Hi, just to follow up on my comments in the TLA account suspension thread with my experience between 3 and 4 GMT. Very slow response times, one connection to server reset, and one of these:



Hope that helps. Intermittent problems are the most difficult to debug.

Edit: ...and I donated Maybe that database server needs more RAM...

Ok, thanks. That's great information - very helpful.

That error message occurs when the connection to the database drops out, usually associated with server maintenance being done by the hosting company (none that I was aware of), but occasionally caused by heavy workloads on the server itself - most likely the cause when you take into account the slowness around the same time.

If it's caused by heavy demand on the server, then this is either due to a massive amount of users here (which just doesn't happen), or by a massive amount of users on another website we share the server with. And that's something I can't control - I can complain about it again, but it hasn't had any effect in the past.

Going to a VPS-style would eliminate this kind of problem though.

And a big thank you for the donation - very much appreciated.

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Dagster

That's the same error message I've had intermitantly the last week or so.

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Studio gaarew; Gaming armies, by gamers, for gamers.

Damn, that's the kind of error that going to a VPS would fix.

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Dagster

I've been experiencing some really bad loading times too latelly this week.

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Tell me... Do you bleed?
You will!
Chewy, we're home!

Alan, just an FYI, I don't seem to be getting any errors when I use my base unit, which is connected directly to the modem, only when I use her laptop which is wireless. I don't know if it makes any difference, but the pages are loading pretty quick just now.

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Studio gaarew; Gaming armies, by gamers, for gamers.

My loading times are normal here right now. Earlier in the week they were fairly bad...

Warning: main(./language/lang_/lang_one-ring.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /hermes/web05b/b951/pow.gbain/htdocs/phpBB2/language/lang_english/lang_main.php on line 1036

Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening './language/lang_/lang_one-ring.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php-4.4.7/lib/php') in /hermes/web05b/b951/pow.gbain/htdocs/phpBB2/language/lang_english/lang_main.php on line 1036
phpBB : Critical Error

Could not connect to the database

I'm having these fairly often. There are random spills of not getting on the site for 10 minutes, and after that it's fine again.

Yes I've been experiencing the same error of and on today say about 12:40 to now 13:15 EST. I hit this error about five or six times during this time period. I hope the time frame proves useful.

Make that 7 times. I happened again while I was sending the above post.

This is happening more and more last few days / hours, even when posting in the chatbox.
I have it at work (IE) and at home (FF)


Whats needed to change over to such a VPS Alan?
I wouldn't mind donating a little more if it would help us getting rid of it...

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CMON-gallery

It's been filling my chatbox every few minutes. How can I carry on conversation????

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"Mustard the Rohirrim! We've got to ketchup with those Uruk-fries before they capture the Hornburger!"

I keep having these when I am trying to post, get onto the one ring index, and when i try to chat in the box to the left...

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[url=http://one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&p=298502#p298502]Corsair's WIP Thread - 03 Dec 12 Update[/url]

Patience is the key (that's why I always loose my keys)

I'm sure it bothers Alan just as much as it bothers us, so I'm sure he'll find out what can be done. Untill then, we just need to live with it (and find out who's sharing this server with us to hack them down).

So let's all have a little faith in our daddy-Daggy and bite our tongue when it happens again...

jufsft make sfure you dfon'tf bfite tfoo harfd like I jfusft didf...

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CMON-gallery

I've reported this to the hosting company and they are 'monitoring' it - whatever that means. I had the same problem earlier tonight, so yeah, it's worldwide.

As for migrating to a VPS - I've been putting the decision off until after the dice sale is finished and the OR Awards are out of the way. That way I'll get a better idea of how much we've got left in the bank.

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Dagster

I think I know why we get that "Could not connect to the database" error. We're hitting the database more than 50,000 times per hour apparently, and when that limit is reached, our access is blocked until the hour is past and the clock starts again.

I am redesigning the site a bit at the moment to try to improve performance. I'll try to reduce the number of hits to the database itself at the same time as simplifying the code.

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Dagster

Ok, I've just implemented something that may solve that problem - at least for a while.

50,000 database queries per hour may seem like a lot, but in reality it's not actually. It works out to about 830 queries per minute, which, if we have 40 users online, is a little over 20 queries per person per minute. or 1 query every three seconds. When forming a page in the forum for example, there are somewhere around 10 database queries being performed, so we can quite easily hit that limit - and, as we get more popular, we will hit it more and more often.

For the technically minded, here's my solution - I have set up three valid database user accounts and set the code to randomise the access between the three. So we now should spread our database access queries across the three users, thereby increasing the total number of queries to approaching 150,000 per hour.

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Dagster

Ah, excellent. I've been getting that message a fair bit as well, mostly from my phone though. The desktop seems ok.

On a semi-related note, must one have a Paypal account or credit card to donate?

A PayPal account is probably the best way to donate to the site, but if you don't have one or don't trust internet payments or whatever, don't feel like you have to donate - it's purely a voluntary thing and, while it certainly does help us out, Brian and I have the site costs covered between us.

If you feel like you would really like to donate, but can't do PayPal for whatever reason, perhaps you could contribute to the prize pool with some unwanted minis or hobby supplies or whatever. Just a thought.

And of course the GoogleAds generate a few cents with each click.

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Dagster

oops, my bad. Looks like I broke the home page. I'll fix it straight away.

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Dagster