Alembic Guitars Club

Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: hieronymous on April 04, 2021, 07:56:37 PM

Title: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: hieronymous on April 04, 2021, 07:56:37 PM
Hey everybody - for the past several weeks, 90% of the time the Alembic Club won't come up - it times out and never appears. I thought it must be something wrong with the forum, but no one else has said anything, so since it worked right now I thought I'd ask.


Also, I just tried to go on TalkBass and it's having a similar issue. So maybe it's my computer somehow? Or are bass sites being hacked???


Hope everyone is well!
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: lbpesq on April 04, 2021, 11:32:06 PM
Hey Harry.   I haven't experienced any problems.   Sounds like it’s something on your end.   I would try and isolate the problem.   Do you have the same problem if you use your phone or a different computer to log on?

Bill, tgo
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: jazzyvee on April 05, 2021, 02:12:09 AM
I have had issues in the last month logging in from my apple devices but not on my windows laptop. Then I thought i had narrowed it down to my vpn software and when i set it to use USA servers it worked fine for a while. Then it stopped completely even without the vpn. The past couple of weeks have been fine and today it's connecting through my vpn.
I have a screen capture somewhere that may give a teckkie some idea.
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: edwardofhuncote on April 05, 2021, 03:53:30 AM
TalkBass is crashed right now. The Alembic Club is fine so far as I can tell.


*Ed's hand/eye coordination this morning... not as much.  ::)


**and TalkBass is still down. They must be doing something over there.
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: adriaan on April 05, 2021, 04:25:35 AM
One thing we did change recently was to add SSL to the Club. This means that the web address now starts with https:// rather than http:// - in any case, if you use the old web address then your browser is redirected to the new one, so you should not notice much of a difference. If you have the old address set as a bookmark/favourite, or as (one of) your browser's startup page(s) then consider changing it to the new one.
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: hieronymous on April 05, 2021, 08:56:56 AM
Hey Harry.   I haven't experienced any problems.   Sounds like it’s something on your end.   I would try and isolate the problem.   Do you have the same problem if you use your phone or a different computer to log on?

Bill, tgo

Good idea to check on my phone - didn't think of that - I'm on now so hopefully it won't be an issue!

I have had issues in the last month logging in from my apple devices but not on my windows laptop. Then I thought i had narrowed it down to my vpn software and when i set it to use USA servers it worked fine for a while. Then it stopped completely even without the vpn. The past couple of weeks have been fine and today it's connecting through my vpn.
I have a screen capture somewhere that may give a teckkie some idea.

Very strange!

TalkBass is crashed right now. The Alembic Club is fine so far as I can tell.


*Ed's hand/eye coordination this morning... not as much.  ::)


**and TalkBass is still down. They must be doing something over there.

One or the other being down I can handle - but not both!!!

One thing we did change recently was to add SSL to the Club. This means that the web address now starts with https:// rather than http:// - in any case, if you use the old web address then your browser is redirected to the new one, so you should not notice much of a difference. If you have the old address set as a bookmark/favourite, or as (one of) your browser's startup page(s) then consider changing it to the new one.

Right now it's the https:// one, not sure about before. Hopefully it won't be a problem anymore but I'll make sure and update my bookmarks.

Thanks everyone! I thought I was going crazy!
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: keith_h on April 05, 2021, 03:57:49 PM
One thing we did change recently was to add SSL to the Club. This means that the web address now starts with https:// rather than http:// - in any case, if you use the old web address then your browser is redirected to the new one, so you should not notice much of a difference. If you have the old address set as a bookmark/favourite, or as (one of) your browser's startup page(s) then consider changing it to the new one.
Finally no more clear text passwords? 
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: hieronymous on April 05, 2021, 04:36:53 PM
Aargh! It happened again! I tried to log in at 12:45 pm PDT and couldn't. I tried Safari, Firefox, and my iPhone - nothing. I emailed a Club member, and they said they could access it. It's 4:30 pm same day, and now I'm on! Weird...
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: edwardofhuncote on April 05, 2021, 06:20:29 PM
Still good here, Harry, but TalkBass is still fouled up. Somebody over there zigged when they shoulda' zagged.  :)
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: hieronymous on April 05, 2021, 09:51:19 PM
I thought maybe bass forums were being targeted by hackers!
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: pauldo on April 06, 2021, 04:58:06 AM
I thought maybe bass forums were being targeted by hackers!

That would be a low blow.   ;D


Sometimes our broadband is merely a trickle...


Edit- when I clicked “post” it black screened and said there was no connection,  had to rinse, lather and repeat.  :-X
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: keith_h on April 06, 2021, 08:00:31 AM
Have you tried restarting your router and modem?
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: hieronymous on April 06, 2021, 09:08:49 AM
I thought maybe bass forums were being targeted by hackers!

That would be a low blow.   ;D


Sometimes our broadband is merely a trickle...


Edit- when I clicked “post” it black screened and said there was no connection,  had to rinse, lather and repeat.  :-X

"Low Blow" - I see what you did there!  8)

Have you tried restarting your router and modem?


No I have not - good idea, though I'm going to wait until I try at my office first. This is the only site where this happens, and it's intermittent...
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: edwardofhuncote on April 06, 2021, 05:26:29 PM
FWIW, The TalkBass servers were reportedly burned up in a fire. They are waiting for word on whether or not to spin up the backups at alternate location. Day 3. That's commercial, so that's gotta' hurt. Times like this, I remember to be thankful to our gracious hosts who let us hang out here.
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: hieronymous on April 06, 2021, 06:08:40 PM
FWIW, The TalkBass servers were reportedly burned up in a fire. They are waiting for word on whether or not to spin up the backups at alternate location. Day 3. That's commercial, so that's gotta' hurt. Times like this, I remember to be thankful to our gracious hosts who let us hang out here.

Thanks for posting that - saw on their Facebook page.

We are so sorry for the massive outage we are experiencing.  The datacenter where we are hosted suffered a catastrophic power outage.  A routine load test of a generator caused a fire, fire suppression systems, and the fire department cutting power to the complex. 

We are awaiting word on whether our servers are affected by water damage and at that time will determine whether to spin up new servers at a different location, and restore from backups. 


And by the way, my Alembic Club access is still intermittent...
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: David Houck on April 06, 2021, 07:03:18 PM
The test at your office failed?
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: hieronymous on April 06, 2021, 08:35:48 PM
The test at your office failed?

Tomorrow! Today is my Sunday.
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: sonicus on April 06, 2021, 08:51:37 PM
For what it is worth ;
I have my IT interface modem connected to a  UPS ( uninterruptible power supply ) with additional auxiliary battery backup , enough for a few days at low current drain .  There are several ways to achieve high capacity , either by a commercial prebuilt  source or from modular configuration from scratch  . I have both on different circuits . 
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: hieronymous on April 07, 2021, 07:35:31 PM
Trying again! There are times when it comes up, more times when it doesn't, times when I can post, and times when I cannot. I sent an email to Dave with a screenshot of the firewall that wouldn't let me post a little while ago. Wondering if this will go through!
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: sonicus on April 08, 2021, 12:09:50 AM
Hieronymous.
                       Regarding any access to this forum / Alembic Club , hast not I had any issues . Might I suggest that you contact your ISP ( internet service provider) . Mayst it be an issue with a DNS server impeding throughput  and or routing ? In the mean while you can test your throughput speed here :         https://www.speedtest.net/   
 It will be possible to investigate to see if you are getting the level of service and speed that you are paying for ! 8)
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: keith_h on April 08, 2021, 08:50:55 AM
Whose firewall is giving you the error?

One thing to try and get additional data is when you see the problem is to run a tracert command. Bring up a command window as administrator and enter, tracert club.alembic.com After that paste the results here or send it to me at the email in my profile.

I'm thinking it might be the website DDOS provider Sucuri firewall not liking you for some reason.   
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: StephenR on April 08, 2021, 09:46:19 AM
I had trouble accessing the club forum two nights ago but on an iPad. I should have taken a screen shot of the window that popped up but it was something about the club server being non-responsive. That is the only time I have been shut out recently, logging in on my iMac  definitely started getting quicker once I updated the saved link so my query wouldn't need to be directed but I always get in. Weird that Harry is the only one with ongoing trouble, must be something in his computer/browser configuration, or maybe something was changed at his ISP?
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: xlrogue6 on April 08, 2021, 10:52:16 PM
If you're on Comcast/Xfinity, definitely reboot your modem, and if that doesn't work, your cable box.
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: hieronymous on April 12, 2021, 04:04:49 PM
So it looks like I'm back to normal! xlrogue6's suggestion to reboot reminded me that I hadn't tried that yet (I think it was mentioned earlier) - didn't fix things 100%, but today I'm accessing with no trouble. Sorry to cause problems mods!
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: growlypants on April 29, 2021, 08:32:17 AM
Within the last 2 weeks or so, I can never get on the Alembic site IN THE MORNING!!!  Every other time of day is fine.  Anybody know what's going on?
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: David Houck on April 29, 2021, 01:31:35 PM
Nobody else is reporting this.  If you haven't already tried it, you might want to try rebooting your modem/router.  That or just sleep until noon.
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: growlypants on April 30, 2021, 08:01:28 AM
Hey, Dave.  Thanks for the suggestions.  (I tried sleeping in til noon, but my darn dogs wouldn't let me...)  Seriously, though... my problem persists, but since it's still morning and I'm successfully talking to you, my problem does seem to be improving!
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: David Houck on April 30, 2021, 09:14:50 AM
Dan, are you getting any unusual error messages (other then normal time-outs)?
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: growlypants on April 30, 2021, 11:43:48 AM
No, sir.  By the way, what is a "normal time-out"?  I'm using an Apple iMac, by the way, which uses Safari.
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: David Houck on April 30, 2021, 12:19:18 PM
I get lots of time-out messages where sites fail to load initially, probably because I'm on a very slow AT&T DSL connection.  It's just like living in the dark ages, except for the driving in to town for groceries part.
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: David Houck on April 30, 2021, 12:33:33 PM
Adriaan's going to check with our hosting provider just in case there might be something going on there.

Other things to try would be a different browser and your cell phone.

Oh, and anecdotal evidence suggests that some folks with Macs leave them on all the time; and when a problem occurs, a reboot often helps.  I don't have a Mac; just something I've noticed.
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: growlypants on April 30, 2021, 01:55:58 PM
Thanks so much, David.  (I'll try your suggestions in the morning, when these problems seem to surface.)
Title: Re: Forum down sometimes?
Post by: cozmik_cowboy on April 30, 2021, 09:59:20 PM
....probably because I'm on a very slow AT&T DSL connection.  It's just like living in the dark ages....

Man, was it really only 10-15 years ago that I was so thrilled to dump my dial-up for the mind-boggling speed of DSL? 

Peter (who was, yes, even more thrilled to switch to a cable modem and then to fiber-optic.......)