Why CPF is slowly losing me....

For the last several weeks I almost continuosly get one of two messages:

The server is down at the moment, please try again later.

OR

"There seems to have been a slight problem with the database.
Please try again by pressing the refresh button in your browser.

An E-Mail has been dispatched to our Technical Staff, who you can also contact if the problem persists.

We apologise for any inconvenience"

OR

I just flat can't get on at all, getting the standard Explorer white screen with the:

The page cannot be displayed

The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings



This is so frustrating that the time I spend here is becoming increasingly less worthwhile.

Why can't this be fixed? I've seen lots of boards start from scratch and have fewer problems.

Bill

+1

Indeed :shakehead:

:rock:

Maybe we can migrate to another site.

stupid double post caused by the very reason this thread was started.

OT comment removed - Greg

bwaites said:

For the last several weeks I almost continuosly get one of two messages:

The server is down at the moment, please try again later.

OR

"There seems to have been a slight problem with the database.
Please try again by pressing the refresh button in your browser.

OR

The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings

This is so frustrating that the time I spend here is becoming increasingly less worthwhile.

Click to expand...

Pretty much the same situation here. Also tried looking into the Administration: Questions/Problems/Suggestions thread on "What Does Server Busy" and I get that "page you are looking for is currently unavailable. . ."

Don't know. Less posting for me as of late. . .

What you guys don't realize is that you are missing the BIG picture. Don't you see how much money we are all saving by not being able to get into CPF? We should all send thank cards to whomever is causing this whole mess. :nana:

bwaites said:

An E-Mail has been dispatched to our Technical Staff, who you can also contact if the problem persists.

Bill

Click to expand...

This seems to be a serious problem. CPF will not have the same draw for me without the contributions from people like Bill and the others who have already replied to this post.

I would appreciate some communication from the "Technical Staff" on this issue.

>>>EDIT:
Message sent to site admin using the contact us option at the bottom of the page asking for an update on this issue here.

>>>>>>EDIT 2:
I see Sasha has responded to another thread here and she seems to be working on a solution.

I was wondering if the admins here should get in touch with the admins running the Radio Reference site.

Sasha, et al. Don't misunderstand though, I loves me some CPF and I understand keeping this up and running isn't exactly a paying job <grin>.

Respectfully, I think Sasha has the ability and interest to keep this place running top notch, unfortunatly, except today, she doesn't seem to have the time..
Perhaps it's time to pass the torch..

Sure is frustrating!

But, if our CPF is under attack (Distributed Dos attack), in order to bring it down, do we let that person or persons succeed?

I, for one, say NO! Never in a million years, would I leave this forum, if someone is doing this with the intention of bringing CPF down.

oldgrandpajack

Okay I just checked the Administrative: Questions/Problems/Suggestions thread entitled "What Does Server Too Busy Mean?" and you can find Sasha's reply. Enjoy!

If that is the case, and it may be, why can't anyone figure out that that IS the problem and tell us officially?

Sasha has in the past done a great job, but she posted recently that she doesn't have the time anymore that she used to spend here, so maybe someone else can help out?

Bill

I got "the server is too busy" several times last night at about 2 AM. I know almost nobody was up that late on sunday night...

bwaites said:

If that is the case, and it may be, why can't anyone figure out that that IS the problem and tell us officially?

Click to expand...

I'll go sit in my corner now.

BatteryCharger said:

I got "the server is too busy" several times last night at about 2 AM. I know almost nobody was up that late on sunday night...

Click to expand...

Um, I was here.

Is CPF run on a dedicated server or a shared server? I imagine it'd have to be a dedicated server.

It would be interesting to know the answer to the following questions:

1. Dedicated or Shared Server
2. What OS?
3. What Web Service (IIS, Apache, etc)
4. Is the CPU on this machine being overworked?
5. How much physical RAM memory in the machine? Is it being overworked?
6. What is the bandwidth to this machine? (T1, T3, etc...)
7. Is the computer firewalled on itself or behind a separate firewall computer/appliance?
8. What type of antivirus/antispyware software is running and is it the best solution?
9. What is the HDD storage capacity?
10. Are there questions that the Admins could ask the CPF community who might do this type of thing for a living that could possibly provide some assistance?

:thanks:

Even as an admin I dont know the answer to all your questions, but i can tell you that it's a dedicated machine that is all ours and not a virtual server sharing resources with a hundred other folks. It's running Apache and some flavor of unix. Since it's located at a professional hosting company their firewall will likely be another unix box of some kind and that is unlikely to be part of the problem.

At this particular moment I believe that we are running both the database backend and the bbs software on the same box. If the load continued to increase at the rate that it was there were plans to spread that out across several systems.

This takes time to do though, and is expensive.

I dont think that you all realize just how many users we've got and just how busy this server is! Our active posting list might be just a few thousand people, but the hits are enormous! As far as I'm aware at this time the server has not been the victim of any foul play, except for the interest of too many people at once.

There isn't any official word on the problem or the steps that might be takes to do anything about it. But we're definitely aware that it has been happening lately. If you want to keep the load down, stop telling all your friends to come here