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Site slow or unreachable at times
- Thread starter trlvn
- Start date
Ditto Craig's comments, sometimes I have the feeling its google chrome, or updates from MicroSoft or Norton Security. So when in doubt advise the admin guys.
And a second issue for me. For whatever reason when putting up a new thread or post reply I cannot locate the block of icons to add the LIKE Hand or associated icons. Suspect something might be wonky with my initial joining download or my PC settings. However should the like hand be with a post I can add one to it, that seems very odd to me. So where to look to correct the problem? Anyone.....!!
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I think that is by design of the program. They don’t want you to ”like” or otherwise emoji your own comments/threads.
You can only receive praise from other members - can’t give it to yourself. You can always give praise to others, even if you started the thread initially.
Maybe an Admin can chime in and explain it better?
So here is a screen shot of what I am trying to say: like & emojis available in your #2 post to me.
None available in my #3 post - because I wrote the comment. You should see them.
And there won’t be any available to ME in this #4 post - but YOU (and any other members) will see the icons.
None available in my #3 post - because I wrote the comment. You should see them.
And there won’t be any available to ME in this #4 post - but YOU (and any other members) will see the icons.
@RobinHood thanks for your reply, now that's a given function and fully understood by me. Question is why can't I add any of the other icons to a thread post or reply.
Would be appreciated if @Jwest7788 and @Janger would jump in here.
Hold onto your hat @RobinHood yes it's working for me now. Like you say only when another member adds the like hand to a post.
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@RobinHood, saying I should see them is well taken and I fully agree with you however they simply don't show up no matter what I do with my rats-ass mouse. Like whistling out one's rear. LOL
Hold onto your hat @RobinHood yes it's working for me now. Like you say only when another member adds the like hand to a post.
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The plot thickens. @YYCHobbyMachinist added a like to my posts #5 and #6 however when I place my cursers on said like hand the icon dips down and no other icons show. Something is really wonky which I fail to understand and that's where the computer gurus need to step in.
So now you can better understand my ongoing dilemma since becoming a member of this forum. Help!
So now you can better understand my ongoing dilemma since becoming a member of this forum. Help!
@YYCHobbyMachinist, yes Craig just like that although no additional icons appear. Why is that???
Why are you expecting additional icons? As @RobinHood pointed out you can't apply them to your own post.
Duh silly old me, getting old isn't for sissies you know! Couldn't see the forest for the trees.
Brain must be connected to one's finger, unsure exactly where mine finger was. LOL
On the flip side placing my cursor on any other post in this thread said icons simply don't show. so why's that Craig?
Almost as if it only works intermittently. Oh poop!
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Bill - I think you said you were using an old version of internet explorer? I’m in IT and we call that program internet exploder due to many problems that crop up with it. I would suggest trying another browser like chrome, Firefox, opera. They are al free so just download one - say chrome - and try it. https://www.google.com/chrome/
Are people still having problems? It’s been much better last week or so for myself. Please chime in yay or nay so we can get an idea. Please mention your internet provider too. It seems to vary.
Been pretty good for me this week. Maybe one instance of it dropping off for a brief period of time.
99% of the failures I have had have been the server failing to complete requests. The next time it happens I'll screen capture the diagnostic and post it here.
I'm with Shaw Cable.
99% of the failures I have had have been the server failing to complete requests. The next time it happens I'll screen capture the diagnostic and post it here.
I'm with Shaw Cable.
trlvn
Ultra Member
When I first tried to access the site this morning (~7:00 Eastern), it was exceedingly slow to respond. I went on to check a few other of my regular sites and when I came back, this site seemed to work OK. Although "liking a post" sometimes takes a long time.
As I said, it seems to be intermittent. I know that I've had a 502 error a couple of times. I'll follow up if I notice any more examples.
Craig
Was slow a few weeks back, but seems fine now for me at least @Janger
A key question is it just this website, or other internet services as well?
While Janger is one of the IT Gods here, and I certainly am not...I can chime in on a less likely—but possibly related—cause of some slowdowns that plague individuals. This assumes it is not just our forum, but your internet in general. I used to manage all the shallow utilities for The City of Calgary—gas and oil lines, electrical, telephone, coax, and fibre. When the weather changes, especially in areas with buried cable, you get expansion and contraction within the 1.2 metre shallow utility zone. This causes faults. Due to modern routing technology, this can cause packets to fail temporally or occasionally. In some cases they are rerouted via a longer route. This can lead to signal loss and failure. In really serious cases a telecomm may need to get your neighbours' permission to string coax down a fence line until the ground thaws so the underground fault can be repaired. If you have ever seen an electrical wire strung between two light standards on a newer street where the utilities are buried, this is what has happened. The wire has faulted underground, and to correct it temporally they string wire above ground from light to light. The same thing happens with coax, bell wire and fibre. Depending on your neighbourhood, we could predict problematic zones just by looking out a truck window. The next time you walk around your hood, look how many light standards have wires crossing above road level. If there are a lot, the soil composition in your area indicates it is more prone to freeze/thaw heave, thus you can expect the same for telecom as it is buried at the same depth.
It's no coincidence it's happening now. I recall seeing the calls come in hot and heavy during freeze up and then again in spring during from telecoms applying for permission to cut open the ground to do repairs. Standard stuff when the seasons change in fact.
So next time it happens or is prolonged, see if it is happening on other websites as well, or if services such as Spotify are affected. Because of the way buffered services are delivered, websites can be more susceptible to packet loss. Last year at this time the community of Tuscany had lots of strange complaints, especially close to an area with overhead light strings. No coincidence. The more dramatic the temperature changes, the more likely it will happen. Some cities, like Vancouver and the GTA, use a technique called "micro-trenching." Basically the cities allow the telecomms cut a very shallow finger-like trench through sidewalks about 4 inches deep and run fibre. Works fine in these cities. Forget about it in a city with chinooks, The freeze/thaw cycles snap fibre like spaghetti and the next thing you know you have hundreds teenagers screaming in their basements because their Call of Duty evening has been canceled. Ask me how I know.
I don't think this is the issue necessarily being discussed in this thread, but it is at least another way to help diagnose a head scratching problem than can drive people mad sometimes.
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Your intuition is spot on Gents. Though there has been a bunch going on behind the scenes, the big thing that changed recently was moving the whole forum to a Google Cloud datacenter.
--> This is both "in the cloud", so faster, and more reliable, and also I picked the Datacenter in the country, instead of the site living down south.
This was on Monday/Tuesday (domain name, like canadianhobbymetalworkers.com, changes are always wonky on the timing.)
The worst of it was actually in September, before I caught on that there was an issue. The below shows website average load time in seconds, since June, by month:
As the above shows, I do keep tabs on how the site is doing from this perspective. Since the change to the cloud setup, the site is much faster:
Do let me know if any more of those 502 errors pop up, but I am pretty hopeful I have that sorted. Can't comment on the other items at this time, but clarity as to which issues are still occurring now moving forward will be helpful. Otherwise it will be hard to tell if it's a current issue, or something that was fixed with the forum migration.
Oh, we were also impacted by the same outage that brought down youtube on remembrance day, as was half the internet, anyone using cloudflare (like us) were super floppy for about two hours around dinner time on the 11th. So rule that out as something I can impact too. haha
To @CalgaryPT 's point as well, while I agree that these issues with the forum were the forum, for the most part, I am pretty hopeful that any issues here onwards are less "forum-wide".
The networking world has all sorts of weird edge cases and wives tales, which cause issues for one network or house. A few fun ones off the top of my head are:
- The office worker that brought down his office network like clockwork by bringing tea to his desk. --> He was putting his mug on the part of his desk that was warm. I.e. immediately above a router, causing it to overheat.
- The office building that couldn't accept Excel attachments without the network dropping. --> Apparently the first portion of the files was causing some type of resonant interference in the cable leading to the office, but only for that one filetype.
- The office that couldn't email anyone further than 500 Miles away from their office --> There was an incorrectly set timeout, which gave 3 ms before the email failed. At near the speed of light, this worked out to about 500 miles before it gave up as failed.
Anyways, edge cases will always be around, but do keep reporting issues if they pop up moving forward.
For site speed issues in particular I am a bit hampered without everyone's help, I run shaw business gigabit at work and at home, which is fast enough that even slow websites are easy for me to miss.
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Just checking, Google's speed test tool says things look good!:
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Happy to help! But yeah, let me know if anything pops up and we'll see what we can do.
To recap: (TLDR)
To recap: (TLDR)
- Site should be faster now
- We're not expecting more 5xx error messages anymore
- Cross browser issues, and slow website issues, it's super helpful if you guys point out, as I am unlikely to stumble upon them myself
- I love the community we have here and will always support it!