For crying out loud..........

[Say again s l o w l y]

Can the Admins or the people who run this site actually make it work for more than 5 minutes at a time?

The reliability of Pprune is absolutely appalling. For the past few months (oddly enough after Danny gave up the reigns....) this place has crashed, had database corruptions and lots of general crapness.

When it was privately owned, this was acceptable (though it didn't happen very often), now it is a business, there is absolutely no excuse.

Poor, very poor.

[Mike-Bracknell]

I'd offer to cut a deal on the hosting, but I'm not sure how any commercial things like that would be viewed here.:confused:

[green granite]

It's not the usual error message either, haven't been able to get in all afternoon, currently had to go through a States side proxy to get in.

[crippen]

And theres no Nat West Bank,Daily Telegraph,Daily Mail,Times Teak Door ect ect ect. Think we will have to blame the interweb thing or the Koreans or a metiorite:rolleyes::ouch:

[Bushfiva]

I'd offer to cut a deal on the hosting

Right. :rolleyes:

[Mike-Bracknell]

Right. :rolleyes:

Are you stalking me?

How else do you think these things get sorted then? Sitting around in circles rubbing Ju-Ju beads? or maybe, as is the PPRuNe way you could all be divisive and start pointing fingers. You're certainly on your way to that.

[BEagle]

I've had a few 'could not connect' indications today - not the usual format either.

[Pontius Navigator]

Glad it's not just me. I upgraded my firewall yesterday so that was my first culprit.

[Saab Dastard]

Mike-Bracknell,

Please - calm down, get a grip. You are the new boy on the block here, and there seems to be a chip on at least one of your shoulders.

SD

[Mike-Bracknell]

Please - calm down, get a grip. You are the new boy on the block here, and there seems to be a chip on at least one of your shoulders.

Well aware of that SD, just trying to get an even break. :ok:

[Jofm5]

For crying out loud..........

SAS...............................

I of all people need not tell you there are more important things (I follow your thread in JB) - but you need to sort the belgrano out as your straws seems to be getting short :} Get back in the sky and quick :ok:

I am not so sure there is a problem with the site or its infrastructure - it seems more like someone is trying to consume resources it should not have. It may be a mysql or php problem (if its php - resort back to the original php.ini).

Mike: I dont think its a hosting issue as the server is providing the message - it seems a resources issue with the components.

p.s. I could not post my original message as I encountered the problem - but I laughed cause I had my first flying lesson today and feel on top of the world lol

[deltapapa]

pleased I'm not the only one having problems I must have had the 'cannot connect' notice 3 times out of 4 when trying to connect today

[ericlday]

Count me in with a number of 'cannot connect' notices during the day !!!!

[Mike-Bracknell]

Mike: I dont think its a hosting issue as the server is providing the message - it seems a resources issue with the components.

p.s. I could not post my original message as I encountered the problem - but I laughed cause I had my first flying lesson today and feel on top of the world lol

Might not be the server itself providing the message, but the load-balancing component and/or front-end.....but that's just supposition on my part as I have no details as to the current hosting setup.

Glad you're having fun in the skies though - looks like you picked a helluva day to do it weather-wise - we've had allsorts here!

[stepwilk]

I have never, in about a year of frequenting the board, had the slightest problem instantly accessing PPrune (from the U. S.), usually three or four times a day just to check up on new posts. The problem is obviously not the site.

[Mike-Bracknell]

I have never, in about a year of frequenting the board, had the slightest problem instantly accessing PPRuNe (from the U. S.), usually three or four times a day just to check up on new posts. The problem is obviously not the site.

I've just checked - the site's hosted on the West Coast USA. Hence potential crappy connectivity to Europe.

Might be worth shifting it to East Coast USA since the bulk of the connections are from Europe. That'd still keep it within the dirt-cheap hosting regime of the USA, whilst allowing better connectivity from this side of the pond. It'd also mean a change from a proven bad connection (given the regular issues experienced by those not in the USA).

Needs more work though, and a fair crack of the whip by the existing hosting co - they should at least be allowed some chance to fix whatever's wrong before ditching them (unless it's inherent to the location as seems a possibility, given my experience of West Coast USA hosting from Europe).

More to the point, whilst posting in here is a semi-cathartic experience, who actually owns this problem and are they reading this?

[Jofm5]

Might not be the server itself providing the message, but the load-balancing component and/or front-end.....but that's just supposition on my part as I have no details as to the current hosting setup.


It could be - but the reason I discounted that is there were no status values alongside it - even if they were meaningless to the laymen the basic rule of programming is to put a unique value against any unforseen/half expected exceptions to identify where the exception was caught.

What I think is more likely is the php library requesting access to the databases has a default throw of an exception with a crude message and this is what is being seen.

You may be right - but I would not put much behind any vendor that does not associate a result code against any error - even if its unkown and to be honest in my experience the guys who run the board know not to dabble in the unknown too.

[Say again s l o w l y]

Don't worry jofm. I'm not really that fussed. It's just aggravating when you want to pop in and all you get are error messages.

You'd just have thought that there would at least be an announcement and maybe even an apology for the appalling service.

It's just making my much reduced posting habit get even smaller. It's the sort of thing that makes people go "I can't be bothered anymore" and then naff off elsewhere.

Not very good for anyone.

Oh and it's still stuffed. I had to copy this post and then try again numerous times until I could get it submitted.

Honestly, this is really crap.

[CR2]

I'm writing from the East Coast... Proon has been down all day. 7pm here and its been working for about 40 mins

The bugga's tha should be running this place are all out surfing/bbq'ing. T'is only 3pm in Cali... :hmm:

[Scott Diamond]

Gotta be a MySQL problem along with vBulletin - the forum is useless at working with MySQL! :ugh:

[stepwilk]

CR2, I'm sitting 50 miles north of you, up the Hudson, and I've been on and off the site all day with nary a problem.

Maybe you guys are all using Internet Explorer or some other Microsoft crap, rather than Macs...

[empacher48]

Don't worry its not a European problem either, I had that same issue last night from here in Fiji.

I gave up and went to bed, hoping that someone out there in the interweb might have figured out something was wrong..

It must've worked because I woke up this morning and all is well.

[Avtrician]

I was just reading this, went to page two, and got a "cannot Connect"

:ugh::ugh:

Something is broke some where.

[treadigraph]

Purley, UK - had an intermittent problem "cannot connect to database" (or similar) Sunday morning at 8am, got home again at 8:30pm and got the same message and no access when I tried to get in a number of times over an hour or so.

This morning at 8:30am, all is well so far as I can tell.

[BEagle]

Nope - it was still intermittently tits-up with a 'could not connect' page earlier.

[henry crun]

The "could not connect" outages are getting longer and more frequent in the south pacific.

[Say again s l o w l y]

So does anyone actually give a monkeys about this? Or are the techies just not bothered?

[spekesoftly]

"Could not connect" more often than not over the past few days. Constant this morning until about 09:00 GMT.

Any feedback from the Moderators?

(With such intermittent connectivity, I may easily have missed an earlier announcement etc)

And as soon as I tried to post this, the buggah starts playing up again!:hmm:

[Mike-Bracknell]

(With such intermittent connectivity, I may easily have missed an earlier announcement etc)

And as soon as I tried to post this, the buggah starts playing up again!http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/yeees.gif
I tried posting a reply when we were still on page 1 - this is the first time i've managed to get into the site since!

[green granite]

If I come in through the back door I can always get in, then, sometimes I can switch to the full version and sometimes not.

[Mr C Hinecap]

I only got in by using pprune.com instead of pprune.org - somehow that worked. :suspect:

[hardhatter]

I would just like to hear from tech support what is wrong and how long we can expect this problem to be around before solved: that is all I ask.

It is very annoying, not knowing if anyone is solving this!

Please, mods, anyone, have you read the messages and are you working on a solution?

:(

[Mike-Bracknell]

I only got in by using pprune.com instead of pprune.org - somehow that worked. http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/cwm13.gif

Co-incidence. They both resolve to the same IP address.

[Keef]

I've not been able to get in since Sunday morning, apart from some time during the night when Firefox sorted it. I couldn't post till now.

Looks serious. Perhaps it needs the last rites?

[Mike-Bracknell]

I would just like to hear from tech support what is wrong and how long we can expect this problem to be around before solved: that is all I ask.

I can't speak for the mods, nor for the site owner (if the mods and he/they are connected in any way).

However, as a rule of thumb, this sort of problem could be fixed with anything from a 5 minute bit of code/tweaking (which may or may not work) to a month's worth of site migration planning and execution.....so as you see it's not easy to set expectations.

I think we've isolated the group of issues which could be the culprit. it's just time to get them to sit down and plan their action. :ok:

[treadigraph]

Yep, I'm having probs again now, though it is better than it was last night.

[WHBM]

Getting the message when trying to view a page is just one of those things.

Getting it after entering a substantial reply and losing all the effort is on a different scale altogether.

[Lister Noble]

WHBM,
Do the reply in Word ,save,then paste it onto forum reply.
Saves all the hassle and exasperation.
Lister:)

[gpuk]

I have been getting intermittent "Could not connect". errors all day (accessing from France via France Telecom).

"Could not connect" probably points to a MySQL problem imho.

[frostbite]

Regarding losing your post, you should be able to click the back arrow on your browser, highlight it, and ctrl-c it for later posting.

That's what I've been doing anyway.

[Saab Dastard]

All,

The mods (including Danny and Rob), are all as frustrated as you are - and suffering just as much from the problems - I've not been able to log in until now, at least not long enough to actually do anything useful, like make a post.

IB (Internet Brands) have owned and run the site for over a year now. They have their own data centres and do their own hosting, including network load-balancing and server load-balancing. They also own Jelsoft (the company that produces VBulletin software).

They own every length of string in the PPRUNE setup, and it is entirely up to them to ensure that it runs properly.

We mods have no input into the maintenance or running of the site at all, but have to suffer the same "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" as everyone else.

I have seen no feedback at all from IB in the (private) admin forum since the latest problem surfaced over the weekend. I can only assume that they are aware of it.

Since Danny and Rob are no longer "in charge", they are as powerless (and as frustrated / angry) as the rest of us mods.

SD

[Say again s l o w l y]

I certainly don't hold any of the original admins or any of the mods responsible for this and I can imagine how annoyed they must be about this because it's pi**ing me off!

It is very poor from IB. What's the point of owning the site if you aren't going to look after it properly?

Even if there is something broken and they are working around the clock to fix it, then why don't they simply post a short message saying "We're on it, please be patient."

Danny, time to form PPRUNE mk2?

[green granite]

I quite agree that some form of a notice telling us the maintenance people know about the problem and if possible what's causing it would be nice.

[Saab Dastard]

OK, I have seen an update from IB - basically they have cornered the problem and are working on a solution.

Hopefully access should now be improved.

SD

[spekesoftly]

Thanks SD :ok:

[Coconutty]

Weird ...

Haven't had any problems connecting at all ....

Then I came and read this thread this morning at around 09:30 GMT and as soon as I tried to navigate back to the forums main menu I got the "Failed to connect" page, and could not get back in at all ( until now ) :confused:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d129/coconut11/Coconutty.jpg

[Say again s l o w l y]

Thanks for that SD.

[Mike-Bracknell]

OK, I have seen an update from IB - basically they have cornered the problem and are working on a solution.

Hopefully access should now be improved.

SD

Cheers - i'm sure you'll know soon enough whether it's been successful :ok:

[Wader2]

I have had a couple of weird problems too but don't know if it is Pprune or Zone Alarm.

I have just upgraded (:() to ZA Extreme Security and when getting into Pprune find I keep losing my log in. Then when I drill down to open a thread I get the BSOD.

I suspect an interaction between Pprune and ZA. I have disabled Force Field for the moment and touchwood it seems to be more stable.

[Guest 112233]

Yep, since IB have bought out PPruNe: the availability of the site has been patchey to say the least of it. I do subscribe to VB and that system seems OK. So whats going on, we were told that the servers were to be upgraded a few months back - Is this the result ? - Someone on AARSE sugested that PPrune had been the victim of a denial of service attack by hackers in a far eastern country. I do not have access to the sophisticated equipment that would support this hypothisis. but a bald "could not connect" Msg by ISP to the users is a bit tatty.

Every time PPrune falls over, a few more users will come to the conclusion "Screw this for a game of soldiers" and pprune looses contributors.

If IBs' current servers are vunerable to attack, (like everyone else's to a degree) come clean about the probs. Not everyone is behind a Firewall (inbound and outbound traffic monitoring )/Router/anti virus combo (like me) and I'm sure I'm not perfect. That's a seperate issue of user education. XP and Vista set up properly help in this respect.

The reputation of a valuable resource (PPruNe) is gradually being compromised.

Grumpy CAT III

[Saab Dastard]

CATIII, I find it hard to disagree with most of what you say, apart from the DDOS bit.

This wasn't an external problem, but appears to be an internal problem with one of the VMs hosting a webserver.

To be fair to IB, the site IS on new platforms (and more platforms with load balancing), and it "should" be better able to cater for a larger number than before, more reliably than before.

Well it has bumped up the numbers but not, it seems, the reliability.

Before it was moved to IB, the servers were struggling with 3000 at one time - now it's about 3 times that.

The downside is that there's some issues about the version of VB it's running, and bespoke code that adds certain functionality, and other problems, so it is more "delicate" than anyone (IB, admins, mods, users) would like.

Also, it is just one of many sites IB run - by far the busiest, but still can't be nursed 24/7 like Danny and Rob did.

I don't know what the future holds - the hope is that there will be a concerted effort to improve reliability (perhaps in tandem with a VB upgrade and site overhaul) as this is in everyone's interest.

However, I suspect that there is likely to be some pain to come.

SD

[Guest 112233]

Thanks Saab - The world has changed since I was a Unix admin (the prev incumbent went to PC World as a Rep - 30 mins notice ). It was a "Huge" 20 user system - The scale of operation - a billion light years away from here - The user anger and issues just the same. and yes the HD on the server at least £40.00 worth, bit me two months in.

PS VM. is predicated on perfect kit, in a nice comfy climate controlled environment with perfect application compliance (just like the code I wrote - Well in my dreams ! ) . I've an Iso of memtest86 if you are desparate enough.

Slightly less grumpy CAT III

[deltapapa]

it seems to be fixed now at least for me - thanks whoever was responsible :ok:

[ericlday]

Yes, its better today.....famous last words !!!!

[Say again s l o w l y]

It's not fixed for me. I got just database error messages for a couple of hours earlier.