# Impossible to post



## Uncle Jack

I don't know if this has been affecting others, but there have been numerous times over the past two or three weeks that I have been unable to post on here for hours at a time. The forum is very slow to load, very slow to open pages, most user icons don't appear that there is no box to write in. Pressing reply in a post takes you to an almost empty page, again with nowhere to write.

This does not appear to be related to the upgrade (it started before then), but it has got much worse recently. It does not matter which computer I use, or where I am using it from.


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## Peterdg

No, I haven't noticed anything like that so far.


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## DonnyB

Exactly the same thing has been happening to me, too, almost on a daily basis: when it does, it's making the forums unusable.  When I eventually get a page to load, the screen display is corrupted: I can't type anything in the reply box which is mis-formed, and half the avatars are wonky.

I had been hoping the upgrade would cure it, but if anything it's got worse.  It will start at a seemingly random time during the day and last 2 or 3 hours, then come back to normal. 

Nothing I do will fix it: closing the browser and restarting it, using a different browser, doing a reboot...  nothing.  I don't think it's my PC, as all the other sites I use will continue to function normally while it's happening.


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## Peterdg

Hmm. Would it be a coincidence that both of you are from the UK? It could be an ISP problem.


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## Uncle Jack

I am with BT at home, but I don't get this problem with any other website or internet use.


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## Barque

I've had the same problem but just once. It was three or four days ago, after the upgrade.


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## mkellogg

Hi, The most likely problem is that your computer is having trouble communicating with the CDN (a third-party hosting company that the images and included scripts are served from).  To test, when it is having this problem, I bet you can't see this image: https://cdn77f.wordreference.com/data/avatars/m/825/825359.jpg?1511988092

My best idea to solve this is for you to go to cdn77.com and start a chat while this problem is occurring. Hopefully, they will contact their technical people to find the problem. If not, let me know.


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## DonnyB

Yes, for me it's definitely the cdn77f that's the problem.  It's been okay since I reported it, but recurred tonight just after 20:00 GMT and has come back a few minutes ago, so it wasn't off for very long tonight.  I did as you suggested, started a chat with their tech support, desctibed what the problem was and this was the outcome:
*Tech support - Milos: *Anyway, please contact the website owner/administrators as without communicating with them I cannot do anything.  But I do not see any problem. Please, for the website admin, collect some screenshots.

Just before it was restored to normal I managed to get this screenshot of the main forum page:






  Odd: all the forum subtitles are showing, which they normally don't.  Next time it happens, I'll try and get some more.


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## mkellogg

Sorry, I just chatted with Milos myself and he was extremely unhelpful. I complained to management, but I don't expect much of a response.  Hopefully, the engineers find the problem on their own and fix it in the next week.

In the meantime, you might try a different web browser. It might load all of the files (but probably not).


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## Jektor

mkellogg said:


> The most likely problem is that your computer is having trouble communicating with the CDN (a third-party hosting company that the images and included scripts are served from)...



_"_CDN is short for *C*ontent *D*elivery *N*etwork_. _A content delivery network (CDN) is a system of distributed servers (network) that deliver pages and other Web content to a user, based on the geographic locations of the user, the origin of the webpage and the content delivery server.  This service is effective in speeding the delivery of content of websites with high traffic and websites that have global reach. The closer the CDN server is to the user geographically, the faster the content will be delivered to the user. CDNs also provide protection from large surges in traffic... more...
webopedia.com - term-CDN
.


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## DonnyB

mkellogg said:


> In the meantime, you might try a different web browser. It might load all of the files (but probably not).


I didn't bother yesterday, but I have tried previously with IE11 in case the problem was somehow Firefox-related , but it was just the same.



Jektor said:


> _"_CDN is short for *C*ontent *D*elivery *N*etwork_. _A content delivery network (CDN) is a system of distributed servers (network) that deliver pages and other Web content to a user, based on the geographic locations of the user, the origin of the webpage and the content delivery server.  This service is effective in speeding the delivery of content of websites with high traffic and websites that have global reach. The closer the CDN server is to the user geographically, the faster the content will be delivered to the user. CDNs also provide protection from large surges in traffic... more...
> webopedia.com - term-CDN
> .


Well yes, normally the site runs very fast for me.  But the reason I was able to confirm it was this cdn77 that was the problem was that I was getting browser status messages such as read.cdn77f.wordreference.com and then connecting to cdn77f.wordreference.com and it would stick like that for a good two or three minutes with the screen either blank or finally with a incomplete one with missing avatars and no way of typing or posting anything.


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## mkellogg

The easy way to test is to try to see your avatar:
https://cdn77f.wordreference.com/data/avatars/m/667/667877.jpg?1431248841

If you can't see it, the CDN is the problem.

I am trying to think of a solution to this, but it is difficult. We need the CDN so that pages load quickly. We can also switch CDNs if this one becomes unreliable.


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## Loob

Just to say ~ I was also unable to post or see avatars for several hours today.


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## Hermione Golightly

It was very bad today from 14.30 to 20.40 at least, assuming it's the same problem as others report. I couldn't connect at all - just a demented bluebottle flitting in circles to the left of the address.
It happened daily for a couple of hours, then improved, but back with a vengeance today.


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## DonnyB

It was some of the worst it's ever been for me too, this afternoon, and was only restored to a fully usable state about an hour ago.  


mkellogg said:


> The easy way to test is to try to see your avatar:
> https://cdn77f.wordreference.com/data/avatars/m/667/667877.jpg?1431248841
> 
> If you can't see it, the CDN is the problem.


I can see it _now_, but this afternoon I was just getting a 'problem loading page' message:


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## Peterdg

I don't know if it will be helpful for debugging, but I did not have any problem whasoever all day long. And as far as I can see, all people complaining are based in the UK.


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## Hermione Golightly

Down again today from 15.00 for at least a couple of hours. Just tried again successfully 20.10.
I've tried another browser and everything else I can think of except putting petrol in the tank. 
Sure enhances one's appreciation of the forum! Thanks, Mike!


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## DonnyB

It went down for me at 13:05 GMT and was off for something over four hours.  It was taking almost five minutes to even half-load a page after I'd clicked on a link.

I just had to give up even trying to look at anything in the end.


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## Loob

I had trouble this afternoon too, but only for a couple of hours. It wasn't as bad as yesterday: I could see (most) avatars, even when I couldn't write anything.


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## Hermione Golightly

Donny, it must be even more frustrating for a mod!


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## mkellogg

OK, I've set it so that the UK will not be using the CDN for now. It should take effect in 15 minutes. I hope this fixes the problem.


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## DonnyB

I'm not sure that's worked.  

At the moment, for me, it's loading pages OK, it's displaying avatars partially but they mostly disappear if I refresh/reload the page, and the box where you type the reply has nowhere to type anything (I can only post this because I has the page already open on the screen before you made the change.).


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## lingobingo

mkellogg said:


> OK, I've set it so that the UK will not be using the CDN for now. It should take effect in 15 minutes. I hope this fixes the problem.


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## mkellogg

Donny, I don't see why it wouldn't work now, though clearing your browser's cache might help.

Currently in the UK, cdn77f.wordreference.com points directly at the forum server, so all images and scripts should arrive to you without problem. If you open up a command prompt on the computer, "ping cdn77f.wordreference.com" should show an IP address of 207.244.70.164. Again, only in the UK for now.


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## DonnyB

mkellogg said:


> Donny, I don't see why it wouldn't work now, though clearing your browser's cache might help.
> 
> Currently in the UK, cdn77f.wordreference.com points directly at the forum server, so all images and scripts should arrive to you without problem. If you open up a command prompt on the computer, "ping cdn77f.wordreference.com" should show an IP address of 207.244.70.164. Again, only in the UK for now.



I _think_ I might have cracked it. 


mkellogg said:


> The easy way to test is to try to see your avatar:
> https://cdn77f.wordreference.com/data/avatars/m/667/667877.jpg?1431248841


This didn't work: on both Firefox and IE 11 when I tried I got an error message about an invalid security certificate.  But... when I over-rode it to continue to the site - my avatar appeared!  And now, everything appears to be displaying normally as it's supposed to!


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## mkellogg

DonnyB said:


> I got an error message about an invalid security certificate


Oh, that would be a problem.  I need to reverse what I did for the UK. Sorry.


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## Loob

Same issue again today. I don't know when it started - I was out this afternoon - but I've been unable to see avatars/write new posts for at least two hours.

....

Mike, do you want us to let you know which parts of the UK are being affected? I'm in Gloucester.


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## DonnyB

mkellogg said:


> Oh, that would be a problem.  I need to reverse what I did for the UK. Sorry.


It's a great pity that didn't work.  

It's just come back for me , too, in the last five minutes, but I'd been doing something else earlier, tried to look at the forums at about 21:00 GMT and it took me a good 15 minutes to navigate to this thread.

Whatever this problem is, when it occurs it's sadly making the forums virtually unusable for those of us who are affected by it.


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## Loob

DonnyB said:


> Whatever this problem is, when it occurs it's sadly making the forums virtually unusable for those of us who are affected by it.


Yes.


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## Loob

_(This is a generic post: I'm writing it to enable me to use "reply" to copy and send it when/if the problem recurs.)_


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## constantlyconfused

I've been unable to use the forum over the long weekend. Painfully slow to connect to it, then when connected unable to start a new thread, post on existing threads or send messages. Other websites (including WR dictionary) functioned as normal, and I tried in Firefox and Chrome. It came at a bad time, but things are back to normal as of this morning, thankfully. Has this problem been resolved or should I expect further occurrences? I've been using the forum for 12 years and have never had a problem until now.


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## DonnyB

constantlyconfused said:


> I've been unable to use the forum over the long weekend. Painfully slow to connect to it, then when connected unable to start a new thread, post on existing threads or send messages. Other websites (including WR dictionary) functioned as normal, and I tried in Firefox and Chrome. It came at a bad time, but things are back to normal as of this morning, thankfully. Has this problem been resolved or should I expect further occurrences? I've been using the forum for 12 years and have never had a problem until now.


It's been fine for me this morning, but assuming you're suffering from the same problems as the rest of us in the UK who've reported this (and it sounds like you are), it does seem to be predominantly afternoons and evenings (GMT) when it occurs.

As far as I know Mike hasn't yet been able to find the solution to it.


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## constantlyconfused

Thanks Donny, it affected me all day Sunday and Monday. If it's relevant, I'm in the East Midlands.


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## PaulQ

Uncle Jack said:


> I don't know if this has been affecting others, but there have been numerous times over the past two or three weeks that I have been unable to post on here for hours at a time. The forum is very slow to load, very slow to open pages, most user icons don't appear that there is no box to write in. Pressing reply in a post takes you to an almost empty page, again with nowhere to write.
> 
> This does not appear to be related to the upgrade (it started before then), but it has got much worse recently. It does not matter which computer I use, or where I am using it from.


As above, but at first the upgrade was an improvement, however, about a week after the upgrade I also started to have

Slow loading of quotes - sometimes not at all
Formatting greyed out, dead and unusable - see image below.

From start-up, the forum works well, and then slowly degenerates.

Win10 x64 with all updates - Browsers: Microsoft Edge; Firefox; Opera (all fully updated.)
I should have looked here earlier - I had put it down to a malfunctioning Bluetooth mouse but it's the same with the USB mouse.


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## PaulQ

PaulQ said:


> Formatting greyed out, dead and unusable - see image below.


I have solved this one, clicking the final icon toggles the BB formatting on and off - it had switched itself off... or I had...


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## mkellogg

I made another change this afternoon that should make the editor and other things that rely on Javascript work better, but the Avatars and other images will still have trouble loading. I hope that works well enough.


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## Loob

Thanks, Mike.

Today has been trouble-free for me.


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## PaulQ

So far so good. Thanks I put it down to my sacrificing a small she-goat at the Temple of Mercury.


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## london calling

It must be a UK problem. I've had no problems whatsoever.


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## DonnyB

london calling said:


> It must be a UK problem. I've had no problems whatsoever.


Yes, I think it is (or was - it seems to be fixed now ).


mkellogg said:


> I made another change this afternoon that should make the editor and other things that rely on Javascript work better, but the Avatars and other images will still have trouble loading. I hope that works well enough.


It does, thanks!  I get the occasional 'hesitation' when it tries to load avatars, but most of the time even that is barely noticeable.


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## DonnyB

mkellogg said:


> I made another change this afternoon that should make the editor and other things that rely on Javascript work better, but the Avatars and other images will still have trouble loading. I hope that works well enough.


It's now (14:05 GMT) started to cease loading avatars again for me, just as it was doing before, but the everything else seems OK for the time being....


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## Itisi

You may consider it a minor thing compared to some other technical problems, but are the avatars meant to be round now...?  Personally,  find it looks twee and I really, really don't like it.  I complained that they were too big, but I would prefer them too big but square!  Sorry to moan...

(PS - I find them ok round and small on the list of posts, though...)


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