For a while now, the forums have had the default "down for maintenance" page show up when i try to access the forums via ipad. It is just the forums, everything else is fine
Forums down on iPad
Fri, 06/08/2012 - 13:16
Sun, 06/10/2012 - 22:01
#2
I had that problem on my desktop for some number of months... Before it decided to fix itself, I had to connect through a proxy to view the forums. :(
I tried DNS flushing, clearing cache and all that jazz. Nothing worked.
Sat, 06/09/2012 - 11:12
#3
I restarted my desktop and
I restarted my desktop and still get a "not found" error when connecting to the forums in Firefox. When I try to connect via google chrome on that same computer, I get the "website down for maintenance" page. And of course, forum access still works on a mobile device using the same wifi network.
Sun, 06/10/2012 - 20:00
#4
For "not found" error: Make
For "not found" error: Make sure the URL you used is correct. You may have specified an invalid node number.
For "website down for maintenance" page: Flush your cache. On PC browsers press Ctrl-F5 to force a reload.
Tue, 06/12/2012 - 09:36
#5
I used the URL from my
I used the URL from my browser history, forced a refresh, and even cleared some cache areas you may not have heard of. But thanks all the same.
Those steps and several computer restarts didn't help. However, the problem has continued to evolve slowly on its own. Now I can access every forum section on my desktop EXCEPT general discussion (which used to be my most frequently accessed area). Trying to access general discussion- by clicking the link on the forum main page- redirects me back to the forum main page.
Wed, 06/13/2012 - 04:04
#6
I thought the forum was down
I thought the forum was down after every daily reboot for a while... until I mentioned it to a friend during the laggy patch, that the normal forum's down except the testing server sub-forum. I was told the forum was already up.
Then I realized what happened - I visit the forums in office during lunch hour, and it's okay; when I return home, I would hit the maintenance page.
I *think* it's the forum sending off wrong data (I haven't inspected the HTTP data to tell for sure). To save bandwidth and time, your browser will ask the server about a resource's last updated date. If the server replied a date not newer than your browser's local cache, the copy in the local cache will be shown instead of fetching the page over the net again. In this case I suspect the SK forum was sending wrong dates.
And that's what happened to me - I flushed my cache in my home, and the forum is working again. Why the testing server forum worked is because I never visited it before, so there is no local cache to use.
But it's not only your browser that will maintain a cache to save bandwidth. Your internet service provider (ISP) will do it too, via a proxy server. So you keep seeing the maintenance page could be due to it being cached on your ISP's proxy servers.
Your browser can send a request to download a fresh copy, but the proxy server of your ISP may choose to ignore it all the same. Or in this case, the proxy server was fooled by a wrong date as well.
Wed, 06/13/2012 - 12:04
#7
ISP proxy cache wouldn't
ISP proxy cache wouldn't explain why two computers sharing the same wifi connection see different things.
Browser cache wouldn't explain why the problem evolves over time, showing slightly less incorrect pages every few days.
It's pretty weird. But at least my desktop is finally able to view general discussion again. It just takes a long time to get back to that. Honestly, I wish I knew why the forums went down for maintenance when updates occurred; the wiki doesn't.
I'm having the opposite problem: it works on a mobile device, but not on my desktop (both using the same wifi network). I tried restarting Firefox, shift-f5 refresh, and flushing the DNS cache on Mac os x via the command line to no avail... Hopefully the problem will vanish on its own once I restart the computer.