Intermittent Access

[tm4tj]

The website you are trying to access is currently offline. The most likely causes are the server is down for maintenance, there may be a network problem, or the site may be experiencing excessive load.

The site uses CloudFlare in order to help keep it online when the server is down by serving cached copies of pages where they are available. Unfortunately, a cached copy of the page you requested is not available, but you may be able to reach other cached pages on the site.

If you continue to receive this error after you believe the site is back online, you can retry a live version of the site.

? 2011 CloudFlare, Inc.

This is the message today every second go

[Alex MacLeod]

I have also been experiencing some problems. Not the one above but pages taking a long time to open, double entries when posting. Had message from Scarlet yesterday as he has been experiencing the same.

[+Gringo]

x 2

[old caley girl]

Me too

[Scotty]

We will investigate.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Experiencing slow access on headings,links and posts. Resulting in duplicate to quadruplicate postings.

Using right click with "OPEN" where acceptable seems to speed it all up however in most cases.

After a delay of 90 seconds recently, in the case of attempting to post but not being able to us the right click option, I just closed it down without result.

Yesterday, and previously, my attempts to access the ICT Online home webpage have sometimes been met with a red warning--presumably the cloudflare thingy. There was a very small link on the cloud- adviser to click on to get in and this did work after I clicked it.

The only question on this one that I would raise is why are regular posters with a long site record the target of the cloud security thing? Would the creation of an "exceptions" list of posters in good standing for Mr Cloud solve the problem?

[Scarlet Pimple]

Experiencing slow access on headings,links and posts. Resulting in duplicate to quadruplicate postings.

Using right click with "OPEN" where acceptable seems to speed it all up however in most cases.

After a delay of 90 seconds recently, in the case of attempting to post but not being able to us the right click option, I just closed it down without result.

Yesterday, and previously, my attempts to access the ICT Online home webpage have sometimes been met with a red warning--presumably the cloudflare thingy. There was a very small link on the cloud- adviser to click on to get in and this did work after I clicked it.

The only question on this one that I would raise is why are regular posters with a long site record the target of the cloud security thing? Would the creation of an "exceptions" list of posters in good standing for Mr Cloud solve the problem?

[Scarlet Pimple]

Experiencing slow access on headings,links and posts. Resulting in duplicate to quadruplicate postings.

Using right click with "OPEN" where acceptable seems to speed it all up however in most cases.

After a delay of 90 seconds recently, in the case of attempting to post but not being able to us the right click option, I just closed it down without result.

Yesterday, and previously, my attempts to access the ICT Online home webpage have sometimes been met with a red warning--presumably the cloudflare thingy. There was a very small link on the cloud- adviser to click on to get in and this did work after I clicked it.

The only question on this one that I would raise is why are regular posters with a long site record the target of the cloud security thing? Would the creation of an "exceptions" list of posters in good standing for Mr Cloud solve the problem?

[tm4tj]

FFS scarlet. Try pressing the refresh button this might cut out the duplicate posts. Let the page run it's course then if it tells you page not found or whatever press the refresh button, this invariably stops numerous duplication. Does not always work if info not transferred to site on original action but might save some hassle, until site issues resolved.

[Sorted]

FFS scarlet. Try pressing the refresh button this might cut out the duplicate posts. Let the page run it's course then if it tells you page not found or whatever press the refresh button, this invariably stops numerous duplication. Does not always work if info not transferred to site on original action but might save some hassle, until site issues resolved.

[Sorted]

FFS scarlet. Try pressing the refresh button this might cut out the duplicate posts. Let the page run it's course then if it tells you page not found or whatever press the refresh button, this invariably stops numerous duplication. Does not always work if info not transferred to site on original action but might save some hassle, until site issues resolved.

[Scotty]

After investigation, I do note we had a spike in resource usage yesterday from around 11:30AM (my time, so -5 hrs from most of you) to about 2pm.

This showed CPU usage peaked at 499% (100% is bad so nearly 500 is scary). It also showed a server load of 25 (1 is good, anything above that makes the site get slower and slower until it craps out for some of you as the number indicates processes waiting for CPU time ... IE. a traffic jam). It also showed memory peaking at just under 3/4Gb which is within our limit of 1Gb.

I am following this up with our service provider as normally our CPU usage is well below 100%, our load is at about 0.5 and memory usage is well below 0.35 Gb.

Services are currently running at normal levels so all should be good for now.

Please notify us of any further issues in this thread.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Manfer;

Sorry for being alive! But I DID fffs wait a fffs minute between each post to see if something would clear or add up. What I should have done is quit but felt that some of the suggestions I wanted to make could have been ...HOT. So I tried to bypass a blizzard of funny looking pop-ups and failed miserably.

Then I saw the funny looking two posts from Sorted, thought "poor bloke" as I noted that it was anything but sorted and put a white towel on top of a pole and walked round the house waving it as I surrendered trying to get inspiration and sympathy. None was available and I felt Terrible for being so b-a-a-a-a-d and did feel very sheepish. Hope you now feel better ...fffs.

Now that you have suggested a refresh I am over the moon. Now why did I not think of that?...eh?

[tm4tj]

My exasperation is because you seem to be the poster that has most duplicate posts, whether that is the fault of the site or your own set-up I don't have the answers. Mr sorted methinks was having a wind up Yes there are issues at the moment, but yours seem to be magnified (four posts the other day) It's not my remit, thankfully, but I'm sure Scotty/Don will get to the bottom of it.

[CaleyD]

If you're getting pop-ups then your problems are not (solely) related to this site as we do not, never have and never will use them.

[Sorted]

I didn't realise TM4J has a problem with his 'pop up' CD.

Is there an on line solution?

[Scotty]

yeah, but we dont allow links to those types of site on here

[Scotty]

tweaked a few bits and pieces and noted some improvement in speed. those who had problems, please confirm ?

[Scarlet Pimple]

The four duplicates arose all at the same time Mannie, as I tried to see what was going on because none registered. I then closed down the page. Next time I opened up the webpage there they were.Shock and awe! Then I find out that other posters are experiencing the same thing. So what's your point.?

Sorted , you say, may have been on a wind up. That's just self-supporting supposition, isn''t it? What if Scarlet was bored and also went on a wind up--of course out of exasperation!

How would you know unless,like IHE, you are a SEER? And it is more likely that Scarlet is to blame than Sorted who is really nice...eh?

Bah .Humbug.

Caley D. The pop-ups to which the Scarlet One referred were Security related ones, NOT advertising ones.They were strictly related to the site.They blocked and did offer a link to get in at the bottom of the pop-up...which seemed to defeat the purpose of the blocking--ffs.

Since the problems evidenced on this webpage have never happened to my browser elsewhere, and all my Favourites links always open immediately, the conclusion is that the slow server speeds etc that Scotty mentioned are most likely the causes. Also, the cloudflare pop-up which I have experienced several times in the last week or so, are site related are they not? And why do they appear at all to block a long-time member in good standing(i.e not suspicious)? --which indicates an inherent flaw in the Security architecture or service? Don'tb hesitate to correct me if I am wrong?

And are we going to get an answer to the suggestion that such an occurrence can be offset by the creation of an exception list for that security service so that such long-time members as Mannie and Scarlet are not subjected to undue stress,in an otherwise very stressful world, and that most awful of emotions...EXASPERATION.

[Scotty]

The pop-ups to which the Scarlet One referred were Security related ones, NOT advertising ones.They were strictly related to the site.They blocked and did offer a link to get in at the bottom of the pop-up...which seemed to defeat the purpose of the blocking--ffs.

Lets just clear this up.

There are three types of response from our Cloudflare service ....

1. Everything is OK, you are directed to the site

2. There is a problem with the site ... you will see a copy of the page and at the top there will be a message telling you something to the effect that "you are viewing a cached copy of the page because the site is down or unreachable". In this instance, some (well basically all) links on CTO will not work as they are created dynamically when the page loads and Cloudflare works best for static pages. The forum is pretty much unworkable in that situation but the main site, stats pages and such like can be accessed.

3. There is an alleged problem with your machine. You are blocked or challenged !! This is the security aspect of Cloudflare and it happens because it has detected something about the connection it does not like. It could be the IP address (it checks extensive blacklists to silently block known bad IP addresses), it could be the way your browser tried to connect, it could be the use of an anonymous proxy, or any number of other things.

For answer #2 - where others also experienced problems - we have established that there was a server spike on Sunday that sent our load through the roof, and therefore the site speed and responsiveness through the floor. This has been rectified on the provider end as it turned out to be a server update to one of the pieces of software used to run our hosting service. Further spikes may happen from time to time due to traffic volume and/or more updates. We have little control over that other than to try and minimise the chances by scheduling our own processes to run at a different time to the providers' updates.

For answer #3 - I cannot really do anything without more information. Our security console indicates no questionable blocking recently, and no blocks from any Canadian IP addresses. We do try to keep the blocking to a minimum on Cloudflare, preferring instead to block known bad IP addresses at the server level, and just rely on Cloudflare for the really nasty and slippery ones which it checks against an extensive online set of databases of known spammers, hackers, and bots. However, like spam filters or virus checkers, it does get it wrong sometimes and can generate a false positive.

To troubleshoot this further, I would need a screenshot of the actual message if it happens again, as well as your IP address and a note of which browser was being used at the time and whether or not there is anything else "funky" installed such as security or proxy related browser add-ons, separate security or proxy services running on the machine etc ... anything that might explain why CF saw you as "dodgy".

Since the problems evidenced on this webpage have never happened to my browser elsewhere, and all my Favourites links always open immediately, the conclusion is that the slow server speeds etc that Scotty mentioned are most likely the causes. Also, the cloudflare pop-up which I have experienced several times in the last week or so, are site related are they not? And why do they appear at all to block a long-time member in good standing(i.e not suspicious)? --which indicates an inherent flaw in the Security architecture or service? Don'tb hesitate to correct me if I am wrong?

The slow server speed and the security issues are different and unrelated in my opinion, you just experienced them at the same time which is rather unfortunate. Explanations for both are above. However to elaborate slightly on the security side, this is NOT a site issue. Cloudflare is not on our servers, its a third party service that sits in front of the site - a bit like a doorman if you like. It lets you in if all is good, it tells you its closed if theres a problem, and if its suspicious, it asks you a few questions or knocks you back even if the site is open !!!

Its not personal ... Cloudflare has no idea who Scarlet is, and no idea how long you have been a member ... if you got the security message, it just spotted something dodgy about your attempt to connect to the site. This is why screenshots, IP address, and other details mentioned will possibly help to troublshoot it. I can only surmise that other sites you go to do not use Cloudflare which is a relatively new service in the last couple of years. As noted above - I cannot see anything in Cloudflare to indicate your were blocked. I am not doubting you as your description fits with what happens, but there is nothing in the logs to verify it and the logging of all things security are extremely verbose. I have also checked our explicit blocks on the server as well as the firewall logs and your most recent IP address is not on any of them.

And are we going to get an answer to the suggestion that such an occurrence can be offset by the creation of an exception list for that security service so that such long-time members as Mannie and Scarlet are not subjected to undue stress,in an otherwise very stressful world, and that most awful of emotions...EXASPERATION.

We can certainly add a specific IP address into our exceptions list if we are happy that we are confident of it ourselves. You will just need to confirm you have purchased a static IP from your provider, provide it to us, and always login using it. Over the last year or two, you have utilised more than 20 different "dynamic" IP addresses that are allocated to you by your internet provider. These can change anytime you close down your machine/router for long enough, or if you manually release the old one. Under no circumstance will be be adding a long list of IP addresses to the exceptions list .. this defeats the purpose of a security check.

Just for reference - neither myself or Donald have static IP addresses and therefore, neither of us are added to any exception list !!!!

.... sorry, but this one is case closed until or unless we get more information to go on.

[Sorted]

Public Announcement

For the record, to avoid any tasks for the technically talented in our midst, I was, of course, totally on the wind up.

I apologies for any confusion caused by my actions but thought it would be nice to have a sequence of posts in a row, albeit two from a different poster. TM4J was too sharp for me.

[tm4tj]

Scarlet, 99% of the duplicate posts come from you................user misuse maybe

[tm4tj]

received this one at 09:12pm tonight

[Scarlet Pimple]

Mannie--I should join the OCCUPY movement then if you are right.

Because I must be in that 99% that are very disadvantaged which as far as your views are concerned is

Thousands of ICT Online viewers never post and probably never will after reading your thoughts. And your point is ..what? If you don't have a constructive one, why not quit whilst you are ahead, anose or anaughty boy.

O.K Now, to answer a very self-controlled and right down regular poster, Scotty, who is factual and always makes sense.....I understand what you write and confirm that,as far as I can remember, I did not see any pop-ups other than the number 2, i.e. "There is a problem with the site etc.".

You are right, I don't recall any direct blocking advices. So the question of a static address does not arise.

I got the same "cached page"message again today as I came on to the website and used the small link at the bottom of that page to gain access to the main page.I suppose one could get used to it but wonder how many other members also get it quite regularly.

And at what times in the day it is more likely to pop-up? I usually get online late in the U K day or even very early in the morning (U K time) due to the 8 hour delay. Would this have any bearing on the issue?

I note that it's about 10 pm in the Black Isle, so off you gho to bed Mannie and don't forget your hot water bottle . so yoyu feel a lot better in the morning.

[tm4tj]

Scarlet, stop talking in riddles and take your grievances with me onto pm please.