Report software quirks here

[Sheryl]

I spent a substantial amount of time typing out a post in the "quick reply" box. When I hit post, it told me "The message you have typed is short, please type a message of at least one character."

It was several paragraphs long. I don't have time to retype it.
My participation in this forum has decreased to almost zero as it is, now it seems whenever I do try to post, something glitches up.

 

[Andy R]

I spent a substantial amount of time typing out a post in the "quick reply" box. When I hit post, it told me "The message you have typed is short, please type a message of at least one character."

It was several paragraphs long. I don't have time to retype it.
My participation in this forum has decreased to almost zero as it is, now it seems whenever I do try to post, something glitches up.

Sheryl, I am very sorry to hear about that. Thanks for reporting it because if not I don't know it's going on and cannot address things. It will be another 24-48 hours before a big load on our servers is offloaded, so please be patient. Once the load goes down things will be a lot smoother and no posts will be disappearing like that. Once again I apologize and will just be a little longer, thanks for your patience.

 

[Dawg52]

Any reason why this site is running so slow today? It takes forever to move from one thread to another. I can move around just fine on other websites, but not here today. Anyone else having this problem?

 

[Andy R]

I appologize for this. I will reboot the servers tonight to make sure that is not the issue.

 

[Andy R]

I am still getting reports of some people having access issues and I am trying to figure out what the issue could be. If you are having problems getting to E-R.org and cannot post, etc. please send me an email to andy at socialknowledge.net (remove spaces and change the at to @). Include your internet service provide and the location from where you are trying to connect from.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[Andy R]

The only ISP that I am aware of that is being effected by this at the moment is AOL. If you are an AOL user and experiencing slow page loads this is why.

Any reason why this site is running so slow today? It takes forever to move from one thread to another. I can move around just fine on other websites, but not here today. Anyone else having this problem?

I just wanted to post an update about this. I spoke with Dawg52 and he was able to get me some trace route info that help identify the problem. I had my server admins look into things and they found an issue between our servers and Dawg52. The server admins then contacted the upstream providers and they responded saying "These issues are occurring because the connection between our networks is full."

So this is what is happening. The network the servers are on use a system that send the information back and forth over the shortest path in order to try to speed things up. The problem is sometimes there is the equivalent of an online traffic jam and even though the info is trying to take the shortest path it cannot get through and then pages load really slow. I am looking at options to change to a different network that uses route optimization to find the fastest path (not always the shortest) to speed things up. I will post more about switching networks ASAP.

The only ISP that I am aware of that is being effected by this at the moment is AOL. If you are an AOL user and experiencing slow page loads this is why.

 

[bssc]

In the second section, "Total members that have visited the forum in the last 24 hours", all the names show up twice.

14thMed14thMed , 2B2B , 2soon2tell2soon2tell , 4sarge4sarge , 73ss45473ss454 , Achiever51Achiever51 , adum4277adum4277 , al4tradeal4trade , AlexAlex , AlmostDoneAlmostDone , AltaRedAltaRed , al_bundyal_bundy , AnansiAnansi , Andy HAndy H , Andy RAndy R , AnimorphAnimorph , are_we_there_yet?are_we_there_yet? , ArielAriel , atlantaatlanta , ats5gats5g , audreyh1audreyh1 , AzDreamerAzDreamer , bacurobacuro , baldeaglebaldeagle , bambambambambambam , BarbaraAnneBarbaraAnne , barbarusbarbarus , bbbamIbbbamI , BigBobBigBob , BigMoneyJimBigMoneyJim , BigritchieBigritchie , BikerdudeBikerdude , BimmerbillBimmerbill , blizzardblizzard , BobMBobM , BooBooBearBooBooBear , boontboont , bootsboots , boutrosboutros , bow-tiebow-tie , BratBrat , BreitlingBreitling , brewer12345brewer12345 , bright eyedbright eyed , bruce1bruce1 , bsscbssc , BuckeyeBuckeye , Buddha44Buddha44 , BUMBUM , burch64burch64 , Calgary_GirlCalgary_Girl , caliecalie* , califdreamercalifdreamer , CallieCallie , calmlokicalmloki , cantlogincantlogin , CattusbabeCattusbabe , CbCb , Cbear1883Cbear1883 , CCdaCECCdaCE , CharlotteCharlotte , chinacochinaco , cho oyucho oyu , ChrisCChrisC , citrinecitrine , cjcj , clh8clh8* , clifpclifp , cmonkjrcmonkjr , CoachCoach* , CoasterCoaster , cocobirdcocobird , Common SenseCommon Sense , CompoundInterestFanCompoundInterestFan , CorporateburnoutCorporateburnout , crazy conniecrazy connie , crispuscrispus , CruisinthruCruisinthru , CultureCulture , CuppaJoeCuppaJoe , CybrMikeCybrMike , CyclingInvestorCyclingInvestor , dd , d0ugd0ug , DarrylDarryl , DaveJDaveJ , daverphdaverph , David1961David1961 , Dawg52Dawg52 , DeanDean , debster747debster747 , DeetsoDeetso , deseratdeserat , dexdex , dgalbraith100dgalbraith100 , dlhansondlhanson , dmdm , dmpidmpi , DMSDMS , donheffdonheff , dory36dory36 , DougViagesDougViages , DreamerDreamer , DRiP GuyDRiP Guy , Dry SocksDry Socks* , dt123dt123 , DudeDude , educationeducation , Ed_The_GypsyEd_The_Gypsy , eeyoreeeyore* , ElspethElspeth , EngineeringMyFinancesEngineeringMyFinances , Enuff2EatEnuff2Eat , ERD50ERD50 , escherescher , EvelyneEvelyne , EyerishgoldEyerishgold , F M AllF M All , F-OneF-One , f091537f091537* , farmerEdfarmerEd* , FarmerJFarmerJ , fercoferco , fignerfigner , FinanceDudeFinanceDude , FinanceGeekFinanceGeek , FIRE'd@51FIRE'd@51 , FIREdreamerFIREdreamer , flipstressflipstress , fluffyfluffy* , fmhealthfmhealth , frankiefrankie , fraynefrayne , Freeatlast47Freeatlast47 , FreenowFreenow , frugal_davefrugal_dave , garrynkygarrynky , GatorBuzzGatorBuzz , Gearhead JimGearhead Jim , genghisgenghis , gettingtheregettingthere* , gimme sheltergimme shelter , glinkaglinka , Global1Global1 , GonzoGonzo , GoodSenseGoodSense , GoonieGoonie , GotadimpleGotadimple , gozziegozzie , gratefulgrateful , greggreg , grumpygrumpy , GumbyGumby , GworkerGworker , hahahaha , halcyon7886halcyon7886 , halohalo , HamletHamlet , happy2bretiredhappy2bretired , HatePayingTaxesHatePayingTaxes , hayekcapitalisthayekcapitalist , hellbenderhellbender* , heyyouheyyou , HFWRHFWR , HighRollerHighRoller , hogwildhogwild , holeinoneholeinone , honobobhonobob , Hot_RodHot_Rod , hova22hova22 , huutrinonhuutrinon , igsoyigsoy , imretiredimretired

 

[Tech Admin]

Thanks, fixed

 

[RASAP]

The "Mark This Forum Read" function quit working for me a day or so ago. Is there some setting on my end that needs to be changed to make this work?

 

[cantlogin]

Whenever I click the forum jump button I get "Intermet Explorer cannot display the webpage".

When I click Explorer's refresh button the page opens and everything works fine until I click the jump again.

The overall speed of the forum seems slower than it used to be but it isn't terribly slow.

 

[Zipper]

Speed is noticeably faster this morning.

 

[AltaRed]

This site looks very different to me this morning... no background colors at all. Just text, avatars, and HTML links and commands on a white background.

 

[TexasGal]

Another thread was started by chinaco about this. The formatting is totally messed up. I can't even get the font adjusted right. What's Up?

 

[retire@40]

The servers probably just need to be rebooted.

 

[Sheryl]

I'm just trying a test post, because last time I tried to post - Wednesday I think - all I could get was a message saying my post needed to be at least one character.

Having typed and lost several posts that were significantly more than one character, I gave up and went away.

 

[Sheryl]

Sheryl, I am very sorry to hear about that. Thanks for reporting it because if not I don't know it's going on and cannot address things. It will be another 24-48 hours before a big load on our servers is offloaded, so please be patient. Once the load goes down things will be a lot smoother and no posts will be disappearing like that. Once again I apologize and will just be a little longer, thanks for your patience.

Sure... I tried to post about it earlier, but -obviously- couldn't. Was too busy/lazy/frustrated to bother trying to PM you.

I'm afraid by the time everything's up and running, all the folks who have formed this "community" will have wandered off in bordom or frustration.

 

[twaddle]

I've been seeing lousy connectivity to this site for a while now, and I know it's not me because I occasionally get a 500 error.

It'd be nice to see some sort of status message if you guys are aware of the problem and are working on it. If you're not aware of the problem, check your logs -- you should be able to see the connection errors.

 

[SecondCor521]

I got a 500 error earlier today.

2Cor521

 

[Andy R]

We do have a monitoring system in place to load pages every so often and if a 500 error is found it corrects things but obviously something is not working. I asked the server admins to investigate this last night. They were not able to find any specific errors but did restart the web servers.

In the future please try accessing the site via the two primary web servers. You can do this by adding a 1 or 2 after the www in the URL. That will help me understand which web server is causing the errors.

Here are links:
www1.early-retirement.org/forums/ <-- Web Server #1
www2.early-retirement.org/forums/ <-- Web Server #2

 

[mja]

Andy, you could actively monitor the web logs and graph 500's over time, or do some active notification if more than X of them occur in a 5 minute period, etc. Every webserver I've ever dealt with logs the status code for each request; reacting to logged 500's can sometimes be more useful than monitoring whether your own simulated requests get that as a response.

BTW, I'm not up on what software you run, but Apache 1.99-beta is a rather odd version for the server to be giving out as a server token.

 

[twaddle]

We do have a monitoring system in place to load pages every so often and if a 500 error is found it corrects things but obviously something is not working. I asked the server admins to investigate this last night. They were not able to find any specific errors but did restart the web servers.

In the future please try accessing the site via the two primary web servers. You can do this by adding a 1 or 2 after the www in the URL. That will help me understand which web server is causing the errors.

Here are links:
www1.early-retirement.org/forums/ <-- Web Server #1
www2.early-retirement.org/forums/ <-- Web Server #2

OK, I had a few timeouts today. Tried www1 and www2. www1 didn't respond, www2 did. So, does your load balancer know when one of your servers is having problems?

Edit: it just happened again, and both www1 and www2 weren't responding. So, my first test may have just been a timing quirk. Maybe your host is periodically unreachable. Were they doing router maintenance today?

 

[Andy R]

The load balancer checks each server every few seconds and if one server is not responding it will stop sending traffic to it. If this happens again record the exact time and we can check into the server logs and see what is happening.

On a side note, there were some network issues last night for a little while. It was something inside the datacenter that was causing the issue.

 

[yakers]

Problem With Safari Browser

When I go to the pull down menu to mark the threads as read nothing happens. This started a few days ago. At work with Firefox it works like normal, just can't mark anything as read while at home. Interesting. I've had worse problems but it does get irritating. Doesn't happen on any other site.

 

[Janet H]

Hmm... see if there have been updates or changes to your browser. If you have this problem on one system but not another, chances are there has been a change to one computer.

Start by deleting all your temp files and saved cookies. Restart your computer and see it that fixes it.

 

[Cattusbabe]

Was I a bad girl Why can't I access the portal page?