forum is really really S - L - O - W---maintenance going on?

[djsina2]

I am finding everything slow. I could be wrong. I attributed it to increased traffic. Tele-work, education and recreation.

Nothing to do with that. Maybe you have your own issues if everything is slow. As pointed out by the previous post, it’s only certain parts of the forum.

Watching on Wireshark it’s a consistent 10-11 seconds waiting on the firewall/proxy when clicking on certain links. Can’t see the interactions between the firewall/proxy and the web server.

Very simple to begin restarting things. It’s highly unlikely the tech people in charge of this forum will figure things out.

 

[Steve Williams]

Web Application Firewall is a complex piece. Complex pieces are complex because they have to deal with complex set of situations. So while it's possible that the firewall has changed, it's more likely that the firewall's environment has changed. That could be higher normal traffic volume or malicious attacks. Or the firewall appliance at Sucuri could be shared by multiple tenants and others on the same firewall are being loaded or attacked, etc.

And there is something else by the way: There are shortcut links sprinkled around the forum. Those links seem to be unexpectedly slow. For example:



The shortcut link to Steve's latest post in this thread pointed to https://www.whatsbestforum.com/posts/637159/. Clicking on it takes you to Steve's post here, but the thread page itself usually takes 10+sec to start appearing. Interestingly once the dust have settled the final URL in the browser is https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/forum-is-really-really-s-l-o-w-maintenance-going-on.30297/page-2#post-637159. So the generic post number got turned into a specific thread and a specific page in that thread before scrolling to the post in question. Looking at the traffic flow in Firefox debug mode shows the browser has been told to go directly to the exact latter URL via an HTTP 301 redirect. So all the work was done by the forum software on the server side, which actually takes 10+sec to spit out the HTTP redirect. Once the browser sees the redirect, things start happening quickly. Click on the two links above and see the difference. Now if you go through the Forums ? Forum ? Thread ? Page navigation one at a time, the individual step appears very fast every time. Other shortcut links elsewhere seem to be done with HTTP 30x as well, with similar delay.

That is exactly what they have been working on and the hope is that they will have it solved sometime later today.

I have already decided that if the DoS continues to be a problem we will have no choice but to eliminate it completely. The downside to that is that China and Hong Kong have been black listed due to the prior assaults on our site several months ago. As a result we will loe those embers unless they use a VPN

It's a double edged sword

 

[Steve Williams]

I am hoping now that everything is fixed.Mine is nw working quickly without any delays. Can everyone confirm that there are no delays in accessing new posts or threads

 

[Steve Williams]

It has been at least an hour that my system is now working totally normally when I access WBF. All shortcuts are working and new posts and new threads can be pinged instantly. Is everyone seeing the same?

 

[Steve Williams]

I finally have a response.Seems they are still working on the firewall and are pointing everyone to the server directly.......

Hello,

Our engineers do not see whats going on when they are going through the firewall and they need more time.
We have pointed the site directly to the web server at this time.
It will take 2 to 24 hours for everyone to start going directly to our web server.
But we have tested it and the site is working pretty fast when its directly to our web server.
I will keep you posted.

 

[Steve Williams]

Mine continues to work perfectly which tells me the issues the firewall even though their techs could find no issues. Yet when they by pass the firewall and direct everyone to the server, the problem is solved.

I have told them that I'd like to wait and see what solution they come up with. However if a solution is not forthcoming I am prepared to remove the DoS. For the interim however everyone should have fast and normal access

 

[accwai]

It has been at least an hour that my system is now working totally normally when I access WBF. All shortcuts are working and new posts and new threads can be pinged instantly. Is everyone seeing the same?

Yup, IP address for whatsbestforum.com is now 104.192.220.136 which belongs to plesklogin.net. This morning it was 192.124.249.110 which back maps to cloudproxy10110.sucuri.net. So the the Sucuri Web Application Firewall has been bypassed.

The HTTP redirect alone added 10 secs to every shortcut link in the morning. This is the new timing for the 301 redirect from the previous shortcut example:



So yes, bypassing the Sucuri WAF has fixed the problem for sure. But one got to wonder what the firewall's been doing to cause this kind of symptom. Freaky!

 

[marty]

I don't mind the slow connections. In fact, when I look at my Schwab account, I wouldn't mind if the connection stopped working all together!

 

[MasterChief]

My access seems to be fine and normal.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

My access seems to be fine and normal.

agree, seem all fine now.

thank you to Steve and everyone for the efforts. these days we can all use a few positive things.

 

[BlueFox]

Looks good to me. Thanks.

 

[audio.bill]

Back to normal high speed response, thanks for the effort!

 

[Steve Williams]

so all good news But none of us are going through the DoS.
Hopefully the techs will figure how to adjust settings that we go through the DoS. If unsuccessful, as stated I have a big decision to make as pulling the plug on the DoS will leave us without our members from China and Hong Kong. They would need a VPN to sign on

 

[audio.bill]

At least you've determined where the bottleneck is so it can be addressed.

 

[NorthStar]

Yup, IP address for whatsbestforum.com is now 104.192.220.136 which belongs to plesklogin.net. This morning it was 192.124.249.110 which back maps to cloudproxy10110.sucuri.net. So the the Sucuri Web Application Firewall has been bypassed.
The HTTP redirect alone added 10 secs to every shortcut link in the morning. This is the new timing for the 301 redirect from the previous shortcut example:

So yes, bypassing the Sucuri WAF has fixed the problem for sure. But one got to wonder what the firewall's been doing to cause this kind of symptom. Freaky!

 

[moby2004]

I Can confirm that performance is much better now but that indeed the forum is no longer accessible from Hong Kong except going through a VPN which is what I am currently doing.

 

[Steve Williams]

I Can confirm that performance is much better now but that indeed the forum is no longer accessible from Hong Kong except going through a VPN which is what I am currently doing.

I expected that would happen because the only way Hong Kong and China could log in was either through the DoS or with a VPN. Presently everyone is bypassing the DoS and is going direct to the server while the tech look for a way to use the DoS without slowing the site. Hopefully they will and all will be good but if not those exclusions are beyond our control due to two attacks on our site last year

 

[RDSChicago]

All good from Chicago! Thanks Steve!

 

[Vienna]

Smooth and fast again

 

[BruceD]

Self Isolating and WBF up to speed here--thanks to all involved --Kudos!

BruceD