whyyyyy is snowest so slow lately? (502/504 Gateway Errors)

[rocks rev]

just got the 504 gateway time out.

 

[RobertTrivanovic]

About a week ago I was getting an error cant remember which one though. It went away after a few days. This using a mac and google chrome. Also sometime around that time I havnt been able to upload pictures, but that never got fixed when the error went away. And its also been slow loading pages for me too, more hit and miss on that one though.

 

[mountainhorse]

Without a doubt... this is happening because Harris Publishing has, just recently, put a Proxy server between us, as paid members, and the SnoWestOnline.com (forum) servers.

Most likely to boost traffic numbers on the other Harris sites that are a bit anemic currently. I understand this from a business perspective... but not from the perspective of "What's right."

The time this Proxy was inserted and the time these problems started happening is the same.

This breaks the promise that they made to us when we stepped up to a paid server. (see below)

This feels like Obama saying to us "You can keep your current health care plan." WTH???

Wheres the integrity??

This is costing us, the members of the SnoWestOnline forums, enjoyment and function of a community that was paid for by the users.

11-11-2009, 11:49 PM
To: All SnoWest Members
From: Harris Publishing
Subject: Big Changes Coming to the SnoWest Forum

Addressing the “Slowness” Problems

After significant discussion and debate, we have decided to move the SnoWest forums off of the main Harris Publishing servers and manage the SnoWest community as a separate, stand-alone entity. This means a few things:

1. SnoWest will no longer share hardware or server resources with the other Harris Publishing web-sites or communities.

2. We’ve ordered brand new switches, firewalls, load balancers, UPSs, file-servers, database-servers, and web-servers exclusively for the use of the SnoWest forums.

3. We’re upgrading the SnoWest forums to the latest and greatest versions of all our software, across the board.

The end result here will be speed, speed, and more speed. The orders for the new infrastructure have been placed, and we anticipate the new hardware will be ready in a few weeks. However, making SnoWest independent and self supporting comes at a significant cost, which brings me to the next issue.

Top 18 Cool Things You’ll Get With Your Membership

Here is a short list of what your membership dollars are going to return back to you! All paying members of SnoWest will receive the following as part of their membership:

1. New, Super-Fast Servers and Software
More than any single other item on SnoWest, we have needed new hardware to meet the growing needs of our members. As you read above, we’re investing heavily into this area, and it’s going to make a HUGE difference. Also, as SnoWest grows beyond our current size, these new servers will allow us to add more capacity “on the fly” as required.

 

[LoudHandle]

This is a pain in the AZZ! Refund my "Lifetime" membership or fix the issue and fulfill the Promises you made to all of the paid members! Thank You!

 

[Devilmanak]

Without a doubt... this is happening because Harris Publishing has, just recently, put a Proxy server between us, as paid members, and the SnoWestOnline.com (forum) servers.

Most likely to boost traffic numbers on the other Harris sites that are a bit anemic currently. I understand this from a business perspective... but not from the perspective of "What's right."

The time this Proxy was inserted and the time these problems started happening is the same.

This breaks the promise that they made to us when we stepped up to a paid server. (see below)

This feels like Obama saying to us "You can keep your current health care plan." WTH???

Wheres the integrity??

This is costing us, the members of the SnoWestOnline forums, enjoyment and function of a community that was paid for by the users.

Integrity? What's that?
In a few more years, nobody will be able to define the word without looking it up.
I have been on since 6 or so, off and on, sending and receiving a lot of PMs, no issues. Accessing the 3rd, then 4th, then 5th page of this thread no issues. But I have not gone on any other threads.

 

[ryanjeri]

Oh my heck, slow is an understatement.
Bad Gateway,
F5,
Wait,
read a little,
change pages,
Wait,
Bad Gateway,
F5,
Wait.
May want to make some changes, this has been going on for to long to not have isolated the issue, and proposed resolution.

 

[mountainhorse]

Now don't get me wrong... I'm not saying that Harris has any intent to create the issue, nor are they happy it is there.

Heck, put the Proxy back if you get it nailed down... but, please, pull it out... THEN fix it.

Lets cross our fingers and see what happens.

I know that Christopher is doing all he can to resolve the issue for all parties.




.

 

[Bocephus]

while both me and christopher said this was "sporadic" earlier in this thread, i have noticed somewhat of a consistency with it too.

1. lets say im away from the computer for 2+ hours. i come back and check my email.
2. BAM, theres an email from snowest giving me and instant notification to a thread im sub'ed to
3. i click on the link in the email to take me to the thread, a new window opens in the browser, and 90% of the time it will time out with the gateway error.......IF i have not been on snowest for a few hours




now, lets do a similar example

1. im at the pc on sledding/cummins forums for.....according to the wife ALL DAY
2. im paging through the forums and the speakers ding that i got a new email. its an instantant notification from SW. i click the link in the email, the page will load almost guaranteed on the first try.....just like it should.



why does it make a difference if i have had recent activity on the forum? like i said, it is sporadic, but i do see consistencies with the examples i have giving above. can anyone else relate to this?





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[Bocephus]

ironically enough i got the gateway error when i submitted that last post a couple minutes ago. that kind of contradicts what i said above, but the examples given above were more related to the instant notifications.....
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[mountainhorse]

Yep ... its the Gateway (AKA Proxy)...



.

 

[crf118r]

504 Gateway Time-out

Almost every time I try to fire up Snowest using Google Chrome.

 

[christopher]

Thank you for your continued reports everyone.

This morning I brought all of Corporate "The Powers that Be" fully up to speed on whats going on here. Hopefully they will come up with a resolution to this problem in short order now.

Contrary to what Mountainhorse has suggested, it doesn't look like it is the Proxy Server that is actually the cause of our distress at all, but how the Harris Web Servers are interacting with the new Proxy, (which are NOT connected to the stand alone SnoWest Forums Servers!).

This is the latest report from their head tech.

What we know so far is that it isn't our proxy server. Don't get me wrong, I agree we introduced the problem when the new proxy server went live, but what is weird is that it isn't actually the proxy server itself. Somehow it is linked to the performance of the Harris web servers. Whenever we have been able to duplicate the error on both the main website and the forum, rebooting the Harris web servers fixed the issue for both (temporarily). We are investigating the Harris network setup more to understand how that is happening, it shouldn't be. We have our own public facing IP - any issues inside the Harris network shouldn't be affecting us, but they are and we don't know how or why yet.

 

[tdblakes]

i've had these errors while using Chrome, Explorer, and Safari... and it has been miserably slow to the point I close out the window and find something else to surf... my subscription expires in 2 days... hhmm

 

[slash]

YA 1ST THING THIS AM 5 TIMES JUST TO LOGIN ......Is that 5 hit on harris counting
or 5 hits on weather or not we can wait to get on

 

[snowmobiler]

no problems or errors .

 

[diamonddave]

The never ending saga of "there is no problem, it must be on your end" to "we don't know what's causing it"...

This is part of the problem....the unwillingness to believe someone when they are having an issue. Or maybe they just don't care?

This problem here has been going on with IE for the past 6-7 months. Just like the infamous "DELETE" option that doesn't always appear when using the EDIT/DELETE function. Hit the load button again (while it's going in circles) and sometimes it will load. I have found FF worse on this site than IE.

This has been going on off and on for the last 3 years. Usually always happens when traffic gets heavier.

Prior to this point in time (Around 2009), we never had these issues. Anybody know why?

I have found the only benefit to paid membership is viewing past 75 or 100 posts.

I reluctantly pay for this but it shouldn't be at the cost of these kinds of repeating issues.

 

[christopher]

The never ending saga of "there is no problem, it must be on your end" to "we don't know what's causing it"...

This is part of the problem....the unwillingness to believe someone when they are having an issue. Or maybe they just don't care?

This problem here has been going on with IE for the past 6-7 months. Just like the infamous "DELETE" option that doesn't always appear when using the EDIT/DELETE function. Hit the load button again (while it's going in circles) and sometimes it will load. I have found FF worse on this site than IE.

This has been going on off and on for the last 3 years. Usually always happens when traffic gets heavier.

Prior to this point in time (Around 2009), we never had these issues. Anybody know why?

I have found the only benefit to paid membership is viewing past 75 or 100 posts.

I reluctantly pay for this but it shouldn't be at the cost of these kinds of repeating issues.

Not this Gateway Error.
This one we know the EXACT MOMENT it was first seen.
It is unrelated to any other issue we have ever had.
There is NO doubt that WE CAUSED IT the moment the new Proxy Server was installed.

NO ONE is arguing over that issue.
What we do NOT know is WHY it is happening.

The Proxy Server itself is not the cause, but it was the trigger.

This issue is now the top priority at the office.
Everyone is focused in on it right this moment.

 

[christopher]

no problems or errors .

NONE AT ALL????

 

[backcountryislife]

FYI, not sure why this would be, and perhaps it's just my computer from having two different browsers open, but now it's painfully slow on IE as well WITH adblocker. Since it wasn't like this originally, I'm not sure why it would be my end, but not sure so I'm putting it out there. Really a pain in the butt having to have two browsers open just for this site.

 

[mountainhorse]

PRAGMATICS... FIX THE PROBLEM... DON'T "TUNE" THE SYSTEM THAT IS CAUSING IT.

On top of that...Try loading any files in "albums" or as an attachment that are not photos... no go.




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