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

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
24,305
1,323
435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
Steve, we had error 503 starting roughly few weeks ago, and more recently some slowness like Mike mentioned, and not long ago the WBF site wasn't even avail...it happened a half dozen times but never for long.

There is zero doubt about that. I didn't bother mentioning when it first started (perhaps like 15-20 days ago), Tima mentioned it recently and he was 100% correct...I can confirm.

To me it's not important because as it was mentioned before by you and the web master builder controller, WBF site is shared with other hosts.
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
24,305
1,323
435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
It's been slow for a solid week, if not more. You click to access a thread and you can count several seconds to get there ... sometimes five to ten, occasionally longer.

* Sixteen seconds right now in trying to get back to "New posts".
Sometimes twenty seconds; in the past it was instant...only a second or less.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PeterA

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
The 503 error is pretty much gone now...last one I observed was couple days ago I think.
And it was brief.


I have had 2 today. Also the fatal error that LL21 and several others reported was also related to the 503 server error
 

Kal Rubinson

Well-Known Member
May 4, 2010
2,360
697
1,700
NYC
www.stereophile.com
Perhaps their web sites are not as busy and less frequented than ours
Quite obviously not. Traffic here is insignificant compared to (shall I name other sites?) but the real issue is traffic compared to site resources. Clearly, it is not a universal problem, at least, not yet.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kingsrule

tima

Industry Expert
Mar 3, 2014
5,778
6,819
1,400
the Upper Midwest
I find accessing the page 'New posts' and specific threads can take ~ 10 seconds. It's been that way for at least three days and oddly seems worse at night (CST here). Going from page 1 to page 2 is normal speed. The "Latest activity" page remains quick.
 

Leif S

Industry Expert
Feb 13, 2015
770
166
180
California
www.vonschweikert.com
For me it is only when I click on this thread it takes time to load. All the other threads are instant.
 

djsina2

Well-Known Member
May 30, 2019
1,125
964
213
Clearly a server issue and nothing to do with coronavirus or the network. Why not restart the webserver, or better yet the physical server?
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
24,305
1,323
435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada

Leif S

Industry Expert
Feb 13, 2015
770
166
180
California
www.vonschweikert.com
Most likely, it is related to those new footers. They are noted for their long break-in period...

Cheers!
ALF
LMAO......that's so not right
 
  • Like
Reactions: ALF

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Quite obviously not. Traffic here is insignificant compared to (shall I name other sites?) but the real issue is traffic compared to site resources. Clearly, it is not a universal problem, at least, not yet.
Makes sense Kal

it’s above my pay grade
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Hi all

I've spent the past 2 hours on the phone with the service tech who has ruled out our server as any cause of all of this as he can direct my IP address to the server and bypass the DoS firewall and everything is instantly loaded

The issue is when the packets are directed through the DoS firewall and gets hung up there. The problem as I am understanding it is that certain countries are black listed but many times for whatever reason this DoS is slowing things down. The double edged sword is that if we get rid of the DoS we almost certainly will be saying goodbye to our members from China and Hong Kong as this is from where the assaults on our site have been launched so to remove the DoS will result in China and Hong Kong being black listed

The tech is hoping to have a solution no later than Monday so please bear with us as this problem gets worked through. I saw that it isn't a server problem but rather the DoS firewall
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ron Resnick

ddk

Well-Known Member
May 18, 2013
6,261
4,040
995
Utah
Hi all

I've spent the past 2 hours on the phone with the service tech who has ruled out our server as any cause of all of this as he can direct my IP address to the server and bypass the DoS firewall and everything is instantly loaded

The issue is when the packets are directed through the DoS firewall and gets hung up there. The problem as I am understanding it is that certain countries are black listed but many times for whatever reason this DoS is slowing things down. The double edged sword is that if we get rid of the DoS we almost certainly will be saying goodbye to our members from China and Hong Kong as this is from where the assaults on our site have been launched so to remove the DoS will result in China and Hong Kong being black listed

The tech is hoping to have a solution no later than Monday so please bear with us as this problem gets worked through. I saw that it isn't a server problem but rather the DoS firewall
How come it was working fine for months but suddenly there’s a problem with the firewall? They probably did something at their end to have created this situation.
david
 
Last edited:

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
l have no idea. Initially he said the site was loading fine until I had him log onto my computer with team viewer and he saw it right away and whitelisted all of our buttons in the Bavarian. When he directed my IP address direct to our server there was no issue. However directing it through the DoS resulted again in the slowness

stay tuned. I’ve been working on this all day. I’m going to bed
 

accwai

Well-Known Member
Jul 26, 2012
276
175
948
How come it was working fine for months but suddenly there’s a problem with the firewall? They probably did something at their end to have created this situation.
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.
 

Attachments

  • wbf_forums.jpg
    wbf_forums.jpg
    138.4 KB · Views: 2
  • Like
Reactions: ddk

Gregadd

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
10,517
1,774
1,850
Metro DC
I am finding everything slow. I could be wrong. I attributed it to increased traffic. Tele-work, education and recreation.
 

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing