Re: Emacs slow away from office

[Tim X]

Tyler Smith <tyler.smith@eku.edu> writes:

> Tim X <timx@nospam.dev.null> writes:
>
>> Mark Carter <alt.mcarter@googlemail.com> writes:
>>
>>> I have a works laptop containing GNU emacs 23.1.1. When I am at the
>>> office, connected to our office network, emacs works at normal speed.
>>> When I am at home, emacs takes a long time to load on the same
>>> laptop, and is often generally unresponsive, with long pauses in its
>>> operation. This happens consistently on every occasion. All my other
>>> programs work normally, as expected.
>>>
>>> What's going on?
>>
>> My first guess would be DNS or network related problems. In the past,
>> there have been reports of emacs becoming slow when the network wasn't
>> configured correctly. 

Without going through the code, I couldn't say. However, at a guess, it
probably depends a lot on how someone has their emacs configured and
what packages are loaded etc. Things which could be relevant include 

* SMTP server settings. Maybe emacs verifies server access when it
  starts?
* Tramp. I know for example that running ido-mode also loads tramp
  even if you don't visit a remote file system
* Emacs probably needs networking configured correctly to determine its
  hostname and to handle things like emacs server and daemon mode etc
* Many emacs packages and add ons rely on network services. Depending on
  when/how they are loaded could impact on what emacs is doing. 

Note that the FAQ and/or PROBLEMS file has an item regarding slow
startup etc which is due to misconfigured network settings and that this
is relevant even if the computer is not on a network.

Tim

-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au