Outage recovery

[Tom Westbrook]

Sorry folks, but due to database corruption I had to delete the database & restore from the last good backup, which was Tuesday's (Apr 25 @ approx 11pm PDT ). Anything added to the Forum after that time has been lost & will need to be re-posted.

If you notice any issues, reply here.

[Leigh]

Thank you, Tom.

Over the past several days I've noticed frequent Forum failures with a database error page coming up.
I could not figure out any pattern.

- Leigh

[stawastawa]

Thank you Tom, hopefully that is far enough back to correct the database errors I and others were seeing more of.

[Alan9940]

Thank you, Tom. I sent a message earlier today regarding this issue. Glad to see the forums up and running, again!

[Eric Woodbury]

Thanks Tom. I missed you all.

[Peter Collins]

Another 'thank-you' to Tom for his work.

[jnantz]

thanks tom !

seems like a lot of things are haywire this
merc retrograde cycle !

too bad joan quigley doesn't use LF !! ;)

john

[Luis-F-S]

Glad you're back up! It was a little lonely yesterday!

[David Karp]

Thanks Tom.

[Fangel]

thanks Tom :)

[Thalmees]

Hello Tom,
Thanks for the backup.
Still could not open the main page of the forum on my iPad.
There is one post only(the last) has been deleted.
Writing from my iPhone.
Thanks for the assistance.

[Thalmees]

Hello Tom,
Thanks for the backup.
Still could not open the main page of the forum on my iPad.
There is one post only(the last) has been deleted.
Writing from my iPhone.
Thanks for the assistance.
Solved,
Thanks so much.

[buzzardkid]

Unable to access the forum from my iMac with Safari 11.0.2.

It claims URLs are non-existent. Sometimes I get rerouted to a simple logon page for 3mail, from the vegetable company or something like that...

??

Works fine from the iPad.

Is there something I missed?

[rdenney]

Unable to access the forum from my iMac with Safari 11.0.2.

It claims URLs are non-existent. Sometimes I get rerouted to a simple logon page for 3mail, from the vegetable company or something like that...

??

Works fine from the iPad.

Is there something I missed?

Not that I'm aware of. It's all working for me.

Rick "using various interfaces" Denney

[Bruce Watson]

Unable to access the forum from my iMac with Safari 11.0.2.

It claims URLs are non-existent.
...
Is there something I missed?

Probably not, but it's possible its something your DNS server missed.

Your URLs are resolved down to an IP address by a DNS server. If the URL you request doesn't show up in your DNS server's cache, it will pass the resolution request to the next DNS server up the chain. And so on. So it may take longer for the DNS server to resolve the address than your local timeout permits. Which may be why you get a "not found" message. Typically, if you wait a few minutes (in my experience it's almost always less than 10 minutes for just about any URL in the world) just about all real URLs will be found and resolved for you.

That said, the DNS server cache works pretty much like you'd think -- it keeps the most recently and often requested URLs close at hand and ready to go, while URLs that are less often requested slide down the list. At some point the infrequently requested URLs fall out of the cache. And the cycle starts over again.

If your ISP cares (mine does not) they will monitor the state of the DNS, notice how many URLs drop out of the bottom of the cache every week, and when it reaches some threshold or other they will install more cache memory to bring the DNS server back in line with their desires.

An alternative is to search for a free DNS server outside your ISP. For example, CloudFare just launched a fast and free DNS service (https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/1/17185732/cloudflare-dns-service-1-1-1-1). I switched to it right away, and it made my 'net surfing considerably faster and considerably reduced problems like the one that caused you to post to this thread. There's probably alternatives in Europe, but I don't know what they would be.

Or you could just wait a few minutes and try again. ;)

[buzzardkid]

Probably not, but it's possible its something your DNS server missed.

Your URLs are resolved down to an IP address by a DNS server. If the URL you request doesn't show up in your DNS server's cache, it will pass the resolution request to the next DNS server up the chain. And so on. So it may take longer for the DNS server to resolve the address than your local timeout permits. Which may be why you get a "not found" message. Typically, if you wait a few minutes (in my experience it's almost always less than 10 minutes for just about any URL in the world) just about all real URLs will be found and resolved for you.

That said, the DNS server cache works pretty much like you'd think -- it keeps the most recently and often requested URLs close at hand and ready to go, while URLs that are less often requested slide down the list. At some point the infrequently requested URLs fall out of the cache. And the cycle starts over again.

If your ISP cares (mine does not) they will monitor the state of the DNS, notice how many URLs drop out of the bottom of the cache every week, and when it reaches some threshold or other they will install more cache memory to bring the DNS server back in line with their desires.

An alternative is to search for a free DNS server outside your ISP. For example, CloudFare just launched a fast and free DNS service (https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/1/17185732/cloudflare-dns-service-1-1-1-1). I switched to it right away, and it made my 'net surfing considerably faster and considerably reduced problems like the one that caused you to post to this thread. There's probably alternatives in Europe, but I don't know what they would be.

Or you could just wait a few minutes and try again. ;)


On FireFox now.

Seems the certificate is the issue. Safari won't let me use the site at all, FireFox warns that the certificate is not valid and as such the data sent over the net aren't encrypted.

Yikes.

Gotta figure out how to accept the correct certificate from the site again but this stuff is way above my tech grade ;) ;) :rolleyes:

[Jac@stafford.net]

For some reason the address you are trying begins with "https://", which this site does not support. Try "http://"

[rdenney]

For some reason the address you are trying begins with "https://", which this site does not support. Try "http://"

Yes. The site is not encrypted, and browsers are wont to complain about that. We are discussing it again, looking for an easy and sustainable way to do it.

Rick “not the guy that has to make it work” Denney

[buzzardkid]

For some reason the address you are trying begins with "https://", which this site does not support. Try "http://"

I can't seem to change Safari's mind on using https, even when I specifically type http, I get the https URL it's trying to load.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I can't seem to change Safari's mind on using https, even when I specifically type http, I get the https URL it's trying to load.

Wow! That sucks. Works for me, Safari 11.0.3. Do you have some special privacy or security plug-ins? I can access this forum with the version of Safari above. No problem. Still digging into it!