Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 03:15 05 Jan 2025
 
- Snow and freezing rain sweep UK with amber warnings in place
- The year China's famous road-tripping 'auntie' found freedom
- Tributes to 'much loved and popular' boy after quad bike crash
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 09/01/25 - Bath Railway Society
24/01/25 - Westbury Station reopens
24/01/25 - LTP4 Wilts / Consultation end
28/01/25 - Coffee Shop 18th Birthday

On this day
5th Jan (1960)
Last service - Swansea and Mumbles Tramway (link)

Train RunningNo cancellations or delays
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
January 05, 2025, 03:27:59 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[266] Bridport branch reopening proposal
[78] Mining in Cornwall
[53] Update on collapsed Bridgewater Canal
[49] GWR Train Crew Weymouth
[48] Outstanding server / web site issues
[44] Old Oak Common Christmas Work
 
News: A forum for passengers ... with input from rail professionals welcomed too
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: Outstanding server / web site issues  (Read 461 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 43029



View Profile WWW Email
« on: January 02, 2025, 17:30:30 »

There's a handful of issues arising from last weekend's work (surprised how few there are).

Firstly, our workhorse system IS still emailing messages out. But as it's now a backroom system and not known as "firstgreatwestern.info", various intermediate email relays are a bit worried about it ...
* Client host rejected: cannot find your hostname
* refused to talk to me: 550 Message rejected
* Connection refused
OK - something to work on.  At the weekend?

Second, the workhorse system has for some time had traps in there to row back if it gets silly numbers of requests from a single place. I have had to lift the definition of a "silly" number since nearly all requests are now coming from the receptionist server; ealier today it was screwed down a bit hard and members were being directed to the status server far too often.

Third, our shift from http to https has been noticed by crawlers such as Google. Good, indeed excellent as is means that they are reporting us in searches with an increase prominence.  However, to do so they have been downloading pages with some vigour to ensure they know all about us.  The initial shock in now over - however as I bring in more older resources and new ones [back] online (flows, maps, geolocation, etc) thes is atill going to be the odd load issue.  My monitoting code usually spots problems and lets me know, but that's not instant and there will be occasions where a broad and expensive resource is being indexing and it may cause an issue for a few hours. I DO have plenty of resource with the receptionist and if need be a lot of the public content can be served from there.

Fourth reported:
When I clicked on the 'Post' button on the post above, it threw me an error message

Quote
Warning: rename(./loggy2.txt,./loggy.txt): No such file or directory in /home/firstgreatwestern/httpdocs/coffeeshop/index.php on line 67

I'll leave Graham to work that one out!
That was only a warning and you can ignore it.  And I have told the server to now even tell you in the future.  It is / was caused by two visitors at exactly the same time trying to move a log file out of the way - the first succeeds and the second has been grumbling.

Also ... aware of the like system not echoing back in the page, the forum site style not being remembered, and acronyms not being expanded properly.  Searching and the easy access to our industry document archive need a look / check too.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
GBM
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 1676


View Profile Email
« Reply #1 on: January 02, 2025, 20:24:55 »

There's a handful of issues arising from last weekend's work (surprised how few there are).

Firstly, our workhorse system IS still emailing messages out. But as it's now a backroom system and not known as "firstgreatwestern.info", various intermediate email relays are a bit worried about it ...
* Client host rejected: cannot find your hostname
* refused to talk to me: 550 Message rejected
* Connection refused
OK - something to work on.  At the weekend?

Nope, still not receiving any email alerts.
Sorry  Sad Sad
Logged

Personal opinion only.  Writings not representative of any union, collective, management or employer. (Think that absolves me...........)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 43029



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #2 on: January 02, 2025, 20:52:14 »

Nope, still not receiving any email alerts.
Sorry  Sad Sad

Yep, I know.  We're sending them out but they're not being accepted.  Your email host is a fussy one and even before it gets to your email system it is almost certainly being refused.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
matth1j
Full Member
***
Posts: 83


View Profile
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2025, 07:08:28 »

Regarding the {LIKE} button(?), I'm not sure what used to happen (or even whether this has changed) but the current behaviour of just displaying a nearly empty page containing 'Your like has been registered' in the top left corner doesn't seem very friendly. You then have to use the browser back button to go back to the discussion, where there's no indication that the like has had any effect unless you refresh the page.

Would it be better/possible to get pressing {LIKE} to do whatever it needs to do to the forum data to record the like, then refresh the page? You would see that the like has worked, with no need to press 'back' or to refresh the page.
Logged
matth1j
Full Member
***
Posts: 83


View Profile
« Reply #4 on: January 03, 2025, 07:12:59 »

Would it be better/possible to get pressing {LIKE} to do whatever it needs to do to the forum data to record the like, then refresh the page? You would see that the like has worked, with no need to press 'back' or to refresh the page.

Ha - the 'unlike' button seems (marginally) better, in that it opens a new window to display a blank page containing '*', and the discussion window is updated. Presumably the like/unlike behaviour should be similar, in terms of opening windows?
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 43029



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #5 on: January 03, 2025, 07:50:55 »

Regarding the {LIKE} button(?), I'm not sure what used to happen (or even whether this has changed) but the current behaviour of just displaying a nearly empty page containing 'Your like has been registered' in the top left corner doesn't seem very friendly. You then have to use the browser back button to go back to the discussion, where there's no indication that the like has had any effect unless you refresh the page.

Would it be better/possible to get pressing {LIKE} to do whatever it needs to do to the forum data to record the like, then refresh the page? You would see that the like has worked, with no need to press 'back' or to refresh the page.

There are - err - a couple of hidden issues here that make what looks like a straightforward fix into something that is far from straightforward.  There's a law or "unintended consequences" and I could easily introduce problems.   Current form (a bit irritating, but working without nasty side effects) needs to remain until I have a window of opportunity to work on fixing it.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
matth1j
Full Member
***
Posts: 83


View Profile
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2025, 09:12:41 »

Nope, still not receiving any email alerts.
Sorry  Sad Sad

Yep, I know.  We're sending them out but they're not being accepted.  Your email host is a fussy one and even before it gets to your email system it is almost certainly being refused.

I've never had any notifications, despite being subscribed to various Subjects I've posted in and the TransWilts Board. Have I got the same problem as GBM?

In my Profile / Notifications and Email, the top 3 settings are ticked, and the dropdown is set to 'Replies and moderation'.
Logged
Phantom
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 536



View Profile
« Reply #7 on: January 03, 2025, 10:45:09 »

I wasn't able to quote or reply to anything yesterday, but this seems to be resolved now
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 43029



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #8 on: January 03, 2025, 10:49:32 »

I wasn't able to quote or reply to anything yesterday, but this seems to be resolved now

yes - that was probably to do with this:

Second, the workhorse system has for some time had traps in there to row back if it gets silly numbers of requests from a single place. I have had to lift the definition of a "silly" number since nearly all requests are now coming from the receptionist server; earlier today it was screwed down a bit hard and members were being directed to the status server far too often.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
Kernow Otter
Transport Scholar
Sr. Member
******
Posts: 271



View Profile
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2025, 19:22:08 »

Just wanted to say a 'Thank you' for all the effort that has gone into this.

Cheers
Logged
paul7575
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 5335


View Profile
« Reply #10 on: Yesterday at 11:04:05 »

Just noticed on the ‘look and feel’ selections, there’s some sort of artefact following the selected options about:

Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 43029



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #11 on: Yesterday at 11:14:05 »

Just noticed on the ‘look and feel’ selections, there’s some sort of artefact following the selected options about:



Those are very scruffy highlights at present - as you click on an option the artefact moves to the thing you have selected
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest Board Member
Richard Fairhurst
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 1263


View Profile Email
« Reply #12 on: Yesterday at 13:47:01 »

Nope, still not receiving any email alerts.
Sorry  Sad Sad

Yep, I know.  We're sending them out but they're not being accepted.  Your email host is a fussy one and even before it gets to your email system it is almost certainly being refused.

I reluctantly gave up on the struggle recently and started using a third-party host to send transactional mails. I use Amazon's SES, which allegedly stands for "Simple Email Service" though nothing with AWS (Automatic Warning System) is ever simple. But it works and the emails get delivered, which means I no longer have to answer queries about "my registration email hasn't arrived, how do I log in". There are lots of alternatives which tend to be easier to set up, but at a higher per-email cost.

https://www.mail-tester.com is really good for diagnosing mail deliverability issues though not foolproof.

edit: AWS in this case isn't Automatic Warning System (prevents SPADs (Signal Passed At Danger) aka Signals Passed At Danger) but Amazon Web Services (prevents SPADs aka Server Panics And Dies).
« Last Edit: Yesterday at 15:49:58 by Richard Fairhurst » Logged
GBM
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 1676


View Profile Email
« Reply #13 on: Yesterday at 15:37:12 »

Currently still not receiving email notifications.
Just tried a bounce test for my internal mail, and that's working OK.

As matt1j says, I press LIKE. This takes me to a new page with 'like wot he said earlier', so have to press the back button to return to the current topic.
Logged

Personal opinion only.  Writings not representative of any union, collective, management or employer. (Think that absolves me...........)
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page