Trouble connecting to R

[noetsi]

My office closed and we now work from home. I connect through a VPN (it is a state computer and there are serious concerns with security). My internet connection, which used to be the state one now turned off, is in practice 60 megs down (in theory 100 but it never is) and 5 up. Things are a bit slower then before, but not much except with R which is incredibly slow now.

Any suggestion - I am assuming the VPN does not play nice with R. I am hoping there is some way to fix this. Or make it faster anyhow. If I can't fix it my efforts to learn R are not going anywhere (see now I have an excuse).

 

[noetsi]

It appears that the functions and building on imported data work fine. But running library statements or importing data is slow.

 

[hlsmith]

that makes sense, since R is likely on your machine.

It all depends where everything is saved.

 

[noetsi]

I am pretty sure it is saved to my C drive. What I meant is it ran much faster before when I used the state connection rather than through a VPN to that (the state wireless has no VPN to go through). This occurs for other things, but is worse with R than most.

 

[Dason]

I mean... Sounds like you should talk to IT. You're throwing around terms and I'm not 100% confident you're describing your situation perfectly but IT should at least be able to understand you better and help you out.

 

[hlsmith]

Are we talking about a laptop? Are the packages getting saved the local machine or your server drive?

 

[noetsi]

IT could care less about R. That is why I am not talking to them. I had to fight with IT long ago to even get R. I am the only one in my entire division who likely uses R.

I am talking about simple stuff dason. When I do a library statement or import data into R it runs very slowly compared to the past.

We are talking about a laptop. I do not know where the packages are being saved.

 

[Dason]

No offense but you really don't know what you're talking about it seems. IT might not care about R but they should at least understand your network, VPN, and software stack more than you do and certainly more than us.

It's at least worth asking for their help.

Literally it sounds like you're saying "something in my network changed and now R isn't as fast" but you're refusing to believe that it might be a network issue.

 

[noetsi]

I will ask their help. I already know what they will say. The same thing they do when I ask them SAS related questions. But I have nothing to lose.

Dason I think you misunderstand what I am saying. I am sure it is a network issue due to the change in networks and possibly the VPN. I am trying to find out if there is anyway to connect to R or run R to speed up the connection. No one in IT knows anything about R at all. When I ask their help they tell me I am the expert and ask me what they should do.

I think your IT might be a little different than mine.

 

[hlsmith]

This is the same machine you used in the office? Well, yeah if your data reside on a server space and you aren't hardwired, it could take longer to import your data. Remember you are constantly telling us "I have the full population, 10s of thousands of obs"!!! Is it the library statement that is taking longer or install.package? Library would not make sense unless maybe at home the machine is getting tied up doing something else or you need to clear out its working memory with a restart or it is trying to pull the god **** package also off your serve space on a non-hard wired machine. RIGHT???

 

[Dason]

That's probably what is happening. Not there isn't much we can do to diagnose or help out - it would require either just patience or IT to help.

 

[hlsmith]

I have a solution for you. Listen carefully - take your machine and unplug it. Then put it in its case and go to your local petro station. Fill up your fuel tank and start driving North. It is going to be a long drive, so you may need to stop for accommodations. When you stop do a Google search for the way greater Milwaukee area for a @Dason K. This robot will be able to help you with the issue and put you up for a couple of nights. You may need to reimburse the bot for its time by providing it aged ethanol.

 

[noetsi]

lol

I will talk to IT when the move is done. They are super busy now. Based on past experience they will be unable to help. I tell them what to do when it comes to R - they know literally nothing of it. They tell me I am the expert.

I have not tried to install a new package since the move. I am running what I did last month. It just takes much longer on any library statement or importing of data. In the past I was not on a VPN and was using a tower rather than the current laptop.

Sometimes there are tricks, for SAS I got it to run faster by adding more memory to my laptop in the past. I was just hoping there was some trick with R.

 

[Dason]

I mean it sounds like the issue is that your packages and data are stored not locally

 

[noetsi]

They are likely not stored locally. All data is stored at the NW Regional data center. We used to have our own servers, the state got rid of them.

 

[Dason]

Well. I mean I guess you could cache some stuff locally. You'd still have an initial long read for your data. But your data is relatively small so I'm guessing at max it's a matter of minutes versus hours?

 

[noetsi]

Oh yeah its minutes not hours. For hours I would not even try.

 

[Dason]

Well then read your data. Make some coffee. Store it locally for faster reads later.

If it makes you feel better I have some data that takes 1-2 hours to download from our servers. I don't even consider it extremely large.

 

[hlsmith]

He may not be allowed to store locally, but if you are complaining about minute - bug off. Deal with it.

 

[noetsi]

lol thanks.

I have never worked from home before. Its a cultural shock.

I doubt I can store my data locally. It is often sensitive, like go to jail sensitive.