Author Topic: PGC Site/Forums sometimes don't load (Read 7901 times)

Nintendo Gamecube · « **on:** August 15, 2003, 03:00:43 PM »

This has been happenign a while, but let me explain first.

I try going to planetgamecube.com and it is a white screen. So I refresh, again and again until about my tenth time. When it finally loads the ad. Then I go inside the site. I click on the article; same problem, white screen. Refresh a few times and it finally loads.

Now this problem has crossed over into the forums too, and gotten real annoying. I've spent about ten minutes just trying to post one topic. I think the core problem with this is the ads aorund PGC, maybe they are using some java or html that is screwing this up, but I have no idea, HELP PLEASE.

S-U-P-E-R · « **Reply #1 on:** August 15, 2003, 04:41:58 PM »

This happens to me sometimes, too. I think it's when lots of doods are hitting the server.

Hostile Creation · « **Reply #2 on:** August 15, 2003, 07:33:21 PM »

I seldom have to try more than twice to get the page to load, so it's not a problem for me. If that helps, somehow

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #3 on:** August 16, 2003, 06:41:52 AM »

Sometimes it takes three times for me but its not that bothersome, or that frequent anymore. I don't press "refresh" though, i press Back and click the link again. I keep doing that untill I see the little bar at the bottom of the screen show the page is loading, then I get an all white screen like you. You have to be patient, because after about 6-7 seconds the page loads. If I wait more than 10 seconds, I click back and try again.

kennyb27 · « **Reply #4 on:** August 17, 2003, 08:40:39 AM »

This happens to me quite often. All I do now is just wait for it to load (like KnowsNothing said 6-7 seconds; sometimes longer). It must just bottleneck the servers or something.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #5 on:** August 21, 2003, 10:04:14 PM »

The server seems to ignore connection attempts during high load. It seems to forget you wanted to connect. I have never seen another server do that. Was that last server upgrade a migration from Linux/Unix to Windows, or what happened there?

nitsu niflheim · « **Reply #6 on:** August 22, 2003, 04:06:35 AM »

If you wait long enough it will finally load without having to refresh, but it takes several minutes.

Cap · « **Reply #7 on:** September 04, 2003, 03:33:38 PM »

i've had this problem for quite a while now. i've been trying to be patient, but it only seems to be getting worse. its literally taken me 15-20 minutes to make this one post.
any chance this problem will be fixed soon?

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #8 on:** September 04, 2003, 03:50:42 PM »

It sometimes takes me 3 tries to reply to a post, because "the page does not exist" always pops up...So annoying...

Go figure...it's doing it again

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #9 on:** September 04, 2003, 04:12:03 PM »

I haven't had this problem with the boards for a while, but today has been especially bad. Is something up with the forums?

Cap · « **Reply #10 on:** September 09, 2003, 10:51:51 AM »

ok, am i the only having major problems with the forums and site? the forums in particular are frigging insane. i cant even access the forums anymore from my dial up connection at work becouse of the loading, and when they do load i get an error in internet explorer(4 this hour, i manged to load this page and make 1 post my entire lunch hour). i dont have problems with any other site at home or at work, so i dont think its a setting in my computer or anything like that. does anyone have any suggestions on how to improve the problem? i'll also ask again if theres any chance these problems will be fixed anytime soon?

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #11 on:** September 09, 2003, 12:47:40 PM »

Heh, actually, lately, they seem to have gotton better, except for today, which is pretty bad. But the last few days have been golden. The home page seems to load lightning fast, it's just the forums that are bad.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #12 on:** September 09, 2003, 01:34:40 PM »

Good god, even on my DSL connection I feel like I'm on a 14k modem while surfing the boards. It's like trudging through chest deep mud. Most of the time what I click never loads, and when it actually does start loading, usually it won't finish and I'm stuck with a reply page with no reply button, or half of someone's post. It's only on this site and it's only in the forums- nowhere else is it anywhere near this slow.

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #13 on:** September 09, 2003, 02:13:20 PM »

Wow....today has been horrible....
...everything started out so good...then....i don't know...
...what's happened....I- I- I can't....W-what?...

*very calmly pulls out hair*

I will not lose my cool.

AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #14 on:** September 09, 2003, 02:44:40 PM »

Ok guys, don't lose your cool. ^_^'' Yeah it's irritating that the pages won't load fast enough, but I'm positive the problem will be worked out. Until then...back into the swamp.

BigJim · « **Reply #15 on:** September 10, 2003, 11:56:40 AM »

The site and forums are really bad right now. It has been up and down for a long time now. When Billy was around the server problems were acknowledged to us.

Edit: Got 2 "didn't respond" messages when trying to submit this message.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #16 on:** September 10, 2003, 05:25:37 PM »

I don't think i can stand much more of this. It's getting to the point where I'm seriously debating if participating in the forums is worth the immense time and effort it takes just to read it. I'll stick around a while longer, but I may just up and leave until you guys get this whole issue sorted out.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #17 on:** September 11, 2003, 08:22:13 AM »

I don't get that many problems. It's annoying, but not so bad it makes reading impossible. Maybe more people should use Opera...

Sirmorphix · « **Reply #18 on:** September 11, 2003, 11:36:14 AM »

I have to admit the server for the forums is quite slow, but I don't mind it too much. It's a free service, so I can't really complain about it.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #19 on:** September 11, 2003, 12:12:31 PM »

KDR: I am using Opera!

It's wonderfully magnficent on every website except for PGC, which means it's not a browser problem. I have to post entirely using the Quick Reply function now because the reply pages simply will not load for me.

Grey Ninja · « **Reply #20 on:** September 11, 2003, 07:16:50 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: mouse_clicker
I don't think i can stand much more of this. It's getting to the point where I'm seriously debating if participating in the forums is worth the immense time and effort it takes just to read it. I'll stick around a while longer, but I may just up and leave until you guys get this whole issue sorted out.

I am a Firebird user here. I also tried the site in IE, and it's the same crap. Like you, I am debating moving my hide elsewhere. If there's anything I won't put up with, it's waiting an hour for a page to load. If I wanted to put up with this, I would just go get AOL dialup.

I mean, I can see having site problems for a couple of days. Even a week is understandable. Months? No. There's just no excuse for that.

RickPowers · « **Reply #21 on:** September 11, 2003, 07:46:06 PM »

"I mean, I can see having site problems for a couple of days. Even a week is understandable. Months? No. There's just no excuse for that. "

Well, that's the main problem when you have a site that doesn't host it's own servers in the same physical location as one of the employees. Beleive me, if I were in the same state our servers are hosted in, I'd have this fixed.

You might have noticed that the server appeared to be down for a few hours today. The datacenter our server is hosted in had some problems, resulting in every server on that same segment being unreachable.

I'm pushing HARD to have our server moved to another datacenter entirely at this point. The thing that frustrates me is that the problem is NOT in the server. The server is always up and running, and is not even under load. A network problem, again, likely in the datacenter, is simply dropping random packets to the server.

Seriously, it's not like we're not trying, but moving datacenters is an absolute last ditch option ... and I think we've reached it at this point.

PIAC · « **Reply #22 on:** September 12, 2003, 01:23:19 AM »

im sticking behind you guys, its not like you would just go OH NOE IT DOESN"T WORK *blows up PGC* and so forth, good luck guys

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #23 on:** September 12, 2003, 03:32:28 AM »

Thanks for doing everything you can, Rick- it's good to know that someone's trying to get the problem fixed. Some sites I go to just ignore the complaints of their users.

Caliban · « **Reply #24 on:** September 12, 2003, 01:21:45 PM »

They seem to work fine now and even a little faster than usual.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #25 on:** September 12, 2003, 01:54:20 PM »

It'sfairl decent now- there's still a few spots of trouble where things get hung up, but overall today has been great!

Grey Ninja · « **Reply #26 on:** September 12, 2003, 02:58:24 PM »

Wow! The site is actually working! I never thought I would see the day.

Anyways, sorry for being so harsh Rick. It's just that PGC was once my favoritest site without question, and lately it's been down so much that it's not even worth waiting around for it to load, and of course with a server that unreliable, it's not like PGC is reporting the news first thing or anything. I just want PGC to survive.

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #27 on:** September 12, 2003, 03:13:58 PM »

I'm so happy. ^_^

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #28 on:** September 12, 2003, 03:23:49 PM »

What the hell did you do, Rick? It's blazingly fast, now- absolutely no slow down. I may be speaking a little too soon, but it seems to be consistant, and I hope permanent. I'm having a blast, now.

Cap · « **Reply #29 on:** September 12, 2003, 03:30:55 PM »

the forums definately seem to be working alot better now. maybe now i wont have the urge to throw my mouse across the room anymore. it was getting pretty frustrating.

RickPowers · « **Reply #30 on:** September 12, 2003, 06:01:14 PM »

While I can't detail everything we've done, part of the problem yesterday was a blown switch. I actually think it was causing a decent amount of our slowdown. That said, the moment we posted the contest, we saw a dramatic increase in the DOS attacks that have been an ongoing problem. In addition to getting the server onto a new switch, I've added some protection mechanisms to help defray the attacks. It's not perfect yet, the server will still be unresponsive at times, but it's better. We have more we're doing, so stay tuned.

And thanks for sticking with us through these admittedly trying times. We do this for you guys, so knowing you guys are concerned actually helps make it easier.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #31 on:** September 12, 2003, 10:42:51 PM »

It gets a little patchy sometimes, but the increased speed all the other times more than makes up for it. Other forums seem very slow in comparison now, this is great!

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #32 on:** September 13, 2003, 03:00:53 AM »

Thanks, the forums are a even better now. But I never thought of abandoning you!

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #33 on:** September 13, 2003, 07:34:29 AM »

I don't even care if it doesn't get much faster than it is right now. I'm fine with waiting 5-10 seconds ^_^

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #34 on:** September 13, 2003, 07:41:31 AM »

Faster, is always better, Bill.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #35 on:** September 13, 2003, 08:19:02 AM »

Ah, yes. It's back to the old ways. Just sometimes forgetting a connection or a transfer... Yes, it's definitely better than at the time where it had a maybe 2% success rate (2 days ago I think). No problems left that I can't handle.

BigJim · « **Reply #36 on:** September 13, 2003, 10:38:05 AM »

The site and forums are zoomy at the moment. Best of luck ironing out the bugs for good, Rick.

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #37 on:** September 17, 2003, 11:30:18 AM »

God, today was horrible for the site. I only have time to post once, becuase I have other things to do. I'm leaving till this is worked out. I hope I don't double post.

Grey Ninja · « **Reply #38 on:** September 17, 2003, 03:09:57 PM »

Yesterday was just as bad KnowsNothing.

Hopefully we won't have to wait a month for this to be worked out this time. See ya guys around whenever the site does start working again. I might go play some games or do some work in the meantime.

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #39 on:** September 19, 2003, 04:03:40 PM »

well, the forums can't seem to make up their mind about being naughty or nice. Today, they were nice. If things run this smoothly from now on I will be a happy man. VERY happy.

Oh yeah, I joined the GI forums when i was fed up with PGC. DO NOT DO THAT! After here, teh forums are hell. HELL. Thank you guys for making this forum so great.

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #40 on:** September 19, 2003, 04:11:19 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: KnowsNothing
Faster, is always better, Bill.

That reminds me of the Sonic Adventure by-line...

Faster is better ^_^

Ah, but the forums have been acting weird today...This morning it was slow, now it's not...Make up your mind server! (In a positive way

)

Marcus Arillius · « **Reply #41 on:** September 24, 2003, 09:40:33 AM »

The site has been very slow for me the past couple of days. Sometimes it's so slow that the connection to the server is lost. Even when i get on, it takes several minutes to load one page, and i have a cable modem. I know its not my computer because i've used several different browsers and every other site i visit isn't slow loading at all, well not any slower than normal. PlanetGamecube used to be teh fast, now it is teh slow. How een teh hell?

Hostile Creation · « **Reply #42 on:** September 24, 2003, 04:42:01 PM »

Same here. It's often been so bad that I couldn't even access anything. . . the forums won't load for nothin'.

RickPowers · « **Reply #43 on:** September 24, 2003, 07:10:47 PM »

When the server is under an active SYN attack, it's going to drop connections faster than usual, all in an effort to keep the server running at all. Yes, it's been worse in the past couple of days, but we're still actively working on it.

oohhboy · « **Reply #44 on:** September 27, 2003, 04:21:10 AM »

SYN?

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #45 on:** September 27, 2003, 05:36:51 AM »

SYN = TCP connection request

1) Using a spoofed IP address not in use on the Internet, an attacker sends multiple SYN packets to the target machine.

2)For each SYN packet received, the target machine allocates resources and sends an acknowledgement (SYN-ACK) to the source IP address.

3)Because the target machine doesn't receive a response from the attacking machine, it attempts to resend the SYN-ACK five times, at 3-, 6-, 12-, 24-, and 48-second intervals, before unallocating the resources 96 seconds after attempting the last retry. If you add it all together, you can see that the target machine allocates resources for more than 3 minutes to respond to just one SYN attack."

After a few "attacks" the target eventually runs out of resources and is unable to handle any more connections, thus denying service to users.

Mannypon · « **Reply #46 on:** September 30, 2003, 07:18:36 PM »

dam, seems like Ive been gettin it the worst. I cant even load the pgc page durin the day. Everytime I try I get that "The page cannot be displayed" error message. I try it over and over again and nothing. Only time I can actually see this site and the forums are past midnight for some reason. Hope the problem gets fixed soon.

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #47 on:** September 30, 2003, 07:22:04 PM »

Same for me...It's probably just during this time period that the attacks cease...I'm positive that the staff is working on it, but it's hard work and it will take time

Cap · « **Reply #48 on:** September 30, 2003, 07:25:41 PM »

this is the first time i've in two or three days that the forums have opened for me. the site isnt loading either.

News:

Author Topic: PGC Site/Forums sometimes don't load (Read 7901 times)