Avast WEBforum

Other => General Topics => Topic started by: bob3160 on April 06, 2008, 10:33:01 PM

Title: Forum Problems
Post by: bob3160 on April 06, 2008, 10:33:01 PM
Is there a reason why we continue to have so many Forum problems ???
There have been many times when reaching this forum has been all but impossible.
Is this only my observation or are any of the other regular visitors and advisers
experiencing the same problems ???
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: DavidR on April 06, 2008, 11:12:04 PM
Over the last few days I have been able to reach the forums without problem, but at times it has been so slow that I could almost keep up typing and I only use a few fingers ;D
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: oldman on April 06, 2008, 11:17:35 PM
There are times when I can't get in at all. Or if i'm in I can't change pages. Same as it was a couple of months back. Frustrating.  >:(

Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: .: Mac :. on April 06, 2008, 11:29:10 PM
Ive not had any problems :-\
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: DavidR on April 06, 2008, 11:34:58 PM
There are times when I can't get in at all. Or if i'm in I can't change pages. Same as it was a couple of months back. Frustrating.  >:(

Yes it makes helping very difficult.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: polonus on April 06, 2008, 11:48:04 PM
Hi ye all,

Yes there are certainly hick-ups at times, when the page load is terribly slow or it won't load for some time, sometimes I have to take another route - that is through the homepage and then click the support forum link  which will land me there. Even got an occasional server reset. Is this because of a capacity problem, are we that popular? Sometimes also problems with a999m.avast.com, can someone shine a light on this unavailability problem,

polonus
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Lisandro on April 07, 2008, 01:14:15 AM
I have experienced trouble to reach the forum at the end of afternoon, yesterday.
Today, since I'm on the other side of the screen, it's ok.
I agree with Bob: why so many glitches with the forum availability are occurring?
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Marc57 on April 07, 2008, 04:59:08 AM
yep, I've been having the same problems.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: tbird on April 07, 2008, 02:59:29 PM
Me too
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: polonus on April 07, 2008, 05:12:23 PM
Hi forum friends,

At the moment there are problems again to connect to http://forum.avast.com/
I am writing this 2008-04-07 at 17.10 CET
Sometimes I get this message beside a lot of TimeWaits:
"Connection Problems
Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.",

polonus
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: kubecj on April 07, 2008, 05:16:15 PM
VPS release & servers update. This takes some resources for about 5 minutes or so.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: oldman on April 08, 2008, 02:11:51 AM
That may well explain some of it, but 30-45 min?
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: DavidR on April 08, 2008, 02:14:23 AM
Plus it has been happening intermittently over the last few days.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: bob3160 on April 08, 2008, 03:47:21 AM
VPS release & servers update. This takes some resources for about 5 minutes or so.
The delay was a lot longer than 5 min.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: CharleyO on April 08, 2008, 05:37:45 AM
***

Like Mac, I've not had problems lately. Perhaps it's the time that I come in that makes a difference ... I donno.


***
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: sanctuaryforever on April 09, 2008, 09:53:31 PM
It just happened again for me, its not unbearable but it has only started happening recently
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: kubecj on April 09, 2008, 09:59:42 PM
VPS release. It simply takes some time to resynchronize and check files validity.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Jahn on April 09, 2008, 10:06:32 PM
It just happened again for me, its not unbearable but it has only started happening recently
Same here. Thanks for the confirmation, kubecj.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: gdiloren on April 09, 2008, 10:17:33 PM
Sometimes I click and I get a blank java script. I go back and click again and it works. Most of the time it works fine. Don't change anything to this forum. :)
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Lisandro on April 09, 2008, 10:19:34 PM
VPS release.
Why can't these two things - forums and vps/programs updates - be independent?
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: kubecj on April 09, 2008, 10:29:11 PM
We don't want to spoil terabytes of the server's bandwidth. If we want to use the bandwidth, we must get the files here.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Lisandro on April 10, 2008, 03:29:33 AM
We don't want to spoil terabytes of the server's bandwidth. If we want to use the bandwidth, we must get the files here.
Can't, at least, the forum software show a message?
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: DavidR on April 10, 2008, 02:09:47 PM
We don't want to spoil terabytes of the server's bandwidth. If we want to use the bandwidth, we must get the files here.
Can't, at least, the forum software show a message?

Well I'm having problems with slow page loads some showing in the tens of seconds, when in the past it has been mentioned if it is higher than tenths of a second it isn't working correctly.

Whilst I appreciate that the VPS updates have to get out, they are happening more frequently now (which is no bad thing) so are we to expect more of this inability to connect or slow page loads ?

Some time ago when we were experiencing similar problems the forum was moved to a different server to isolate and I guess resolve the problem.

Now this inability to connect or slow page loads may not be much of a hindrance for forum members just coming to check on or report a problem, it is a right royal pain in the a** for those of us who give our time freely to help other avast users.

It almost makes it unworkable at times and makes you consider if the time could be better spent than waiting for pages to load.

Edit: added more images of page creation times that are ongoing right now. However some of these page creation times bear no relation to total page display completion, which are way in excess of these times. The last image was supposedly in 5.285 seconds but minutes to completely display.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: kubecj on April 10, 2008, 02:15:11 PM
We asked our provider to double the RAM - that should definitely help. I got to check what were their conditions.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: DavidR on April 10, 2008, 05:29:18 PM
Well I gave up for a while because it was simply unworkable, with page creations in the hundreds of seconds rather than in the hundredths of a second.

This time back not much different, the first two images are from may last attempts before quitting as I couldn't even get them posted, the last is from trying to get the unread replies from my last visit, so there is something sadly wrong with the forum.

Hopefully this time it will post successfully.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Lisandro on April 11, 2008, 12:48:23 AM
Today morning it gets unworkable...
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: oldman on April 11, 2008, 01:32:53 AM
I might as well get in on this too. All times I refer to are forum times.

I got on the forum about 12.35 pm with no problem. Read a post and replied one. Slight delay on both. Went to read another, the page would not change. Out of curiousity, I opened another browser and tried to reach the forum. This one timed out with the message SMF could not reach the server, server may be busy...

The page that I was trying to reach from within the forum, never appeared, no error, just a progress bar. I gave up after 15 min and went to other things. Time was 12:39 pm.


edit to add

Something that may or may not be helpful. The thread I was attempting to view had a new post in. When I came back some hours later, the thread didn't show a "new". Just as if I had in fact viewed it.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: kubecj on April 11, 2008, 07:05:32 PM
Ram upgraded. Now we'll see.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Lisandro on April 11, 2008, 07:48:27 PM
Ram upgraded. Now we'll see.
It seems very good now. Hope it keeps this way.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: oldman on April 19, 2008, 07:01:17 PM
Is it just me, or others having this again? For the last 20 min Lots of delays.

4:39-4:59 pm forum time.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: szc on April 19, 2008, 07:41:21 PM
Is it just me, or others having this again? For the last 20 min Lots of delays.

4:39-4:59 pm forum time.

You're not alone... I just had to wait like 30 seconds (since I clicked on my bookmarked link) for avast forum page to appear. Note that everything else is super fast at this moment.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Lisandro on April 19, 2008, 07:58:12 PM
Problems here in Brazil some hours ago from this post... yesterday night, the same :'(
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: kubecj on April 19, 2008, 08:07:17 PM
...and nothing on the graphs. No excessive traffic, no extra hits, no CPU usage, lots of free ram and free worker threads...

Was it like 'page created in MANY seconds' or simply some net congestion? (may be something between you and The Planet).
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: DavidR on April 19, 2008, 08:11:34 PM
Is it just me, or others having this again? For the last 20 min Lots of delays.

4:39-4:59 pm forum time.

I have been having slow page creation and page loads intermittently to-day.

Some of my page creations were in the tens of seconds and higher again.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: DavidR on April 19, 2008, 08:14:25 PM
<snip>
Was it like 'page created in MANY seconds' or simply some net congestion? (may be something between you and The Planet).

Besides what I said in my last post, there have been numerous times when although the page creation is below a second, the status bar of firefox shows, Waiting for forum.avast.com... so there is something else over and above the intermittent slow page creation times for me.

Edit happening even now,
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: kubecj on April 19, 2008, 08:22:22 PM
To be exact - if the Page created in N seconds is high, then the problem is 100% on the server. If it's low, it still may be problem on the server or elsewhere as well.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: DavidR on April 19, 2008, 08:25:15 PM
I think you can see from my images I have just added it is in the NNN seconds range for me again.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: kubecj on April 19, 2008, 08:33:41 PM
Then it's quite probable, that it's not caused by the network / server problems, but by your type of forum usage. You have probably too many records in various tables, because of your high activity. Since it's usually you and Tech, this may be going to be quite significant.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Lisandro on April 19, 2008, 08:42:33 PM
You have probably too many records in various tables, because of your high activity. Since it's usually you and Tech, this may be going to be quite significant.
Which are these records? I have none email notifications set, none inbound/outbound IM messages stored...

may be something between you and The Planet
Is this irony or you're talking seriously?
I can reach other sites easily... seems just a forum issue (Microsoft, Google, other forums... seem ok).
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: kubecj on April 19, 2008, 08:44:32 PM
Simply I don't know. I'm sure it's not crawling right now because the server's hardware, since it's after the upgrade and according to all numbers and graphs it's going well. (And I've never seen anything higher than 1 sec since the upgrade).

Is it just the visiting the forum main board page to get the long load times?
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Lisandro on April 19, 2008, 08:47:14 PM
Is it just the visiting the forum main board page to get the long load times?
Now it's working ok... I'm here http://forum.avast.com/index.php?action=unread;all and try to load the unread threads.
Then the thread pages does not open... Firefox keeps waiting and waiting... It could take some seconds to return and sometimes minutes and hours... Yesterday night I give up and go to bed... not that sleeping haven't make me well, I was needing it ;)
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: oldman on April 19, 2008, 10:54:13 PM
Today getting onto the forum was fine. It was going to the idividual forums that was the problem. For example clicking on say General topics, could cause a delay of minutes. If that opened, then clicking on a thread caused a delay. One thread I was going to reply to didn't change afer clicking the reply button. Just a staus bar that slooowly moved. Gave up, came back later, the forum was working properly then.

I don't have anything set up for notification etc. Just if I have a new message, the number will appear beside My Messages.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Jahn on April 20, 2008, 03:35:54 AM
There seems to be a great difference in speed between being logged-in and not, and I have less than 100 posts. More recently, I've noticed a strange delayed response from the Avast server when updating VPS (manually), but not sure if it's related.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: repairman1946 on April 20, 2008, 07:09:53 AM
I've never had a problem logging in or navigating through the forum.
Gary
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Lisandro on April 20, 2008, 02:22:42 PM
I've never had a problem logging in or navigating through the forum.
Gary
Well... try to be on-line a little more and you'll see that, from time to time, we're experiencing lags.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: DavidR on April 20, 2008, 02:39:07 PM
Like right now
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Lisandro on April 21, 2008, 04:50:47 PM
Right now... long lags...
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: kubecj on April 21, 2008, 04:54:59 PM
4 mins later -> no lags for me. All graphs stable, without peaks. I don't understand this.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: DavidR on April 21, 2008, 05:00:46 PM
6 minutes later, still lags.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: Lisandro on April 21, 2008, 05:09:16 PM
I don't understand this.
Neither do I... I can ping forum.avast.com but I can't browse with easy... Firefox stays rendering the page forever.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: kubecj on April 21, 2008, 05:11:16 PM
For me nothing. Just when I visit the loooong Who's online list, I'm getting more than 30 seconds. My conclusion must be the same - some of queries must hit something what is specific just for you. Because it's the names reoccuring, not the server load or such. Since I'm not the author of the SMF, I don't know what may be the cause or where to find it.
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: szc on April 21, 2008, 05:28:10 PM
This is what I've been getting last 5 minutes (screenshot attached).

Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: kubecj on April 21, 2008, 05:31:40 PM
Yep, I did some mumbo jumbo. Poor black rooster...  ;)
Title: Re: Forum Problems
Post by: DavidR on April 21, 2008, 06:04:50 PM
This is what I've been getting last 5 minutes (screenshot attached).


Yes, I got it too around the same time ( I was just going to add the image to my last post but couldn't) I had to go off-line as the forums just didn't work.