Pprune Website

[Mark R. Beacon]

Why have you ****ed up the web page? It was fine as it was. We pilots don't like change!

[lomapaseo]

I agree with the above sentiments.

Some improvements to satisfy the majority are always welcome, but in my experience with forum software nothing is totally satisfactory. Every program needs tweaks and some of it is hard to tweak.

I like the colour contrasts of the old software and I really don't like the bright white open areas bewteen words in the new layout. It makes it too hard to glance and distinguish what words on the left match up with what words on the right. At least it needs grid lines and some subtle contrast background

[Guest 112233]

PPrune is very useful to non Pilots too - the level of expertise shown by the professional contributors is far and away better than that provided by the main media.

PPRUNE has become extreamly difficult to use as of late; either to view or the post to. We were told a few months back that the access probs were of a temporary nature This is not the case - Access and navigation on the site is now poor and I'm using it less often because of this situation. As per first para PPRUNE serves a very useful purpose as a resource to informed technical opinion for the non techie as well as the profesional pilot. A sad loss if it folds.:(

CATIII

[AEUENG]

This is aweful, change back to the old tried and tested format everyone was used to!

[POL.777]

Bah humbug.

Pprune is a fine as ever.

[jetset lady]

Use Ctrl and F5 and the screen will return to normal

Jsl

[moleytt]

Thanks Jsl, that worked a treat>Moley

[Jumbo744]

never had any problem with pprune website. Good Job :ok:

[Rainboe]

What's different? I use Firefox- no change apparent to me!

[sevenstrokeroll]

it is possible that our own different computers with different versions of software cause problems.

the only thing really wrong with pprune is: censorship.

but: GIGO

[J.O.]

CTRL F5 fixed it for me. Now I want to know what changed that I had to use that function to restore the way the forum looks. Jetset Lady, can you tell us what CTRL F5 actually does?

[Avman]

Yep, did the CTRL F5 thing and it worked. However, the site is slow acting weird - and I've accessed it using three different PC's and different providers.

[mini-jumbo]

In internet explorer, F5 will reload the page using a locally cached version if avaliable, Ctrl + F5 will reload the page ignoring the local cache, therefore you'll get a fresh copy if you like.

Ctrl + r in firefox will do the same.

[Centaurus]

This is aweful, change back to the old tried and tested format everyone was used to!

Agree wholeheartedly. Wrap arounds impossible. Something seriously amiss with current web pages. Gremlins in the system.

[Biggles225]

Thankee kindly jsl

[merlinxx]

I've had not probs at all running on any of my 3 browsers or 2 ISPs, I've not seen a change!

[cockney steve]

Firefox or Opera, + Ubuntu (Linux) :D

All free!- no Microsh*ft windoze, no internet exploiter and no probs- QED.

[Flintstone]

...mumble mumble...censorship...mumble

It's been said before but once again for the hard of thinking here's the solution for those who don't like moderated sites, feel free to start your own. Just ensure that the first thing you spend any revenue on is a good legal team. Failing that, FIFO.

[slip and turn]

I love the Ctrl-F5 fix suggested by one wag ;) - that one has only been around since ... oh IE2 ? As a fix it is of course about one step short of the I/O switch which also generally makes some kind of difference :p

Seriously, you bleaters, did you not realise you were just looking at the result of some unintended maintenance glitch (self-evidently now fixed)?

And you were still trying to fly PPRuNe in that configuration?? You silly billies! :rolleyes:

[llondel]

I think what happened is that the style sheet had problems, so everyone got the basic style instead. On Firefox you can simulate it with view->Page style->No Style. I've seen it happen on other sites before where for some reason the style sheet didn't load.

[Smilin_Ed]

When did this reported change take place? I have seen no change.:ugh:

[Seat62K]

I've found that pages have been loading slowly for a day or two (and in a way which I've not seen before on this 'site) with some of the icons/smilies showing only as boxes with red x's in them. Something is definitely not right. I use IE7 by the way (completely updated).

[Radar]

PPruNe is running in a blue / white (extremely) low graphics version for me at the moment. Almost as if my computer had started in safe mode. Most icons are not loaded for display.

[Chris Scott]

Over the last few days, have been having some of the problems you guys mention, including very slow response and icons replaced with "x"s, which made text refinement impossible for posting. Have to admit that I'm not really computer-literate. Contacted PPRuNe Admin.

Got a very quick e-mail from Rob, as follows:
Clear all cookies with the word PPRuNe in them Chris,
Clear your browser cache as well.
Log on again and tick the remember me box.
All should be well again.
Regards
Rob PPRuNe Admin
[Unquote]

I'm on IE7, and I used Internet Options to clear all cookies. Didn't understand "Clear all cookies with the word PPRuNe in them".

Big improvement, but am still having problems, for example, achieving the paragraph breaks that I want. [It'll be interesting to see how this turns out...]

It makes me realise how much we take the normally excellent performance for granted.

[Rollingthunder]

Just hit CTRL+F5 (at the same time). It should get things back to normal. Worked for me and several others. However I'm still missing a bunch of icons.

[Say again s l o w l y]

It makes me realise how much we take the normally excellent performance for granted.

You are having a laugh right? This site used to be second to none, but in recent times it has been as reliable and robust as wet newspaper.

Nothing to do with Danny giving up the reins obviously..........................:oh:

[TWT]

Pages are slower to load now and I keep on getting a 'database error' page.Have to refresh about 3 times usually to get the page to load

[ronca]

You should be able to fix the problem by clearing your browser cache. To do this in Internet Explorere 6 do the following ..

1. From the TOOLS menu select Internet Options
2. In the middle of the box you will see "temporary Internet Files"
3. Click on the button labelled "Delete Files" (wait for it to finish!)
4. Exit and restart Internet Explorer

The Delete Files may take a few minutes on some computers but this should get Pprune back to normal.

[broadreach]

No problem whatsoever with IE7 other than a slight lethargy, and that didn't last long.

[BTNH]

Have the same problems slow pages and nearly every 2nd time i get data base errror.

[pacplyer]

Thanks everybody for attempting to diagnose the problem. To add: this problem is evident also on seldom used browser brands like Safari.

Clearing out the poisoned cookies and clearing the cache sometimes helps but clearly the server is under stress of some sort.

I don't like censorship much, but Rob and his crew do a great unappreciated job keeping things on track. :D Sometimes you guys get a little carried away from time to time (I never have that problem of course.) :}

[reverserunlocked]

It looks the same as ever on my iPhone.

[Ndicho Moja]

Looks the same with Safari too.

[driftdown]

Have been logging on using a different PC and wondered what had changed.

Just tried to log on using my home PC and I can see what everybody has been posting about.

Followed the procedure posted by Chris Scott ( Post #24) and all is well. Thank goodness at my age I cannot do change :p

[A300Man]

Thanks, Thunder. CTRL+F5 at the same time makes it all right.

[Seat62K]

It's all well and good to say delete PPRuNe cookies, but I can't find a way to do this in IE7 without deleting all other cookies at the same time, which I don't want to do. Any ideas? Thanks.

[PPRuNe Pop]

I am sure SD has mentioned this before but in the circumstances it won't be a bad thing to re-iterate what has been happening.

The new owners had not really had a site like this before and they are very much on a learning curve. They fully admit that it is galling for everyone and they ARE doing their best to settle the site down onto their servers.

The mods are helping with that too, and we are as much frustrated as you are. SD's expertise adds a bit of help but by and large they just need to tackle each of the more pressing problems as they arise. It is getting better and will improve still more.

PPP

[Saab Dastard]

PPrune Pop is flattering me (keep it up!!), but the guys at IB are really trying to sort this out, and any assistance we can give them as mods or regular users is useful.

SD

[Saab Dastard]

I can't find a way to do this in IE7 without deleting all other cookies at the same time, which I don't want to do. Any ideas? Thanks.

Read the IE7 Help? Search for "Cookies", you'll find instructions on how to select cookies to delete.

OK, as I'm feeling benevolent, here's the information:

Deleting cookies

You can delete all or some cookies in Internet Explorer.

To delete a single cookie


In Internet Explorer, click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.
On the General tab, under Browsing history, click Settings.
Click the View files button.
Click the Name column heading to sort all the files alphabetically, and then scroll down until you see files that begin with the prefix Cookie:. All cookies will have that prefix, and they usually contain the name of the website that created the cookie.
Right-click the cookie you want to delete, click Delete, and then click Yes.
Close the window that contains the list of files, and then click OK twice to return to Internet Explorer.


To delete all cookies


In Internet Explorer, click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.
On the General tab, under Browsing history, click Delete.
Click Delete cookies.
When you are prompted to confirm that you want to delete cookies, click Yes.
Click Close, and then click OK.


Note

Some websites store your member name, password, or other information about you in a cookie. If you delete that cookie, you might need to enter your personal information again the next time you visit the site.


SD

[manrow]

All of this suggests Firefox is better than IE.

Now most of us have known that for years, but Pprune proves it!!

[jetset lady]

Can't take the credit for the Ctrl/F5 I'm afraid. It was posted on Jet Blast and worked for me so I just passed it on. Glad it worked for some though!

Jsl

[HotDog]

Still haven't got back icons or smilies.

[ExSp33db1rd]

Most of the appearance is now normal, but the download speed is abysmal, but that could be New Zealand, which - I believe - has the greatest Broadband connection per capita of most of the Civilised (?) World, but the worst download speed - but Hey ! I didn't even have an Internet compter 10 yrs ago, so why am I now upset if it takes 30 secs per page to appear ?

How many of us would be writing the - usual - c**p that we write if we had to sit down and type, and post, a Letter to the Editor ?? !!!:ok:

[rmiller774]

If a count is being made, this change is just making reading this board more difficult for me. It must be a test of the determination us readers have to battle new challenges or a calculated ploy to reduce the number of hits at Prune.

[Pontius Navigator]

SD,

When I started this reply I thought your fix had worked.

I deleted the 4 pprune cookies and then hit ctrl-F5. The missing icons on the page refreshed.

I opened this message reply and found the icons had all disappeared again. Even clicking Reload this Page, with its corrupted icon, did not work, nor did Ctrl-F5. Framing works OK however.

[19F]

From: Netcraft What's That Site Running Results (http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=www.pprune.org)

[B747-800]

Before changes issue a NOTAM !

We are all navigating blind now!

[Wader2]

BOAC published the reason and solution over on the mil forum.The website has changedThe website address is now www.pprune.org and www.pprune.org/forumsGo to pprune.org and then save as favourite and the icons will return. There is another problem The message format buttons are not working. When I click B or I or [b]U[/] nothing happens. In fact none of the buttons are working, Sunsweet (http://static.prune.org/forums/images/smilies/boohoo.gif)

[dublinpilot]

Am I the only one seeing the website without any graphics (apart from the banner advertisments?

I've been seeing it like this since sometime last week, but all other websites that I've been to seem normal.

I had assumed it was a temporary problem (as I'm getting it on two different pc's), but I've seen noone else comment on it, so am wondering if it's just me?

dp

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/3127/53984812px2.jpg

[vanHorck]

i see it normal. i use the last version of Safari

please list what browser you use

[Nibbler]

looks like IE7 if I'm not much mistaken.

Try clearing your browser cache;

tools / internet options

on the general tab click the delete option in browsing history and select delete "Temporary Internet Files"

Now restart your browser and come back to pprune

hope that works for you

[dublinpilot]

Thanks guys.

Deleting the temporary internet files solved it, thank you very much :ok:

Strange that it happened at the same time on two different pc's, but solve now thanks to your help :D

dp

[Nibbler]

I hear pprune team has a server move or had to restore the database - this will happen to anyone with standard settings in most browsers.

Glad it sorted it for you

[muffin]

Ctrl F5 also sorts it immediately.

The problem I have is that Pprune now takes so long to load that I often get fed up and go elsewhere. other web sites are normal but this one has been really slow for a couple of weeks now.

[usedtofly]

I've had this recently too (Firefox 3) also pprune can be reaaaaallllllllyyy sloooooooooooooooooooooooow so I too go off to other sites whilst page loads.

[MightyGem]

Well, on my work PC(IE6) it changes willy nilliy from one to the other as I change pages. None of the "fixes" work, and it's mostly like this:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/MightyGem/PPrune.jpgIs there a way to post when it's like this?

[drauk]

What MightyGem is seeing is what happens when the browser downloads the HTML for the page, but can't download the style sheet, images, javascript files, etc. The reason for this, presumably, is because PPRuNe now appears to be serving this static content from an edge serving network (specifically Akamai). Quite why they've felt the need to do this I really can't imagine. They have multiple servers to handle the dynamic load and the work involved in serving the static content is completely trivial in comparison.

It smacks of someone who likes a complex architecture just for the sake of it. The downside is exactly what people are seeing - it's more complex so there is more to go wrong.

[Bushfiva]

Oooh, screen captures. Lots of information in screen captures. F'rinstance, I see Mightygem's using his work computer, is using "Microsoft Internet Explorer provided by Merseyside Police", has some kind of Merseyside Police Force app running, has something to do with Merseyside Police Air Support Group's G-XMII, EC135, and has what appears to be a bookmark to the NewTorrents.info site, "your 0day source" :}

[MightyGem]

Hey, we could employ you as an "observer". :D
(posted during one of those rare moments when the site is "normal"):ugh::ugh:

[Bushfiva]

They look to be doing the load balancing via F5 BIG-IP. They're pretty much an industry standard, so unless they're misconfigured one might guess at a design flaw or stability issues on the back end. I see the site is at 3.6.8: The 3.7 series has been out since around April, and is currently at 3.7.2PL2. In the dim and distant past, getting the database caching right was a bit of a black art, too. And addons could cause random conniptivity.

Ooh, just spotted this: " vB 3.6.8 has known security issues so I *strongly* recommend that you upgrade to the latest version."

[Bushfiva]

Don't you need a more powerful box to handle dynamic load when multiple virtual servers are installed?

Yes and no :). It depends where the bottlenecks are and there could be many considerations. In a one-server-per-box, it's unlikely that you'll hit your max CPU utilization, LAN utilization, SAN utilization etc all at the same time. So it can make sense to bang more stuff on the machine.

Additionally, the software itself may have various limits independent of the hardware. So imagine a server setup where the bottleneck is, say, I/O because of software considerations. You're using 10% of your CPU and a few percent of your hardware's various I/O. Running multiple virtual servers makes better use of your CPU. Additionally, if you are hitting I/O limits, with some designs (blades, say) running multiple virtual servers reduces I/O across the network because much of the traffic remains within the backplane.

On very, very virtual systems, there are scaling benefits especially where I/O is not the limiting factor: if you buy the right kit from IBM, say, to get more power you phone 'em up, and some guy remotely turns the knob from 2 to 11 (and bills you more).

I've worked with systems where even the routers and SAN are virtual. Very hard to wrap a traditional little head around.

In the real world, there are other limitations: there are only so many cards you can bang in a machine for channel bundling, there is only so much power available per slot or rack, there is only so much thermal removal capacity across or up the racks, and of course there is only so much money.

[Pontius Navigator]

looks like normal now

buttons work, site back to usual speed. well done

[Wader2]

Buttons may work but I was not able to edit my earlier post.

But I was able to edit this post so it does look as if if is working OK on new posts.

[Saab Dastard]

Today has seen a very great improvement in the site access times. Credit to IB for sorting it out.

There are still some (hopefully minor) niggles to sort out, and some scheduled upgrades / updates over the next few days to resolve / improve these.

It's on the mend, folks!

Please continue to log any problems (hopefully not many) in this or the Problem Reporting Sticky.

Thanks

SD

[dbee]

pprune seems to be slow to change pages to me, but then. I am slow too......................................................... ...............dbee:bored:

[MightyGem]

Having been on holiday for a couple of weeks, I've been Ppruning on my Mac at home with the site looking normal. First day back at work(PC, IE 6) and login to PPrune and it's the minimalistic blue look. It changed back to normal, allowing me to post this, after about 15 page changes.

So it's still not fixed.

[Saab Dastard]

MightyGem,

I think it's your computer that's the problem! There's the PC cache, your work proxy and your ISP cache all to clear - have you tried ctrl-F5?

SD

[MightyGem]

Yes, tried Ctrl-F5, has no effect. It's also the same on other PCs in the office. It changes randomly as I change topics/pages. Pprune is the only forum that I use where it happens.

[Nibbler]

If your computer is office based are you on a microsoft network, like windows server 2003?

The server will cache webpages and give this exact symptom. Ask your IT people to clear the server cache for you. Sometimes IT people install internet 'accelerators' which speed up internet access by using a configurable cache.

Also (and something you could try first)
Go to each machine and (in your browser) click TOOLS / INTERNET OPTIONS on the general tab under browsing history click DELETE and remove FILES and HISTORY

Hope this helps

[MightyGem]

Discovered what the problem is. Our Force intranet has a Web Filter to stop us looking at sites like LadyBoys.com. However, some sites aren't so bad, so we are allowed to visit them for 15 minutes at a time. Normally this option comes up as soon as we click on a link, we click the 15 min button and the site loads.

For some reason, this doesn't happen with Pprune. Everything loads except things like the "Reply" and "New Topic" buttons. To get those, I have to visit a restricted site to get the 15 minutes and then go back to Pprune.