take care of it. You can PM as well.

Markham

Oct 09, 2009 at 10:39 PM


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