Celestia Forums

AGH!!

Several times over the past few days, I've entered a post, submitted it, and come up with an 'invalid session' error (all on the Physics/Astronomy forum, IIRC). And when I hit the back button, the post I entered has all gone and I have to retype it again

This is really frustrating, to say the least. I've tried logging out and back in again and the problem hasn't gone away. I've not changed my web browser either (IE 6.0).

Is anyone else having this problem or is it just me? Is there a solution?

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:Is anyone else having this problem or is it just me? Is there a solution?

All the time. Nowadays, before I make a post I highlight and copy my text, so that I'm able to paste it back into the message window when things go pear-shaped.

Grant

I've not noticed it before, but then I didn't post for a few days before I started that nearstar/co-ordinate thing. It does seem to be taking quite a long time for the post to be submitted though - could I be getting timed out somehow? (I'm not getting logged out though).

I've only ever seen it once or twice... Last time was yesterday, but before that it must have been several months ago at least.

I have found that if you have a long post to create, it is best to do it in a text editor off-line. Then, copy and paste it into the forum reply box.

Otherwise, to keep a session from timing out (Invalid Session error), I highlight and copy all the text in the reply box every couple of minutes and press the Preview button. Then, continue to edit. If something goes wrong, all the text I already entered is on the clipboard so all I have to do is a paste.

-Don G.

Stupid irony...

Just got 4 of those messages in a row, and then my browser crashed...

Stupid bugs... Stupid windows...

Just so's you know...

It's never happened to me. Perhaps because I'm on cable

Take care, Bob

Bob Hegwood wrote:Just so's you know...

It's never happened to me. Perhaps because I'm on cable

So am I, so there goes that theory...

I have also notice that I'd click 'submit' on a post, and it'd hang there for ages. Then I'd give up, open another window, get to the Celestia forums and I'd be able to look at the post I was trying to submit because it had already been posted - but the other window is still hung, claiming that it's still trying to access the site.

EDIT: The funny thing is, that happened with this post .

Oh Evil One,

1. It could be a problem in your browser

What browser are you using?
I have no problems when using Internet Explorer v6 sp1.

2. It could be a problem in your nameservices.

What does nslookup show for the three system names
http://www.shatters.net (3 part name)
ennui.shatters.net (3 part name)
shatters.net (2 part name)

All three have to resolve in order for everything to work.

selden wrote:Oh Evil One,

1. It could be a problem in your browser

What browser are you using?
I have no problems when using Internet Explorer v6 sp1.

That's what I had. I recently changed it back to IE 5, but it does this on both versions.

http://www.shatters.net : 216.231.48.101
ennui.shatters.net: Aha. Can't find ennui.shatters.net: Non-existent domain
shatters.net: 216.231.48.101

Evidently I can't find ennui... anyone else have that problem?

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:Evidently I can't find ennui... anyone else have that problem?

Dr. Ganynede,

Don't have that problem either. Then again, I ain't trying to connect to "ennui.shatters.net" either. When Chris made the name change, I simply started using the Domain Number instead. i.e. - 216.231.48.101

That should fix your problem I think.

Take care, Bob

If the problem is actually caused by ennui not being defined, you can do what I did: add the following line to your computer's local hosts file.



There are spaces (not commas) between the names and the dotted address and the names must all be on one line.

The hosts file on your local computer usually is the first place the TCP/IP networking software looks for system name translations into IP addresses.

Under XP, the local hosts file is
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

It's a plain-text file, but it must not be renamed to have a .txt extension. The filename must be only "hosts".

The name ennui.shatters.net should have been retired . . . Any idea why it's still causing problems? I can't find an instance of it in any of my server's configuration files.

--Chris

Chris,

I have to admit that I don't know if ennui is causing any of the problems. I just put all three in my local hosts table to make sure. Dr.Evil should mention if adding it helps his problems.

selden wrote:Chris,

I have to admit that I don't know if ennui is causing any of the problems. I just put all three in my local hosts table to make sure. Dr.Evil should mention if adding it helps his problems.

Adding that line to the hosts file didn't seem to change anything at all here.
Could it be a problem at my ISP? Maybe they think ennui is still there?

Actually, this is even more annoying/weird than I thought now. When I post a message, it doesn't seem to go through to the "taking you to your message" page at all.

However, if I close the hung message window and go to the forum I just posted from, the message has actually made it through to the board! If I want to I can then edit the message, and then when I submit the changes, that goes through without a problem.

So it doesn't seem to like me posting the first version of a message, for some reason....

It's only started doing this to me in the past few days - possibly since Chris changed the server?

Since the switch, I too have noticed that submitting a reply or new post takes anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds. Submitting an edited post is instantaneous, just like calling up an existing post (most of the time). I also continue to see the "too many connections" SQL error page every once in a while.

Dr. G, it sounds like something, somewhere, is "timing out" your session since it's taking the server so long to reply to the Submit command. I'm not sure where to look though, sorry.

-Don G.

Quick update - the problem appears to have disappeared now - I'm guessing that either Chris fixed something or my ISP did. I am now able to post normally, yay!