Gateway Timeout

[steveoh]

Getting an error here and there:

Gateway Timeout

The gateway did not receive a timely response from the upstream server or application.

Additionally, a 504 Gateway Timeout error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Looking at bottom of the page I see almost 1,000 guests (most of which are not legit) accessing the forum. That is a sign that you guys do not have your htaccess file sorted out, and as a result you are getting hit by spam bots, and content crawling bots. The latest content crawling bots are indexing this site for Artificial Intelligence apps.

I keep warning you guys and yet nothing gets done. Crying shame.

[avator]

Yep, I'm getting more time outs since the upgrade. All the other issues that some are having have been resolved by clearing cookies and browsing history. I can only speak to Brave browser because that's what I use.
As for notifications, the only ones I have set to receive are for PM messages and I receive those just fine.

Be aware, if you clear your cache, browsing history and cookies you will need your ID and password to log back in. Make sure you know it before doing so.

[Lt. Dan]

Gateway Timeout


Gateway Timeout


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Gateway Timeout

I'm so tired of seeing this!

[steveoh]

Gateway Timeout


Gateway Timeout


Gateway Timeout


Gateway Timeout

I'm so tired of seeing this!

Too much traffic from bots. 

Block the bots and save the forum. The immediate, and most simple answer is to properly set up the forum's .htaccess file to block the bad bots. The hosting company for the GTA can / should help with this. There are other options such as firewalls.  Can't just wish the bots will go away, because they won't and are only going two get worse.

A properly configured robots.txt can also help with legit bots that are overzealous in their crawling.  The robots file for GTA is sorely sparse. The worst offenders of "legit" bots are SEO bots like the notorious AHREFs bots. They will send out 30 bots to crawl and index a site which can bring a forum to it's knees.

GTA was my first airgun forum home, and I want it to do well and last a long time. Yes, I run a competing forum, but each airgun forum has something unique to offer.  All of the forums are in decline because of the competition from Facebook and other social media. I think we need to help each other out, and that's why I keep harping on fixing the ding dang durn htaccess file.

Steveoh

[GTA-Airgunner]

Hey there guys,

This is not a result of bots.. there is something else going on.  The server's been upgraded to handle thousands of concurrent users. 

I've sent this out to our admin for him to review.  I've had it come up a few times, but not a ton. 

The upgrades were necessary for security reasons.  Hopefully we can get everything irond out.

thanks for your patience.

Rick

[splitbeing]

Thanks for the update, Rick

[steveoh]

Hey there guys,

This is not a result of bots.. there is something else going on.  The server's been upgraded to handle thousands of concurrent users. 

I've sent this out to our admin for him to review.  I've had it come up a few times, but not a ton. 

The upgrades were necessary for security reasons.  Hopefully we can get everything irond out.

thanks for your patience.

Rick

GTA having 1,000 guests hitting the site at any given time is a sign of spam and content bots. Give me a complete list of guest IP addresses and I can prove it. You may have other issues, but your web guys are absolutely missing the fundamentals of administration of an SMF forum.

AI content Bots are the latest scourge.

I’m just trying to be helpful.

[GTA-Airgunner]

Hey there

We are working with our Host regularly and recently purged out 3k+ concurrent “bogus” users. I’m not interested in dragging out this thread, but our traffic, per analytics, shows that non-member traffic far outweighs member traffic which is in line with 800 to 1000 concurrent users. The headroom on the server can handle many multiples of that before we hit a performance limitation. 

I do appreciate the input. Just know that we are continuing to address things as they come up and as the related admins have time.  But, it does take time and money to cover things.

If folks wanted to contribute financially to help cover growing hosing and admin costs, we are pleased to receive it via the donation link in the menu. 

Regards.
Rick

[steveoh]

Ok, good luck.

I disagree on the 1,000 guests. Google doesn’t mark all that traffic as bots or not bots. In my experience of running 3 different SMF forums this one has the very same patterns I have seen.

You have a bot problem, and if you copy all the IP addresses and send to me, I’ll sort them and identify which ones are suspicious and which ones are definitely bots. That should be useful information. I want nothing in return.

Good luck.

Hey there

We are working with our Host regularly and recently purged out 3k+ concurrent “bogus” users. I’m not interested in dragging out this thread, but our traffic, per analytics, shows that non-member traffic far outweighs member traffic which is in line with 800 to 1000 concurrent users. The headroom on the server can handle many multiples of that before we hit a performance limitation. 

I do appreciate the input. Just know that we are continuing to address things as they come up and as the related admins have time.  But, it does take time and money to cover things.

If folks wanted to contribute financially to help cover growing hosing and admin costs, we are pleased to receive it via the donation link in the menu. 

Regards.
Rick

[GTA-Airgunner]

Thanks for the offer.. I will consider it and let you know.

Regards

Rick

[WobblyHand]

Don't know if this is indicative of the problem, spam bots or not, but searches on this site nearly always result in timeouts.  But curiously, a reload of the page after the timeout instantly produces the search results.  The original timeout is taking quite a while, like 10 or more seconds.  Kind of making this a tough place to navigate.  For what ever that is worth.

[avator]

It's still the best ding dang airgun forum on the planet.   

[avator]

Am I the only one that takes offense in the admitted owner of a "competing forum" openly ridiculing the owners and operators of our forum? The mod and admins are clearly labelled and could be personally contacted as opposed to seemingly trying to stir animosity between our administration and our members.

[WobblyHand]

It's still the best ding dang airgun forum on the planet.   

Agreed.

[WobblyHand]

Am I the only one that takes offense in the admitted owner of a "competing forum" openly ridiculing the owners and operators of our forum? The mod and admins are clearly labelled and could be personally contacted as opposed to seemingly trying to stir animosity between our administration and our members.

I'm not taking it that way at all.  On the surface, it seems he's offering ideas to help.  This site has slowed down. 

But I could see current GTA owners not sharing any detailed information, as it could reveal info that really shouldn't be shared with a competitive forum.  But the OP suggestions should be looked into, perhaps there's some merit.

[GTA-Airgunner]

Hey there all,

I spent a good bit of last night and this morning working with our host to secure the site further and weed out bad traffic.  We dropped the "guest" traffic from over 1200 down to under 400.  I will continue to monitor patterns in the IPs and address them as needed. 

Unfortunately, we are still getting the timeout error. We will continue to work with our host and admin to sort out the issue.  We had to make a lot of changes to bring the site forward.  Some systems and plugins were over 10 years out of date. 

On another subject, if anyone has a concern or suggestion about the forum, please get in touch with me directly.  I don't monitor all the topics and have a lot going on.  Sending me an email or a PM is going to be far more effective.

Thanks
Rick

[GTA-Airgunner]

Hey there folks. 

Working with our host, they did find an issue on the server and have made an adjustment to the config file.  Hopefully, it will solve the issue.  If you all experience the timeout issue again, please reach out to me or another admin via PM or email vs starting a new topic.

Thanks.

I will probably close this topic at this point.

Cheers
Rick

[uglymike]

One of the reasons I don't visit GTA much anymore. 

[GTA-Airgunner]

Hey there..

Hopefully that will change.  The timeout issue should be resolved. Also search should be improved and overall speed should be significantly improved. 

There are still a few bugs we are working out.. but things are moving in the correct direction. 

If anyone runs into specific issues, please email or PM me directly.

Thanks
Rick

[EdinGa]

I've been getting this message for the last few minutes.