Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

[Robert Scott]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

Robert, is there any way of monitoring which servers were operational, can you see which server my mesage was directed to, what the traffic was on the site, at 15:45 this afternoon??
David

I have sent you the log file for 15:45 by e-mail - it is far to long to post here.

[hhcanon]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

Im getting 503 as well now and never had a problem in the past, and I've not changed anything at this end - weird

[kiwigav]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

I think weird is the operative word as I am posting images now without any problem whatsoever. It must be something to do with the server being used at the time or traffic although I see some members have had the problem in the early hours of the morning UK time so traffic may be a red herring.

David

Hi David, this is exactly what's happening; although it maybe early hours here, in the UK, a lot of things like search bots for Google and Bing set their times to do the scan through the site at 2am or thereabout which can cause a mass influx in usage and causes a 503 error for those trying to post at those times. which basically means the server can't give an IP address to the users connection as they're all full, and as (I'm pretty sure) the forum puts another connection aside when grabbing info from an external host it's all these extra connections that forces the 503 error on occasions.

I wonder what bots are doing a lot of scanning of the site.

[Robert Scott]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

Hi David, this is exactly what's happening; although it maybe early hours here, in the UK, a lot of things like search bots for Google and Bing set their times to do the scan through the site at 2am or thereabout which can cause a mass influx in usage and causes a 503 error for those trying to post at those times. which basically means the server can't give an IP address to the users connection as they're all full, and as (I'm pretty sure) the forum puts another connection aside when grabbing info from an external host it's all these extra connections that forces the 503 error on occasions.

I've just placed a small file on the forum server which is supposed to block search engines. I'm not sure if I have got it right, or if it will work, but worth a try. Let me know if the 503 errors continue (I rarely see them so can't check).

[Robert Scott]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

I've seen no reports of 503 errors since I placed a file on the forum server to block search engines. Has anyone had a 503 error since Sunday morning?

[MX5]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

Robert - I haven't seen a 503 for quite a while (weeks). So you may have found the cure ... well done ... I know how hard these things are to track down and solve.

[kiwigav]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

I've seen no reports of 503 errors since I placed a file on the forum server to block search engines. Has anyone had a 503 error since Sunday morning?

I've also noticed that the number of unregistered (guests) users has dropped by an average of 100 every time I've logged in lately, this hopefully is due to the block of the many bots that were using up resources of the server.

Hope the block keeps the 503 errors away for everyone!

[Robert Scott]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

I've also noticed that the number of unregistered (guests) users has dropped by an average of 100 every time I've logged in lately, this hopefully is due to the block of the many bots that were using up resources of the server.

Hope the block keeps the 503 errors away for everyone!

Yes, the total (members and guests) online used to be around ten times the number of members online. I've just checked and it is only five times at the moment.

The most users ever online was 1052 last Saturday afternoon. If half of these were bots, it might explain the 503 issue.

I have also noticed a fall in spammers registering and being rejected as I moderate the applications.

The bot-blocking file has only been in place for a couple of days, so too early to draw definite conclusions, but it is certainly having some effect.

Thanks kiwigav for your earlier comment that it might be search bots causing the problem.

[kiwigav]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

Never a problem. When I've got a bit more time I'll drop you a line about spam-o-matic, I use it on my sites and it cuts down spam to almost nothing. It looks at the IP addresses from known spammers and stops them registering, in the year or so I've had installed it's blocked about 30,000 fake accounts!

Hope to hear from other users if the 503 problem has stopped for them too.

[Colin]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

Robert

Posted this morning using Firefox and didn't get an error. Just tried to post again this afternoon and got the usual javascript void error that I have had before in Firefox but then posted the photo using Chrome and again no 503 error so it looks like that may be sorted.

[MX5]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

It's back :-(

Firefox 16.0.2 on Windows 7SP1 (All updates applied).

[Emile Cilliers]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

Sure is back!!! Was fine yesterday

[Emile Cilliers]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

extremely weird

I just posted a new thread with some pictures and no issue, however posting pictures in my existing landscape thread gives me error??????

[Robert Scott]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

I wonder if it is anything to do with the level of spammer activity at the moment. I've just deleted 90% of the registration requests received this morning - and these are spammers who get through our Q&A security barrier. There are probably many more accessing the site but not getting through.

[secondintime]

Re: Error: "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable"

Can't post at the moment, says unavailable?