Question for all you Computer Enthusiasts and IT People

Anyway, the tech fiddled around for a few minutes, consulted the oracle via his mobile phone, and said it was most likely the circuitboard on the compressor end. He then replaced it (quite a chunk of goods). He said they had just one instance where a somewhat similar thing had been caused by the compressor being faulty, but that he was pretty confident that he'd nailed it with the board. So far so good. :D

Cheers,

Chris

But of course, the gremlins whose job it is to cause these faults apparently have cousins who work on the internet, and read the posts. This morning it failed again. I obviously tempted fate with the paragraph above. :roll: So I guess they'll be back again next week for another try....

That could be due to a DNS issue. Is the site new by any chance? Sometimes DNS updates take time to propagate across different servers. (DNS is like a telephone directory, except it ties IP addresses with hostnames. Different ISPs maintain their own copies of DNS information and share any updates with other DNS servers. Sometimes it takes time for the changes to propagate. That could explain why it's accessible from some systems but not from others). But if the site is an old site then that's unlikely. Try accessing the site through the ip address. If you're still not able to access it then it could be something else. PM me if you don't want this discussed here anymore.

Thanks for the suggestion. :)

Apparently the site has been there for quite a while, and I still can't get to it, weeks after we tried the original tests. Using the ip address was one of the first things we tried, if I recall correctly. I never had any trouble reaching what I guess was the host or next server up the line, but I couldn't ever get all the way to him, and any photos that he posted on the site never showed. Yet other members could see them. I tried several different boxes here, a couple of different browsers, and various different levels of security, AV, firewall etc, all to no avail. In the end he just emailed me the pics that he was trying to show me, and we moved on to other things.

Cheers,

Chris

I'll take a guess :) I do this crud for a living (not specifically web hosting, but.. )

You've got phpBB running on an Apache or Microsquish IIS server. One thing I noticed - when the site wouldn't work, could not telnet to the URL on port 80, but it would ping. So, not a network problem, not a backend database problem, but the web service itself was locking up for some reason? Maybe all the threads I've made in Here to There put it over the top? :D

Was the solution you were on a shared server from your hosting provider, and you moved to a dedicated box? By the way much faster the last couple days. :D

It started working better because Bill Gates was being "outed." :wink:

Holy Crap! That's quite the image. My eyes! Oh, My eyes! :lol:

That image could cause an epilepa;lkkkkkkkdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

Was that Bill Gates or Shawn Cassidy?

LOL!

I'll take a guess :) I do this crud for a living (not specifically web hosting, but.. )

You've got phpBB running on an Apache or Microsquish IIS server. One thing I noticed - when the site wouldn't work, could not telnet to the URL on port 80, but it would ping. So, not a network problem, not a backend database problem, but the web service itself was locking up for some reason? Maybe all the threads I've made in Here to There put it over the top? :D

Was the solution you were on a shared server from your hosting provider, and you moved to a dedicated box? By the way much faster the last couple days. :D

Thanks for that information - interesting stuff. :)

Over the years when I've been troubleshooting things (cars, computer, or whatever) I often end up with four or five categories:

1. Fully identified, nailed, squashed and repaired or replaced.

2. Not fully identified, but the general fault area pegged and a chunk of hardware (or software) replaced and the problem removed.

3. Not full identified, but an effective work around put in place.

4. Not fully identified, but the problem disappears as mysteriously as it arrived.

5. No bloody idea. Live with it until the next full upgrade, or bring replacement forward.

So it would be interesting to read any run-down of the story if it's ever posted. But I'm sure that the last thing they want to do right now is waste time, and tempt fate, by spelling it out right now.

Perhaps when it's all ticking over nicely in a few days time then we might get some more information straight from the horse's mouth. But by then they may just want to go away and have a good lie down for a month or so, and forget all about websites and software and inquisitive forum members... :wink:

Cheers,

Chris

older slower processor
Apache 100% CPU utilization glitch of some kind that went away mysteriously
not enough RAM
IE base tags incompatibility with prior IE versions
steady growth and demand outstripped capacity

I think that's it....so I think the answer is all of the above.

I understood maybe 3-4 words of that explanation Nick - but as long as everything's running fine I can live with my ignorance. If you ever need help with anything computer related, I am NOT the person to ask - unless the question's "Can you keep your fingers crossed, and keep out of the way, Vic?"

Just glad to see everything's (fingers crossed AND touching wood!) running as it should......

:D :D :D

Vic

older slower processor
Apache 100% CPU utilization glitch of some kind that went away mysteriously
not enough RAM
IE base tags incompatibility with prior IE versions
steady growth and demand outstripped capacity

I think that's it....so I think the answer is all of the above.

Thanks Nick, the reply is much appreciated, as is the troubleshooting and fixing work you've been doing. :)

It's the ones that mysteriously come and go that intrigue me. Sometimes I have to learn to deliberately let go of them and move on without getting an answer... :(

One that springs to mind was a display problem on my main machine. On boot up it would lock and display a variety of rubbish in the screen. Various attempts at getting the hardware and software suspects to behave failed - although reseating the video card looked promising for a while - so I eventually took the box into town and tried it out at the place where I'd been buying the parts. Naturally, it worked perfectly down there on all tests. :roll: (I've learned to carry a sponge for egg on face removal on these occasions...). But they had an LCD monitor, I was using an old CRT. So back home and swapped it around with an LCD from another machine. It worked - once - and then went back to the old tricks.

But maybe there was a clue in the power usage? At home the screen was turned off at the switch on the monitor on shut-down, but power was still going into it as far as the switch. Sure enough, the work around turned out to be turning the power to the monitor fully off 'at the wall' as it were. That worked fine for weeks, until one day I realised that I'd gone back to the old routine yet it had now decided to work. It worked perfectly for the rest of its days, and I was never able to reproduce the fault again. I never did find out why it had gone flakey in the first place.... :?

The answer seems to be to run several boxes and drives, and to make regular offerings to the gods and gremlins that infest computers. Small offerings like food and wine (which I spill or drop on the keyboard at random intervals) are usually enough, but occasionally you just have to buy a goat - name it Gates - and do the full ritual sacrifice.

Cheers,

Chris

Oh, and...

... my guess was "Mice in the Wiring", which is my way of saying 'Mostly a hardware problem, but with software overtones...'

Not a Gold medal performance, but I'm going to provisionally claim a minor podium finish. :wink:

AND touching wood!
Vic
Of course you are...
Maple, innit?