PW outages

[TomK]

Is anyone else having issues with PW being down intermittently? During the last couple of days, the site has timed out for me, and, on at least a couple of occasions, I get a SQL database error.

[HiloJulie]

I've seen this happen occasionally myself Tom, but just chalked it up to me!

[TomK]

Thanks. Good to know someone else sees the problem and not just me.

[randomq]

Probably just being hacked by China in preparation for the coming invasion. I should really finish coding my off-grid mesh backup so the Puna resistance can communicate...

[AaronM]

Unfortunately, I also see the problem and it is you.  Stop your bloody whinging!  

Given the amount of posts from you Tom, I'd say you have no problem at all accessing punaweb.

But sure, let's file a claim with tech support and also with the local billing office and see if we can't get a refund for all of your inconveniences.

Which reminds me, server space ain't free and neither is Rob's time so don't forget to put something in the donation box.

[terracore]

While not exactly "free" one can host web sites on a cheap Raspberry Pi. Getting the DNS to play nicely with a home broadband connection is a little a tricky but can be figured out with a search engine and trial and error. It can be done on a home computer too but here the Raspberry Pi will pay for itself because the electricity overhead is almost nothing.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Yes, I wasn't able to get pages to load occasionally over the last few days too.  Ghost in the machine?

[garymatt]

Today is Tuesday. I am pretty sure that Sunday or Monday this happened to me.
This is not ever (before) a problem for me with Punaweb, but occasionally other sites will do this without warning. I have so far found 4 major reasons this can happen:
1. Quirk of fate. Call it traffic overload, not necessarily to the site but to sites in the same route handling. That rarely lasts longer than a few seconds, unless there is equipment damage. You can sorta count excessive hits by intentional denial of service attacks as this.
2. Maybe this should be counted as part of  1. but the site itself might be down as in maintenance.
3. Problems with the browser being used. (Using a different browser proves that or at worst a reboot fixes it.)  Mozilla Firefox is my everyday browser of choice.
4. Use of a VPN where the site or route handling denies access. That surprisingly can start happening where it never did before.  My credit union did that for a while till I complained every day that they were reducing the security of banking transactions by denying VPN use. SAFEWAY is an excellent example of a domain name that a year plus ago starting refusing access to my VPN connection. I think Amazon Prime video is consistent about that too. I only can connect now by turning the VPN off.
By the way, if anyone can get consistent access to Amazon video and Safeway while using a VPN, I would really appreciate knowing what brand you are using.

[TomK]

I use NordVPN when traveling and OpenVPN for work. I've not experienced problems with NordVPN but OpenVPN has been troublesome.