Forum Downtime?

[Jordan Farmer]

Hi there guys. i dont know whether anyone else is experiencing it, but at times, the whole site seems to go down, i can never access it, sometimes its for 1 minute, sometimes for 30 minutes! I dont know whether it is the hosting or what, theres no real pattern to it either :/

jordan

[iwik]

Hi Jordan,
Im finding the same problem. The same thing happened a few months back also. I find the main page will come up as usual, the first time i try to access
the forum, sometimes i get instant success and other times it takes minutes to arrive. Its quite erratic at times. Other sites are perfect, i didnt want to hassle Matt before because of his troubles. Hope they can sort it out as at times ive just given up. You see im addicted, just joking.

Les

[riche543]

Yep same here, this has been ongoing as i frequently have timeouts after looking at 3-4 pages here, some people get it & some dont apprently, Some times very hard to upload a photo or reply to a thread..
Cheers.
Rich.

[Matt Olieman]

Thanks for the heads-up.

We're checking into it.

Matt Olieman

[vybhav]

Ahh....actually I have never experienced any problem, but may be worth a quick check.

Regards

[Sean Nixon]

I can't say I've noticed any problems lately either.

[fordgt40]

I too, recently found difficulty in accessing the site and had short term lockouts followed by a complete ban. After much dialogue with Matt, it would seem that I had collected a trojan which was trying to do naughty things to Matts server, hence my IP address was "disliked"

I resolved the trojan by reloading an image of my C drive to a date that preceded the trojan. However, a futher potential issue has recently come to light, when I updated Zonealarm Pro to the latest version - again, I was temporarily locked out. It would appear that there may be some clash between the Zonealarm toolbar (which checks for dubious sites) and the Mycockpit server response. I need to do some more research - when I feel brave enough to face reloading a drive image.:)

In the interim I offer this bit of Zonealarm info, in case there may be similar cirumstances with others

David

[iwik]

Hi David,
Thats interesting because goin backa few months i had the same problem, they reckon i was attacking Mycockpit, i did nothing to my computer and contacted Matt who took my IP address of the banned list and since i have not had trouble to get access to the site but still have problems with the Forum
access after the first attempt.
Les

[jskibo]

I get it timing out at least once a week. Seems to last 15 - 20 minutes when it does happen. Only seems to happen from work, don't think I have run into it from home at all yet. Always occurs when I am at a forum page and click on the Back button, never during anything else. Dumping the window and starting over doesn't help, remains timed out for several attempts / minutes.

[iwik]

Hi John,
Thats when i seem to have problems, when using the back button. It seems better if you accesss the posts from the list of latest posts.
My usual operation is to logon to site goto forums and new posts. Accessing the first post is fine and then operating the back button, it can sometimes take minutes to give me the list again. Any other site using the back button causes no problems.
Les

[Matt Olieman]

It's my experience the people who have trouble at work (going through a local network), is security related. Office networks rapidly checks IP's, thus our server things it's being attacked and puts you in a 5 minute ban.

Same thing could happen at home, if you have a BOT and it's trying to collect server information, BANG, you're out, at least for 5 minutes.

Matt Olieman

[jskibo]

It's my experience the people who have trouble at work (going through a local network), is security related. Office networks rapidly checks IP's, thus our server things it's being attacked and puts you in a 5 minute ban.

Same thing could happen at home, if you have a BOT and it's trying to collect server information, BANG, you're out, at least for 5 minutes.

Matt Olieman

That's probably it Matt. Funny as your server thinks its being attacked by Boeing.com :)

[iwik]

Hi Matt,
Thanks and interesting. Can you explain why only Mycockpit site is affected. I go on to many others in very much the same manner as Mycockpit and have no problems.
Hope you new surgery goes as well as the last and wish you speedy recovery from both.
Regards
Les

[Matt Olieman]

Hi Matt,
Thanks and interesting. Can you explain why only Mycockpit site is affected. I go on to many others in very much the same manner as Mycockpit and have no problems.

I've heard this before and you're not alone. If I was to guess, I'd say, our security level is set a bit higher than other sites. But most likely, those other sites are scrambling to fix there servers from attackers more often then we do. It's been a while, but we've had occasions where outside sources have entered and I'm glad to tell you, it's been a long time since we've had an intruder.


Hope you new surgery goes as well as the last and wish you speedy recovery from both.
Regards
Les

Thanks Les, much appreciated.

Matt Olieman

[iwik]

Hi Matt,
Thanks
Les

[Efe Cem Elci]

Lately I've had two kinds of technical problems with the site. I was wondering if this is unique to me or whether others have had these issues as well.

First a couple of times a day I can't reach the site at all. I get my browsers default "no response from server" page. This happens on my iPad with 3G and wifi connection, at home on my laptop through firefox and at work (:eek:) once again through firefox. It sometimes lasts 5 mins before disappearing but sometimes more.

Second is when the site does load, but I get a "server is too busy to respond, please try later" message. Same forum look, just this message on the main window and where it usually says "New Posts: 2 | 5"

Is it just me?

[iwik]

Hi,
No you are not alone, ive had similar problems for a good week or so. Ive also been able to access the main site but then unable
to get to the forums. Quite often i have only been able to get the forums by using the link emailed to me for one im subscibed to.
I used to be able to get on reliably from 6am NZ time, but have now given up. Tried firefox, same results. Have second Win 7
installed, no luck here either. Other sites are fine. Frustrating to say the least.
Les

[Jim NZ]

Same here ,, a lot of the time it's basically unusable.
This morning, while doing other things I tried for over an hour to get into the forums ,,, no luck.

Just in case Matt spots these posts,, here are some facts.
I can get in and use the site (as it used to be) only about 33% of the time now.
Another 33% would be ,, after about 10 -30 seconds it does work but once I start "looking around" it stops working.
The last 33% goes like this ,,, I just can't get in.
The "can't get in" sometimes brings up that "server busy" page.
I never get "Cant find URL" ,, its either "Too busy" or mainly "Loading ..... " but nothing loads.

Now here's the way I see it ,,,
There's nothing wrong with the internet connection ,, the URL responds instantly ,,, then things go wrong ,,,, the program trying to find the forum stuff to send to me is too busy. From there if it gets time , it sends the "Too busy" page along with the adds. The adds do change and the return of the adds is instant with the "too busy" page ,,, soooo,, the program that does the forum stuff (or the "Home" page), is away on holiday somewhere being too busy to respond.

Our evening is the best but in the morning it's useless and during our day it's very hit and miss.

Some other odd things are going on as well ,,, posts going missing and yesterday I posted a post and it actually posted it twice.

I hope Matt spots these posts as the situation is getting serious. (I was just about to PM him on this)

Cheers ,,, Jim

[fordgt40]

Efe, Jim, Les

You are not alone, I have identical problems and have been seriously considering leaving this site. Is it a "bandwidth" problem as it gets worse during the UK day and is almost impossible to get on after the USA wakes up :sad:

David

[Jim NZ]

Maybe ,, maybe not David.

I have seen no change in any other sites download times ,, its only Mycockpits site.

But your right in one thing David ,, If I was a casual user ,, I'd be spending my time getting active responses from some other site instead of looking at that "Loading .........." thing !!!

Thanks David ,, Good to get other responses ,,,, Jim

[fordgt40]

Jim

I meant "bandwidth" at this site. as like you I have no problems elsewhere. I was wondering whether, in view of the minimally supported costs of maintaining this site, Matt had reduced costs by reducing bandwidth?

Mind you - I can easily access the site this morning:)

David

[Matt Olieman]

I've been having the same problems, I thought it was just me... LOL. I've been in contact with our server provider and of course getting the run around... :( :( :(

They're telling me nothing is wrong.... I think we know better.

It seems the issue is not consistent, it comes and goes in brief periods of time. Right now, as I'm posting this the server is the speed of lightning. Other times the system hangs.

So you know I'm working on the problem and will let you know if anything new comes up.

Thanks for reporting this.

Matt Olieman

[fordgt40]

Matt

Thanks.

As a matter of interest, I have been trying to logon for sometime to thank you. After clicking on the mycockpit link, I got the message "waiting for mycockpit.org" for 2mins then the message "server too busy". The other times I gave up after waiting more than 2 mins with no response.

Tell your server provider to get up off their collective a***s :)

David

[Matt Olieman]

I'm going to update the sites software to alleviate any potential problems. Hopefully this should only take a few minutes. In the meantime the forum will be closed for posting ability.

Matt Olieman

[fordgt40]

Matt

Still took a while to get on the site and 35 secs to go from Forum page to open this thread

Regards

David

[Matt Olieman]

Thanks David.

The MyCockpit software has been updated. It seems that did not fix the problem, so back to the Server provider.

Matt Olieman

[fordgt40]

Hi Matt

Just did 6 successive logins with no problems at all :D

Regards

David

[Matt Olieman]

Thanks....

Keep your fingers crossed.... ;)

Matt Olieman

[Jim NZ]

Thanks Matt ,,,,
No doubt about it ,,, you've got "the touch".
Running lovely here this morning ,, lunch time and evening.
Thanks again Matt ,,, Jim

[Matt Olieman]

Thanks Jim. :)

Is anyone else having problems able to type when going to "Reply" without going to advance?

Matt Olieman

[Matt Olieman]

Is anyone else having problems able to type when going to "Reply" without going to advance?
Matt Olieman

FIXED!!!! :) :) :)

Matt Olieman

[Efe Cem Elci]

OK on the typing. Will let you know about the server later.

[iwik]

Fine here now Matt and thanks
LES