Website Can't Be reached

[skizzerz]

Was not able to connect at home earlier (about an hour ago), but can connect from work just fine.

Would it be possible for someone at paizo to provide some information as to what is happening and what steps are being taken to remedy/fix it? The complete lack of communication isn't exactly comforting given that this problem seems to be happening more and more frequently as time goes on.

[Terquem]

I imagine the people responsible are very busy

[DeathQuaker]

What complete lack of communication are you talking about? Dean and other tech staff have been very responsive about looking into it, the prior times this has hapoened, and in one of these other threads they mentioned that they're working on a site upgrade that is part of the problem.

The only issue is this particular problem has been happening again and seemingly spontaneously. But given the staff don't work weekends and their workday doesn't start today for another half hour (9 am Pacific) they're not going to be able to give us an update until they get in.

[skizzerz]

DeathQuaker wrote:

What complete lack of communication are you talking about? Dean and other tech staff have been very responsive about looking into it, the prior times this has hapoened, and in one of these other threads they mentioned that they're working on a site upgrade that is part of the problem.

The only issue is this particular problem has been happening again and seemingly spontaneously. But given the staff don't work weekends and their workday doesn't start today for another half hour (9 am Pacific) they're not going to be able to give us an update until they get in.

I see a lot of communication saying "we're working on it" and "try again." What I do not see is communication saying "here is what happened" or "here is the reason that things are blowing up." THAT is what I was referring to in my post. If that exists somewhere and I missed it, I would appreciate a link to it.

I don't doubt that the tech staff are doing their jobs in making the site run as smoothly as possible. However, giving postmortems or updates as to the why/how behind the issues is a step taken by some other companies, and engenders an extra level of trust and transparency. By exposing the general reasons behind the outages as well as basic details on what steps were taken to address them moving forwards, it gives a lot more confidence to those who do not visit the site all that much that things are finally going to be back to normal soon (a blog post is much more visible than random messageboard posts).

[DeathQuaker]

"Not enough information to my personal liking" is not the same thing as "complete lack of communication."

Personally I do not feel entitled to--well, I'm not entitled to anything, but I am more than satisfied with an acknowledgement there's an issue and that they're working on it. I don't consider the specifics any of my business.

[Hmm]

Dean et al. --

What I find interesting from my viewpoint as Overseer of PbP Special, is seeing which of my GMs can get in, and which cannot. All three of my Netherlander GMs can get into the site, no problem. Other GMs in Switzerland, USA, and Asia cannot.

I can get in on a T-mobile hotspot. I have currently posted to all the Cosmic Captive Gameplay threads that there is a partial site outage and that their GMs are working on getting back to them.

I don't know if the information will be useful to you. We are really hoping that some solution can be found soon.

Thanks,
Hmm

[Dean Ludwig]

skizzerz wrote:

DeathQuaker wrote:

What complete lack of communication are you talking about? Dean and other tech staff have been very responsive about looking into it, the prior times this has hapoened, and in one of these other threads they mentioned that they're working on a site upgrade that is part of the problem.

The only issue is this particular problem has been happening again and seemingly spontaneously. But given the staff don't work weekends and their workday doesn't start today for another half hour (9 am Pacific) they're not going to be able to give us an update until they get in.

I see a lot of communication saying "we're working on it" and "try again." What I do not see is communication saying "here is what happened" or "here is the reason that things are blowing up." THAT is what I was referring to in my post. If that exists somewhere and I missed it, I would appreciate a link to it.

I don't doubt that the tech staff are doing their jobs in making the site run as smoothly as possible. However, giving postmortems or updates as to the why/how behind the issues is a step taken by some other companies, and engenders an extra level of trust and transparency. By exposing the general reasons behind the outages as well as basic details on what steps were taken to address them moving forwards, it gives a lot more confidence to those who do not visit the site all that much that things are finally going to be back to normal soon (a blog post is much more visible than random messageboard posts).

Skisserz,

We are in the process of addressing some of the infrastructure needs required to stabilize the website and make it more reliable for our customers. However, the hurdles we experience aren’t always in our control, take time to resolve and aren’t always fully explained post mortem. I also hesitate to broadcast details because it’s not generally good practice to publicize specifics especially if they are not validated.

We will continue to work to resolve issues post haste and appreciate any feedback you provide when experiencing difficulties with our site.

Dean

[Hmm]

We're back up, Dean. Yay!

Hmm

[Dean Ludwig]

Thanks Bunches Hmm.... :)

[Thomas Seitz]

Thank you Dean. Tell Sammy I said hi!

[motteditor]

I don't know if this helps diagnose anything, but I'm finding that during some of the outages (though certainly not all), the PRD is also down (that was true for me of this morning's outage, though it's now back to working fine as far as I can tell, as is the site [though the latter seems a little slow still]).

[Poldaran]

Glad to see it's being worked on. I've had (mostly very) sporadic connection issues with the site for over a year(today was the first day I didn't just decide to wait until after I woke up, or maybe in the morning).

Doubt the information'll help, but Comcast internet here.

[JohnF]

Dean Ludwig wrote:

Thanks Bunches Hmm.... :)

So ... how are you enjoying your baptism of fire?

[I have noticed that when the site is reachable it does seem to be more responsive. I don't know if that's because of anything you've done, or simply that the site is less loaded because people aren't able to access it!]

Thanks for your efforts - we all hope that your life becomes more peaceful in the near future!

[Dean Ludwig]

JohnF wrote:

Dean Ludwig wrote:

Thanks Bunches Hmm.... :)

So ... how are you enjoying your baptism of fire?

[I have noticed that when the site is reachable it does seem to be more responsive. I don't know if that's because of anything you've done, or simply that the site is less loaded because people aren't able to access it!]

Thanks for your efforts - we all hope that your life becomes more peaceful in the near future!

Thanks for the message... We do have an idea what the problem is but finding the "sweet spot" for resolution is taking a bit more time then I would like... We should have this under control very soon...

Bests,
Dean

[Guy St-Amant]

@ Dean, if not done already, I would suggest checking the hardwares and ISPs ends of things, the hardwares part is self explanatory, and even ISPs aren't immune to coding mistakes.

[Belafon]

Belafon wrote:

Hawkmoon269 wrote:

Belafon wrote:

Since no one else has detailed my exact problem I will add it into this thread.

Since Thursday I've been able to acces the main messageboards page with no problems. However when I try to open a particular subforum or thread it's a complete crapshoot as to whether or not it will work. I'll click on one and it just will not open. Sit and try to load forever. Though it does mark that thread as read. But the one right below it will be fine. Retrying doesn't help immediately or for a stretch of time but some hours (or days) later I retry once again and the thread will load. For a while at least. Then it stops again. Tried on multiple iOS devices and Chrome. It's the same threads on each one for a given time period but other than that I can't discern a pattern.

Tried to post this Friday and Sunday but I couldn't open the Website Feedback subforum to post.

Seems to be OK right now. We shall see.

The main message board page is https (https://secure.paizo.com/paizo/messageboards). But once you go into a thread, you leave the secure site (https) and view an http (no "s") page. The issue as I've experienced it is that I can view https pages, but not http pages. So, I can see the message board, but not open any threads (depending on my ISP). That sounds like what you are probably having as well.

Not exactly. At some point in time I can view threads A and B but not thread C. A few hours later I can finally access thread C but then I can't see B. (A is still fine.)

It's not all threads, just some. (With no patten I could discern.)

Started again last night sometime before 8 pm CDT. This time all http links couldnt be accessed. Every https I tried was fine. Everything started working sometime between 1 and 5 pm CDT today.

[Duiker]

I cannot access the message boards from my home Internet connection using any device. If I flip WiFi off on my phone and connect through the cell network instead it works fine.

[Dean Ludwig]

Guy St-Amant wrote:

@ Dean, if not done already, I would suggest checking the hardwares and ISPs ends of things, the hardwares part is self explanatory, and even ISPs aren't immune to coding mistakes.

Thanks for the feedback Guy.. Your suggestions have been part of our research and are related to what is causing the current difficulties with the site. We are on it and will have this resolved soon.

Bests
Dean

[Hawkmoon269]

Only able to connect to https pages right now on my home ISP. Http pages won't connect.

[Monkeygod]

I haven't been able to connect pretty much all night.

[Hannibull Rektor]

Have you guys tried connecting directly to a page other than the homepage from Google? I've found that works.

[PCScipio]

Duiker wrote:

I cannot access the message boards from my home Internet connection using any device. If I flip WiFi off on my phone and connect through the cell network instead it works fine.

That is my experience as well. I can connect with my desktop if I log on to my phone's Personal Hotspot.

[UnArcaneElection]

Getting on fine right now, but couldn't get on last night (and my phone was temporarily unusable for testing that method of access, but I'll keep that in mind for next time I can't get on).

[Black Dow]

Here in the UK - looks like the site was accessible overnight , but as of this morning I can still only access via my phone.

[Rogar Valertis]

I can only reach the site via phone again.

[Faelyn]

Just wanted to pop in here as well to report some accessing issues I have noticed. I can access the website through my Verizon Jetpack ISP; however, I am unable to access the website through my home Comcast ISP. Hopefully that helps you guys narrow down the issues.

[Ambrosia Slaad]

Just got back on via conventional DSL (CenturyLink). Yay!

[Hunt, the PugWumpus]

Dean Ludwig wrote:

We are on it and will have this resolved soon.

Bests
Dean

AUGH! Dean and The Gang are getting too good at catching us gremlins. Wampo Polo isn't fun any more. {sulks}

[Eviljames]

Yay! I can finally access this site. Couldn't access anything at all accept the first page of the Prd since sunday and only because the prd main page was still in my cache. After I cleared that I ended up with nothing. Too bad I don't remember why I was trying to access the site any more. :(

[Guy St-Amant]

Dean Ludwig wrote:

Guy St-Amant wrote:

@ Dean, if not done already, I would suggest checking the hardwares and ISPs ends of things, the hardwares part is self explanatory, and even ISPs aren't immune to coding mistakes.

Thanks for the feedback Guy.. Your suggestions have been part of our research and are related to what is causing the current difficulties with the site. We are on it and will have this resolved soon.

Bests
Dean

Might have found a potential cause: you have a specific hardware plugged to a specific outlet/socket, said outlet/socket is connected to a switch, maybe a lightswitch, and when the staff leave and turn off the lights...

Possible said switch is normally labeled to avoid the problem and/or only half of the outlet/socket is tied to the switch, and the hardware is plugged in that half.

[Lissa Guillet]

That is definitely not it. =)

There are a couple of things we're looking at right now. Some upstream and some of our own stuff. We're not 100% sure what it is. It's a really weird issue. It basically feels like a weird routing issue, but doesn't manifest after we fiddle with some things internally which don't have a lot to do with routing. We've done some upgrades for paizocon but these only manifested post paizocon. So it's a real head scratcher.

[thejeff]

The frustrating thing from outside is that is seems like it's easy for you to fix temporarily, but then you all go home and it's down for 12 hours. :)

[Hunt, the PugWumpus]

Huh. Yep it's a stumper, alright. {goes back to drilling holes in thejeff's computer to let out all the magic smoke}

[thejeff]

Hunt, the PugWumpus wrote:

Huh. Yep it's a stumper, alright. {goes back to drilling holes in thejeff's computer to let out all the magic smoke}

Nuh uh. Magic smoke stays in the computer. Don't work without it.

[Steve Geddes]

Lissa Guillet wrote:

That is definitely not it. =)

There are a couple of things we're looking at right now. Some upstream and some of our own stuff. We're not 100% sure what it is. It's a really weird issue. It basically feels like a weird routing issue, but doesn't manifest after we fiddle with some things internally which don't have a lot to do with routing. We've done some upgrades for paizocon but these only manifested post paizocon. So it's a real head scratcher.

Thanks, Lissa. I am so glad I have my job and not yours.

[Lissa Guillet]

thejeff wrote:

The frustrating thing from outside is that is seems like it's easy for you to fix temporarily, but then you all go home and it's down for 12 hours. :)

Absolutely, it does seem like we can fix it in an instant. We can at least cure the symptoms, but we need figure out the cause. We tried some things tonight. I'll probably give everything that needs one a little love before I go home tonight.

If you can't reach the prd, please note that. That tells us something specific. If you can't reach the secure site, also note that. I'll try to do some tests when I wake up in the morning.

Thanks guys.

[thejeff]

Lissa Guillet wrote:

thejeff wrote:

The frustrating thing from outside is that is seems like it's easy for you to fix temporarily, but then you all go home and it's down for 12 hours. :)

Absolutely, it does seem like we can fix it in an instant. We can at least cure the symptoms, but we need figure out the cause. We tried some things tonight. I'll probably give everything that needs one a little love before I go home tonight.

If you can't reach the prd, please note that. That tells us something specific. If you can't reach the secure site, also note that. I'll try to do some tests when I wake up in the morning.

Thanks guys.

Can you train a monkey to flip the proper switches over night? :)

[Steve Geddes]

What's the difference between the secure site and the regular site?
(Like how do I know which site I'm unable to reach?)

[Tacticslion]

I can't even favorite all the things! Nuuuuuuu-!

(Thanks for all your hard work!)

[Lissa Guillet]

Steve Geddes wrote:

What's the difference between the secure site and the regular site?

(Like how do I know which site I'm unable to reach?)

http versus https. So basically the messageboard if you're logged will be the secure site and the front page or prd will be the nonsecured site.

Also, if it's timing out or you see goblins, that's two different kinds of problems.

[David knott 242]

Secure starts with "https" while non-secure starts with "http".

[Lissa Guillet]

thejeff wrote:

Can you train a monkey to flip the proper switches over night? :)

I'm pretty sure the monkey can't get the security clearances needed to do that. Top Secret monkey is too expensive.

[thejeff]

Lissa Guillet wrote:

thejeff wrote:

Can you train a monkey to flip the proper switches over night? :)

I'm pretty sure the monkey can't get the security clearances needed to do that. Top Secret monkey is too expensive.

Yeah, we had that problem with our monkey too.

For the record, during this recent spate of trouble, it's always been timing out, not getting the goblin screen (other than one brief bit this afternoon). The secure site has always been reachable, the regular one not. I haven't tried the PRD, just the messageboards.

As I think I said above, traceroute dies after 209.147.112.18 (gi6-1.dr03.tac.opticfusion.net), for both the secure & regular sites, whether they're up or not. I'm not sure how relevant that is.

[Guy St-Amant]

Lissa Guillet wrote:

That is definitely not it. =)

There are a couple of things we're looking at right now. Some upstream and some of our own stuff. We're not 100% sure what it is. It's a really weird issue. It basically feels like a weird routing issue, but doesn't manifest after we fiddle with some things internally which don't have a lot to do with routing. We've done some upgrades for paizocon but these only manifested post paizocon. So it's a real head scratcher.

I was wondering because the site works fine during business hours, but has troubles outside business hours.

[Hmm]

Hey guys, I'm really hoping that this fix holds. As a sign that hope springs eternal, I've gone ahead and announced Play-by-Post Gameday VI!

Crossing my fingers and my toes,
Hmm

[graywulfe]

It is 8:55pm central time and I just stopped being able to access the site, except over my data plan. Verizon if it helps.

[Gerald]

I'm totally hit and miss, mostly miss, on not timing out. Just had problems for the last 15 minutes or so. Now I'm back for a second.

[thejeff]

It's 10:04 Eastern and I still can access it. regular & secure.

[Lady-J]

cant access anything from paizo about 90% of the time for the past month or so. its usually at 4:00 am my time(mountain standard) or just past 9:00pm and usually only for an hour or so then its down the rest of the time

[Eviljames]

I can get on again so yay! Shortly after I said that last time, nothing worked for me me once again. Couldn't go to the main page, couldn't go to the prd, couldn't even get to the message boards to say, "Hey, I can't get to anything!" I'm here now and I hope it lasts.