Bugs and things to fix

[Sunflower]

Potatobunny's last post reminded me -- I got the Internal Server Error message once or twice yesterday.  Not this evening, though.

[Sunflower]

Sir.Orc just posted in Disqus that he can't get into the Forum:

Hey, I'm having trouble getting into my account on the Fan-forum. I forgot my password and the password reset doesn't seem to be sending me the email I need to get in. Can anyone from the forum help? Apologies to the rest.

Can anyone help?  Especially since he just wrote an excellent poem about Lalli's mage-vision that I'm sure we'd all like him to save for posterity.   

[Fimbulvarg]

Potatobunny's last post reminded me -- I got the Internal Server Error message once or twice yesterday.  Not this evening, though.

I've noticed that my IP has been different the last few days. It's back to normal now and coincidentally the loading errors seem to have stopped.

[JoB]

Getting more non-connects from my browser today than before, and got the following error message (only once):

XML Parsing Error: unexpected parser state Location: jar:file:///usr/lib64/firefox/omni.ja!/chrome/toolkit/content/global/netError.xhtml Line Number 305, Column 54:
<div id="ed_netTimeout">&netTimeout.longDesc;</div>
-----------------------------------------------------^

(Durn, lost the line breaks and indentation during the copypasta ... The marker was pointing at the semicolon IIRC.)

[Nimphy]

Lots of non-connects here, too. While before it was sufficient to reload the page to get it, now I've found myself reloading five-six times before the page shows.

Also, sometimes (dunno if it's just me or if it's even useful info at all) I see a particular profile pic (first Fimbulvarg, then mithyrsc, then Sparky Dragon, etc.) under every other avatar (first the correct one, then the wrong one, one above the other), except for yours, Eich. I don't see your avatar at all and only the wrong avatar shows up.

[JoB]

I just noticed that when I keep hitting "reload" in the browser, the "News" in the top right corner will switch back and forth, every couple reloads, between the "Link to the Comic" and the "Hey, Everyone!". IIUC it should be the latter, and naught but that one? If so, there's definitely something amiss proxy/cache-wise, rather than on the server running the forum itself ...

[Eich]

I just noticed that when I keep hitting "reload" in the browser, the "News" in the top right corner will switch back and forth, every couple reloads, between the "Link to the Comic" and the "Hey, Everyone!". IIUC it should be the latter, and naught but that one? If so, there's definitely something amiss proxy/cache-wise, rather than on the server running the forum itself ...

I intended for there to be two news posts at once, but they liked to switch back and forth.  We already decided to make the new language board, so I was going to take it down yesterday.  Thanks for the reminder.  Also, it seems that was causing the problems.  As soon as I cleared the news, I stopped having to reload the pages to get the to load.

Edit: it's being glitchy again.   

[Sunflower]

I'm still having loading problems -- probably about 2/3 of the time I click a link here.  It always resolves within 3-4 refreshes, so I don't panic (though I almost did when I thought it had eaten a whole screenful of text).  But it might discourage a first-time visitor.

Also, last night I got a message about "server cannot access this thread."  Unfortunately, I didn't take a screenshot.  But it was a single line of text at the top of a white screen.  As with other problems, it went away when I reloaded.

[JoB]

Got one completely empty page and one with the one-liner "Domain document root not found." right now. (Which I find interesting because the DocumentRoot IIUC is a concept only available on the server itself, not the caches and proxies.)

[Sunflower]

Got one completely empty page and one with the one-liner "Domain document root not found." right now. (Which I find interesting because the DocumentRoot IIUC is a concept only available on the server itself, not the caches and proxies.)

THAT was what I saw yesterday and couldn't remember!  Not "server cannot access this thread."  Thanks for jogging my memory.

I got it when I was trying to click on a thread by its screen number (#55 of General Discussion, I think), after I couldn't get in by clicking the "Most Recent Post" button.

[JoB]

FWIW, I just had a series of "cannot connect" and threw a packet sniffer at it while it lasted. There's nothing going on but the browser sending (a total of four) SYNs, and promptly getting RSTs back:

Code: [Select]

00:25:20.552966 IP mylaptop.33297 > 198.91.81.5.80: Flags [S], seq 254282685, win 29200, options [mss 1460,sackOK,TS val 195881290 ecr 0,nop,wscale 7], length 0
00:25:20.669602 IP 198.91.81.5.80 > mylaptop.33297: Flags [R.], seq 0, ack 254282686, win 0, length 0
00:25:20.669901 IP mylaptop.33298 > 198.91.81.5.80: Flags [S], seq 3575710619, win 29200, options [mss 1460,sackOK,TS val 195881407 ecr 0,nop,wscale 7], length 0
00:25:20.783257 IP 198.91.81.5.80 > mylaptop.33298: Flags [R.], seq 0, ack 3575710620, win 0, length 0
00:25:20.783643 IP mylaptop.33299 > 198.91.81.5.80: Flags [S], seq 3057264016, win 29200, options [mss 1460,sackOK,TS val 195881521 ecr 0,nop,wscale 7], length 0
00:25:20.901366 IP 198.91.81.5.80 > mylaptop.33299: Flags [R.], seq 0, ack 3057264017, win 0, length 0
00:25:20.901585 IP mylaptop.33300 > 198.91.81.5.80: Flags [S], seq 3674252768, win 29200, options [mss 1460,sackOK,TS val 195881639 ecr 0,nop,wscale 7], length 0
00:25:21.017029 IP 198.91.81.5.80 > mylaptop.33300: Flags [R.], seq 0, ack 3674252769, win 0, length 0
Could be a firewall throttling traffic or the connection rate, or the server running out of sockets or file descriptors to accept the connection attempts ...

[Eich]

FWIW, I just had a series of "cannot connect" and threw a packet sniffer at it while it lasted. There's nothing going on but the browser sending (a total of four) SYNs, and promptly getting RSTs back:

Code: [Select]

00:25:20.552966 IP mylaptop.33297 > 198.91.81.5.80: Flags [S], seq 254282685, win 29200, options [mss 1460,sackOK,TS val 195881290 ecr 0,nop,wscale 7], length 0
00:25:20.669602 IP 198.91.81.5.80 > mylaptop.33297: Flags [R.], seq 0, ack 254282686, win 0, length 0
00:25:20.669901 IP mylaptop.33298 > 198.91.81.5.80: Flags [S], seq 3575710619, win 29200, options [mss 1460,sackOK,TS val 195881407 ecr 0,nop,wscale 7], length 0
00:25:20.783257 IP 198.91.81.5.80 > mylaptop.33298: Flags [R.], seq 0, ack 3575710620, win 0, length 0
00:25:20.783643 IP mylaptop.33299 > 198.91.81.5.80: Flags [S], seq 3057264016, win 29200, options [mss 1460,sackOK,TS val 195881521 ecr 0,nop,wscale 7], length 0
00:25:20.901366 IP 198.91.81.5.80 > mylaptop.33299: Flags [R.], seq 0, ack 3057264017, win 0, length 0
00:25:20.901585 IP mylaptop.33300 > 198.91.81.5.80: Flags [S], seq 3674252768, win 29200, options [mss 1460,sackOK,TS val 195881639 ecr 0,nop,wscale 7], length 0
00:25:21.017029 IP 198.91.81.5.80 > mylaptop.33300: Flags [R.], seq 0, ack 3674252769, win 0, length 0
Could be a firewall throttling traffic or the connection rate, or the server running out of sockets or file descriptors to accept the connection attempts ...

Is it because there's lots of people, or posts, or something?
I don't speak computer...  I really hate to admit it, but I'm totally inept in situations like this. 

[JoB]

Is it because there's lots of people, or posts, or something?

People, or bots, or the limits (payable quotas?) are just way too low. And keep in mind that that's just my first off-the-cuff remote diagnosis ...

[Eich]

People, or bots, or the limits (payable quotas?) are just way too low. And keep in mind that that's just my first off-the-cuff remote diagnosis ...

I can upgrade the site.  It's pretty cheap, but I think it more than doubles the space we can use.

[Sunflower]

People, or bots, or the limits (payable quotas?) are just way too low. And keep in mind that that's just my first off-the-cuff remote diagnosis ...

Huh.  So IIUC, there's just more traffic than the site can currently handle?  And that's why we have to essentially "wait our turn" to get a socket connection, by refreshing several times?

If I looked up SYN, RST, and so forth via Google or glossary, would I get a usable definition?
I doubt I could learn enough to actually help you guys fix the problem, but at least I could file more useful bug reports.

Plus, I'm looking for writing work in Silicon Valley (helping genuinely technical types explain themselves to a non-technical audience), so I'd like to be a bit less clueless.