Hi Brad,

Able to get on VR via my home computer at 3.30pm today. Curiously, my mobile phone gets the dreaded 500 error at the same time.

Hope others are able to get on the webpage.

Bushman

Brad
500 error on Chrome. OK on Pale Moon. Also Chrome on my phone works too

Ben

This does now seem to be a browser compatibility issue, as I had no problems at all while travelling through Europe over the last month and none in the office desktop since back (Firefox on Win7).

While travelling through France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Germany I was using an Android tablet (old browser) and some at times pretty marginal free public and hotel WiFi connections and never had a problem, other than expected slow loading at times with everyone around me flogging the same connection.....

It is strange that this happens more on a particular browser as a server error normally doesn't understand what is happening on the client side, only the server side.

Is anyone noticing most of the pages now loading much quicker? The page that shows the list of forums is still slow though it is a resource-hungry page with the way it was originally set up. It makes around 140 enquiries on the database, each one with loops. I won't be working on this page this coming Sunday as recoding it will be a big job. I'll leave that for the long weekend and work on other pages. With that in mind, the same will apply this Sunday as per the previous few weeks - there may be times between 08:00 and 11:00 when the site is not reachable but I will keep this to a minimum where possible.

Seems quicker here and I have not had an error for a while.

I think pages may be loading quicker and I agree that the forum list page is slower than others.

However, the residual problem is nowhere near as bad as it was prior to cutover to the new server, so that operation made a big difference.

Quite a while ago, when you first added display of avatars in the Thread Details column of the page that lists threads in each forum, I did notice a slowdown in page loading.

Yes Brad, mostly quicker, big improvement.

The multiple database reads while loading the forum list page explains the behaviour I'm seeing. Not much you could do about that I suspect. This would slow down when the site is busy.

How well does it handle multiple simultaneous hits? And record locking while the db is updated?

It is strange that this happens more on a particular browser

If there's any special case server code based on particular browser(s) then maybe that could be looked into.

I've just had an e-mail come in from a member who connects with iiNet and cannot reach the site from that connection. He will try another and let me know the result. I know some of you guys also use iiNet. Any issues with this ISP in particular?

Ian: Record locking for writing to the database is in use. The database will refuse any writes without a lock being included in the script. Locks aren't required for reading though.

I'm with iiNet and I don't have that particular problem.

However, iiNet did recently have a 24 hour lockout on an American forum that I use, for no reason that I can ascertain.

Hi,

I am with Telstra NBN and while using the home computer (runs on Windows 10 with Microsoft Edge browser) I have had no trouble connecting onto the VR website for a while.

Both mobile phone and tablet I have run on Android and both can connect to NBN when at home. However both show the 500 error code when I try to access the VR website and have done so for some days now.

When the mobile is used on the phone service (Telstra), the error shows up as well. Possibly I may have issues with the Android browser.

Would this info be of help to Brad?

Bushman

All info received here helps. Understanding why is a bit more difficult but I think as I go on with the review of all the files the site is gradually getting back to its old self. This thread is probably the longest-running one now, with nine pages at the time of writing this comment. If it leads to a cure then it's worth it.

I use the Google DNS because the Telstra ones are problematic to say the least. Just adjust your DNS settings on your computer (not in your modem) from the blank default to 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 - and I found this solves most issues, and also gets around certain govt restrictions (if you know what I mean).

The new server is certainly faster, unless a 500 occurs, but it's been good last few days (crosses fingers). One thing I forgot to point out is my link is to the index (not the front page). If I then click on let's say General, then as soon as it shows I click on a topic, a 500 is almost guaranteed. However if I wait a moment for the page to completely finish loading, there's a much better chance of it working.

I've just looked into this and DNS isn't the issue. A server error can only be shown after your browser arrives at the server but is then 'turned away' for whatever reason.

I am also getting the problem I spoke about yesterday. Edge is letting me on the site. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera do not. That will be my job for Sunday - getting that sorted.

I decided on a change of tack tonight. Rather than leave it until a planned disruption on Sunday, I chose to try and debug the recode of the site's main page carried out last Sunday which has since locked a lot of people out of the site.

I am pretty embarrassed about the very small mistake made in a crucial script that manages the top links bar (the one with your avatar at the left corner). A variable in the script had no value assigned to it for any visitor who wasn't logged in and this caused anyone not signed in to be locked out of the site, regardless of their choice of OS or web browser.

All I can do is assure everyone that this has been fixed, properly tested and everyone should be able to log in again. I should also apologise to those who have been locked out for nearly a week.

I also need to thank all members for their patience, understanding and assistance whilst I have been trying to find and get rid of the other bug which has plagued the site for much longer. I am sure that very soon we'll all be spending more time talking about vintage radios rather than server issues - I hope.

The work I have planned for Sunday morning will still go ahead, as it is time the whole site received a review anyway. This time I will be more careful when testing the work done.