Trouble connecting to GB front page.

Acleacius · Post by **Acleacius** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:25 am

Hey basicly using FireFox just the Netscape v 8.1 and I started having trouble connecting to the front page this week.
I have a secondary Nectscape 7.2 and of course IE, with my WinXP SP2 version, both Netscape are use proxies and IE doesn't.
I have no trouble connecting to any other site I have noticed, I usually hit 20 different sites a day minium, it is only GB I can't get too.
I have tried with ZoneALarrm off in case it was blocking cookies, java scripts or flash.

What happens is, I get waiting for response from GB and it stalls for about 2min, then half the front page loads, enough to get some links like to the forum, which I have direct bookmark too now, if I let it continue to stall it eventually locks up the browser.

I also tried to delete my login Passcard (basicly site settings) for GB, with no luck, though Net 7.2 and IE don't use those.
It is funny cause all 3 browsers use different cookies and setting, none are common, I just can't hit this site.

Thanks for any tips.

Post by **BuckGB** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 5:26 am

Are you unable to load the homepage completely using any of the three browsers? Or is it just Firefox that's giving you this problem?

Also, do you have this problem on any page other than the homepage?

Fiberfar · Post by **Fiberfar** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 5:43 am

Not sure if this goes under the same, but I'm having major problems opening the main page (gamebanshee.com). It takes forever and the only thing I get is the whole page full of the weekly poll (about game creators). If I use http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums everything works well.

It might be because I'm using IE though

Post by **BuckGB** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:02 am

I was working on a new plug-in for vBulletin, though I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the slowdown. I've restarted Apache and things seem to be back to normal.

Ravager · Post by **Ravager** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:53 pm

There have been quite a few fatal errors and a couple of database errors tonight too, so I'm not sure if that's worked properly...

And that's for GB in general, not just the home-page.

Post by **BuckGB** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:56 pm

Those of you trying to visit GameBanshee this afternoon probably noticed quite a few MySQL errors. As it turns out, our load average is pretty high and I had to make several tweaks to MySQL in order to bring it down to an acceptable number. This is the main reason for the site-wide slowdown lately, and, unfortunately, it looks like we might be due for another server upgrade. I'll be monitoring things over the next few days to see how the current configuration holds up.

Acleacius · Post by **Acleacius** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 4:56 pm

"Are you unable to load the homepage completely using any of the three browsers?"
Yes that is correct.

"Or is it just Firefox that's giving you this problem?"

All, three.

"Also, do you have this problem on any page other than the homepage?"

No.

I tried to respond earlier and got this message when trying to get a post window.
"There seems to have been a problem with the database.
Please try again by clicking the Refresh button in your web browser.

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

We apologise for any inconvenience."

Thanks.

Angelis · Post by **Angelis** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:59 pm

I been having problems since monday

I cant get to the homepage either, even today I only got top part of it, enough for me to get to the forum to leave message to let you know, I tried all my web browsers; firefox, IE and btyahoo browser. the browsers try for 5-10mins and nothing comes up and only today do I a partial of the homepage. I check my connection which is 2mb broadband which is ok and all my other webpages load ok. I think it may be GB homepage I am trying to log in too. I did manage to get to forums and game sites through Bansheee Network box and they loaded up ok. Can you sort it soon as I been missing my Banshee fix

Post by **BuckGB** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 6:47 am

I don't know what could be causing this problem for only a select number of people. I know the site has been slower than usual, and the code on the homepage is nearly identical to every other page. To make it more frustrating, everything loads fine for me on multiple PCs and all browsers. I've been working with my hosting provider to see if they can help me track down the problem, so hopefully I have something to report soon.

Ashen · Post by **Ashen** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 2:28 pm

Another person here with issues. I have no idea what is going on but let me put it this way - all of a sudden around 1 PM my time (or there about), everything sort of got blocked. I couldn't open anything in GB to save my life. It's 9.20 PM now and after hours of trying I managed somehow to get to this page. Everything is incredibly slow to load, if it loads at all. I had no issues before. Very odd.

Add on1: I keep getting those database errors as well while trying to post this.

There seems to have been a problem with the database.
Please try again by clicking the Refresh button in your web browser.

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

We apologise for any inconvenience.

Add on 2: And it loads, and loads, and loads....

Add on 3: And an hour later it is posted!

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 3:19 pm

Having the same issues on my front as well, Buck. Did the usual tech support mojo, but no go as of yet.

Just FYI.

Siberys · Post by **Siberys** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 3:31 pm

Same here, occasionally it just stops working, firefox that is.

Post by **BuckGB** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 3:36 pm

Thanks for all the feedback. Unfortunately, the problems we're experiencing are all hardware related. We're just seeing too many database queries across our network of sites and forums, and our current server just isn't able to keep up. It's only a year old, too, and the next bump up is at a much higher cost.

Something has to be done, though, and I'm working with my hosting provider right now to come up with a solution for upgrading to a higher end server. It's going to be at least a few days before I can resolve anything, so my only recommendation for the time being is to keep trying if the site is acting sluggish. I'll let everyone know what my plans are next week.

Acleacius · Post by **Acleacius** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:18 pm

You might want to for an hour or till you get it resolved, Turn off the Login Server.
This would proabably help traffic flow and stalls, as well at tell you if it really is the Hardware.

IIR, if everything returns to normal after shutting off the Login Server, then there is a good chance it is just some code updates are necessary to the Login.

Typically (again, IIR) if you jsut had too much traffic it wouldn't just stop working and would not stall for so long, the sites would just load slower, especally it wouldn't stop all of a sudden like this.
Appoligies for being a backseat NetOp, but it seems like something else, I am guessing your provder is jsut telling you need to upgrade, it would be worth getting a second oppinion, imo.

Post by **BuckGB** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 7:40 am

[QUOTE=Acleacius]You might want to for an hour or till you get it resolved, Turn off the Login Server. This would proabably help traffic flow and stalls, as well at tell you if it really is the Hardware.[/QUOTE]
The problem is our MySQL usage. vBulletin alone is eating up a considerable amount of our available memory, but it's the popularity of our searchable databases (the Oblivion equipment/spells databases, for example) that have brought the server to its knees. During peak times, MySQL runs out of memory. And because every page on the site has at least one call to MySQL, you'll start to see database errors when this happens. It effectively cripples the entire server.

It's not just our hosting provider that's recommending a hardware upgrade, either. I've brought the issue up with the vBulletin support team and, judging by our average server load, they're even recommending that we put our databases on a separate server. While that would definitely resolve our issues, it's just not an affordable solution.

Bumping the server from 2GB to 4GB of RAM would fix the issue, but my one-year contract with Verio is up at the end of this month. They always offer an incentive to renew for another year, and getting into a much more powerful server with 4GB of RAM doesn't cost a whole lot more than just upgrading the RAM in our existing server. Additionally, the upgraded server features a RAID1 setup, meaning we would have two mirrored hard drives for redundancy. I regularly back up our data now, but knowing that we can survive a failed hard drive without having to restore any data would bring me peace of mind.

The problem I have right now is keeping the website functioning until the new server is ready and the data can be migrated. I've already disabled our MySQL-driven ad script, but I may end up having to take some of the databases offline yet. If you find that GB isn't responding, please be patient. I'm just a one-man team

.

Ashen · Post by **Ashen** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 11:08 am

Well I just wanted to say thank you very much for all the hard work!

Oh and it works with no issues whatsoever today

Acleacius · Post by **Acleacius** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 8:16 pm

Ahh, good I am glad sounds like you have things under control.

I certianly hope you don't think I was complaining, mostly just trying to provide info, that could possibly help.

I find GB an invaluable source of info and great walkthruoghs.

I hope one day to see a Gothic walkthruogh and data base, I realise Oblivion got in the way of that time wise.
Maybe it was best, if you guys put your usual quality into a Gothic page, you could easily draw thousands of Gothic fans world wide.

Since nothing with GB's detail exist currently and Gothic has a huge fan base though mostly EU and Oblivion had come online at the same time the server might be dead now.

Best of Luck.

Magelord648 · Post by **Magelord648** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 3:11 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong but they're are alot of members that have only been on once to ask a question and then never returned. Maybe there should be a member clearout for people who haven't been on line for ages and never really posted. I recall seeing a guy at the esIII forum who joined in 2003 but had not posted once. It's people like these that are using up the space.
Ps. I don't know alot about servers so I might have just spawned a load of rubbish. If i have, I am very sorry.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 4:05 pm

@Magelord,
that has been suggested before. From what I recall, though, Buck doesn't like to delete memberships, just because of inactivity.

Though, I have seen other forums purge members... First the forum admin sent a mass email announcing the plan, in order to give people a chance to log-in before being cut off.

It might be worth a thought...

Though, I know people who rarely post, yet routinely check their PMs. I suspect such individuals would be upset to suddenly find that their accounts had vanished.

Acleacius · Post by **Acleacius** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 5:29 pm

You maybe right but, from what Buck just said space does not seem to be the issue and people do not need t regester to look at the databases.

Now I could be wrong but from what I understand the problem is too many people are trying to connect to the servers/databases at the same tiime.