[X] My Assistant

[djellison]

Still 100% for me from both work and home- I really don't know what to suggest.

Doug

[Bob Shaw]

Still 100% for me from both work and home- I really don't know what to suggest.

Doug

FWIW, UMSF is what I like to call a 'live' site rather than a 'static' one, ie what we see is really a front-end for a database. If we refresh any such site we don't simply go to a cached page (many providers cache without telling you) but instead actually ask the UMSF server to do some work. I sometimes find that my first - presumably stealthily cached by NTL, my cable company - attempt attempt to see a UMSF page fails, but the second is fine. Perhaps there's an error condition generated at the cache end which then points me directly to UMSF?

This could be the cause of home vs work problems - I'll bet that home users get cached to save traffic on the real WWW (would users even notice?).

Bob Shaw

[djellison]

That would make a lot of sense. UMSF is indeed entirely DB driven, PHP, SQL and Apache all have to work to serve each page. If for some reason you have a local cached version perhaps with your ISP or work network - that would 'break' it.

Doug

[dvandorn]

I've had some occasional issues with UMSF not refreshing well (or at all quickly), but it's been a while since I've had a really hard time staying connected. And when I do have a problem, it's usually a SQL error and not a DNS lookup issue that's killing me.

However, I'm seeing a more subtle behavior issue lately. Keep in mind, I'll often start reading posts here, go off and do other things, and come back to read more posts -- all without logging in or out of the site.

Now we all know that when you first bring the site up, the forum and sub-forum icons show you if there are unread posts in those fora. When you get into the topic lists, of course, there is a small red flag next to individual threads if they contain unread posts.

When I leave the site up but unattended for a while (especially when displaying a given thread or sub-forum topic list) and then go back to the main forum list, the forum icons reset to an "all read" status, even if I haven't gone into those fora during this visit. I end up checking the last-post timestamps at the forum levels to see if there might be unread posts out there that I haven't seen.

It's not a huge inconvenience (if I didn't care about keeping my reading organized into fora, I could just look at the recent posts lists). But it is a glitch in the proper operation of the Invision board software, so I thought I'd mention it.

-the other Doug

[djellison]

I'm sure it's something that was probably looked at with the latest invision board revision - but obviously, as experience has shown - I'm not a big fan of upgrades

Doug

[helvick]

When I leave the site up but unattended for a while (especially when displaying a given thread or sub-forum topic list) and then go back to the main forum list, the forum icons reset to an "all read" status, even if I haven't gone into those fora during this visit.  I end up checking the last-post timestamps at the forum levels to see if there might be unread posts out there that I haven't seen.

I'm seeing something similar. I generally tend to use the "View New Posts" button to monitor activity and it has worked pretty reliably up until recently. I've noticed occassional posts in the past that I missed but over the last week or two I've seen a lot and yesterday I noticed that the list "cleared" almost completely between two sessions even though I hadn't read any of them.

It's not a big deal for me either, more of an inconvenience as you say, but just thought I'd flag it as something I'd noticed.

[Bjorn Jonsson]

I have noticed this as well but it's a minor inconvenience.

The big issue for me is accessing UMSF from home. I seriously doubt it's a caching issue. When 'tracert' ends with star.dnsprotect.com (as in one of the sample traceroute outputs I posted on page 1 in this thread) I can access UMSF from home; when it doesn't I can't access it from home but can access it from work. The tracert output is identical from home and work except for the first few entries.

I wonder if this might be a problem at gig0-1.l3-atl-5.gnax.net [209.51.131.94]

At the moment I cannot access UMSF at home; several hours ago I could. The situation was similar yesterday, a 'window' for a few hours when I could access UMSF from home.

Maybe I should try complaining to my ISP and pretend I have no idea of tracert etc. .

[dvandorn]

This is really sounding like a load balancer issue to me. Your ISP may well be using load balancers to maintain even traffic on its server nodes. If one of those goes a little bad, this is the kind of thing that can happen. And it's hard as hell to track down.

Instead of pretending ignorance of such things, it might be best to simply tell them what you know and inquire as to whether they have been doing any tests on their load balancers.

Also, it's possible that your ISP is using a larger provider's servers, and has limited control over some of the nodes it uses. And that includes load balancing on those nodes. So, that might be a good data point to pin down with them, as well -- if you can.

-the other Doug

[Bjorn Jonsson]

I emailed my ISP today and included several 'tracerts' I did when things worked/didn't work etc. Hopefully I get a useful response although I am not particularly optimistic (needless to say I am not posting this message from home).

[djellison]

Here's an idea - whenever you have trouble - do a tracert and past the full contents here - and I'll collect a few and send them to the hosting company, just to check things from their end.

Doug

[ElkGroveDan]

[ElkGroveDan]

I've noticed that when I access UMSF from home after 8:00pm in the evening, the toilet in the front bathroom flushes, and it does it again each time I attempt to reload a page. It doesn't happen when I access a page through a link. When I click on an image link Monday mornings after 6:00 am, the front doorbell rings twice, causing my dog to bark and wake up the kids.

[lyford]

I've noticed that when I access UMSF from home after 8:00pm in the evening, the toilet in the front bathroom flushes, and it does it again each time I attempt to reload a page.......

Reminds me of the old Steven Wright line:

In my house there's this light switch that doesn't do anything. Every so often I would flick it on and off just to check. Yesterday, I got a call from a woman in Madagascar. She said, "Cut it out."

[Bjorn Jonsson]

I've noticed that when I access UMSF from home after 8:00pm in the evening, the toilet in the front bathroom flushes, and it does it again each time I attempt to reload a page.  It doesn't happen when I access a page through a link.  When I click on an image link Monday mornings after 6:00 am, the front doorbell rings twice, causing my dog to bark and wake up the kids.

Obviously a Microsoft conspiracy ;-).

Here's an idea - whenever you have trouble - do a tracert and past the full contents here - and I'll collect a few and send them to the hosting company, just to check things from their end.

Doug

Here is a tracert from work:

Tracing route to unmannedspaceflight.com [72.9.234.170]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <10 ms <10 ms <10 ms 10.1.0.252
2 <10 ms 1 ms 1 ms 213.213.152.93.in.is [213.213.152.93]
3 1 ms 2 ms 1 ms fe2-0.core02.islandssimi.is [213.176.138.67]
4 2 ms 2 ms 1 ms fe0-0.uk-gw.islandssimi.is [213.176.138.5]
5 47 ms 47 ms 48 ms 213.176.138.254.in.is [213.176.138.254]
6 43 ms 46 ms 55 ms ae0-6.lon11.ip.tiscali.net [213.200.77.125]
7 42 ms 41 ms 41 ms so-3-1-0.lon22.ip.tiscali.net [213.200.80.30]
8 43 ms 41 ms 41 ms ldn-b2-link.telia.net [213.248.100.193]
9 42 ms 42 ms 42 ms ldn-bb2-pos1-3-0.telia.net [213.248.64.73]
10 153 ms 166 ms * nyk-bb2-pos0-2-0.telia.net [213.248.65.94]
11 136 ms 131 ms 139 ms ash-bb1-pos7-0-0-0.telia.net [213.248.80.138]
12 160 ms 158 ms 148 ms atl-bb1-pos5-0-0.telia.net [213.248.80.142]
13 143 ms 127 ms 133 ms globalnet-103907-atl-bb1.c.telia.net [213.248.90
.54]
14 123 ms 123 ms 128 ms atl-core-a-tgi2-1.gnax.net [209.51.149.105]
15 136 ms 136 ms 123 ms gig0-1.l3-atl-5.gnax.net [209.51.131.94]
16 153 ms 118 ms 118 ms star.dnsprotect.com [72.9.234.170]

Trace complete.


Here is a tracert from home:

Tracing route to unmannedspaceflight.com [72.9.234.170]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms my.router [192.168.1.1]
2 6 ms 7 ms 7 ms 217.151.181.57
3 6 ms 6 ms 6 ms 217.151.181.58
4 8 ms 8 ms 8 ms 217.151.181.62
5 9 ms 9 ms 10 ms fe2-0.core01.islandssimi.is [213.176.138.66]
6 24 ms 11 ms 9 ms fe0-0.uk-gw.islandssimi.is [213.176.138.5]
7 55 ms 54 ms 54 ms 213.176.138.254.in.is [213.176.138.254]
8 49 ms 49 ms 49 ms ae0-6.lon11.ip.tiscali.net [213.200.77.125]
9 70 ms 75 ms 79 ms so-3-1-0.lon22.ip.tiscali.net [213.200.80.30]
10 51 ms 51 ms 50 ms lon-b2-pos1-3.telia.net [213.200.77.134]
11 90 ms 84 ms 82 ms ldn-bb1-pos0-1-0.telia.net [213.248.74.1]
12 162 ms 157 ms 205 ms nyk-bb1-pos0-2-0.telia.net [213.248.65.90]
13 164 ms 211 ms 201 ms ash-bb1-pos6-0-0-0.telia.net [213.248.80.69]
14 154 ms 155 ms 170 ms atl-bb1-pos5-0-0.telia.net [213.248.80.142]
15 141 ms 126 ms 140 ms globalnet-103907-atl-bb1.c.telia.net [213.248.90
.54]
16 122 ms 130 ms 132 ms atl-core-a-tgi2-1.gnax.net [209.51.149.105]
17 154 ms 137 ms 160 ms gig0-1.l3-atl-5.gnax.net [209.51.131.94]
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

When things work from home 'line' 18 above becomes identical to line 16 in the tracert from work.

[Bjorn Jonsson]

Here's an idea - whenever you have trouble - do a tracert and past the full contents here - and I'll collect a few and send them to the hosting company, just to check things from their end.

Doug

Did you get a useful response from the hosting company ?

Needless to say I got no response to the email I sent to my ISP. I have been unable to access UMSF continuously for over a week now. I'll try their phone support next (which I have heard is not good) to see what happens although for this kind of problem email is (or should be) much easier.

Maybe I'll end up switching to another ISP...