Testing?

[JayhawkCO]

Just seems weird only one post in the past 11 hours. Just testing to see if something is up with the forum.

Edit - Apparently just a slow day.

[Sani]

I've been getting timeouts throughout the day. I'm able to access one or two pages, but then when I try to reach an actual thread, it seems to time out. It's been like this since I first tried to browse the forums around 2pm CT.

[Max Rockatansky]

Apparently the "like" feature is back.

[freebrickproductions]

I've been getting timeouts throughout the day. I'm able to access one or two pages, but then when I try to reach an actual thread, it seems to time out. It's been like this since I first tried to browse the forums around 2pm CT.

Same here. Apparently Alex finally got something set-up to completely block any bots from attempting to access AARoads, from what he posted on Facebook, so I'm assuming it must've briefly caused issues with the server being slow until it got leveled back off.

[Roadgeekteen]

I was able to open AAroads but was unable to open any more threads.

[ZLoth]

Looks like we have some major downtime yesterday. I've been monitoring both the main website and the forums via Uptime Kuma, and got long periods of time where the message was "connect ECONNREFUSED".

[GaryV]

And I thought it was just bad hotel wifi that was timing me out. Working now, obviously.

[vdeane]

I've been getting timeouts throughout the day. I'm able to access one or two pages, but then when I try to reach an actual thread, it seems to time out. It's been like this since I first tried to browse the forums around 2pm CT.

Same here. Apparently Alex finally got something set-up to completely block any bots from attempting to access AARoads, from what he posted on Facebook, so I'm assuming it must've briefly caused issues with the server being slow until it got leveled back off.

He set something up that was supposed to figure out who's a bot and block them.  Unfortunately, it started blocking everyone, which is why one or two pages would work and then nothing would.  I figured it out when my phone could load the index page while my laptop could load nothing.  Got around it briefly by using Tor, then Alex turned it off (and just in time too, as by that point, it had figured out I was using Tor and blocked me even when I was changing my Tor nodes).

[Alex]

Since I uograded the Forum yesterday and the PHP for the server, I reenabled the Like feature. Before it was routinely generating PHP errors.

The time outs and down time yesterday were the result of me trying to leverage Fail2Ban (in Plesk) to catch the IP addresses of bots doing bursts of get requests to the Forum. Unfortunately it appears that the rules added were far too reaching, likely capturing IP addresses each time a post was accessed or page loaded. I deactivated the Fail2Ban jail after Valerie let me know of the problems.

[Rothman]

Since I uograded the Forum yesterday and the PHP for the server, I reenabled the Like feature. Before it was routinely generating PHP errors.

The time outs and down time yesterday were the result of me trying to leverage Fail2Ban (in Plesk) to catch the IP addresses of bots doing bursts of get requests to the Forum. Unfortunately it appears that the rules added were far too reaching, likely capturing IP addresses each time a post was accessed or page loaded. I deactivated the Fail2Ban jail after Valerie let me know of the problems.

Thank you again for all that you do for us!

[ZLoth]

Since I uograded the Forum yesterday and the PHP for the server, I reenabled the Like feature. Before it was routinely generating PHP errors.

Thank you Alex.

[vdeane]

Since I uograded the Forum yesterday and the PHP for the server, I reenabled the Like feature. Before it was routinely generating PHP errors.

The time outs and down time yesterday were the result of me trying to leverage Fail2Ban (in Plesk) to catch the IP addresses of bots doing bursts of get requests to the Forum. Unfortunately it appears that the rules added were far too reaching, likely capturing IP addresses each time a post was accessed or page loaded. I deactivated the Fail2Ban jail after Valerie let me know of the problems.

When I was using Tor to get around Fail2Ban, I noticed that the pages would get bogged down in image loading. I wonder if all the images that get downloaded on each page for the interface generates a small flood of requests with each page load.

[Scott5114]

Since I uograded the Forum yesterday and the PHP for the server, I reenabled the Like feature. Before it was routinely generating PHP errors.

The time outs and down time yesterday were the result of me trying to leverage Fail2Ban (in Plesk) to catch the IP addresses of bots doing bursts of get requests to the Forum. Unfortunately it appears that the rules added were far too reaching, likely capturing IP addresses each time a post was accessed or page loaded. I deactivated the Fail2Ban jail after Valerie let me know of the problems.

When I was using Tor to get around Fail2Ban, I noticed that the pages would get bogged down in image loading. I wonder if all the images that get downloaded on each page for the interface generates a small flood of requests with each page load.

I think that might have to do with the Tor system and you being used to the fact that regular browsers normally cache images. I've never used Tor, though, so I don't know if it caches anything or not.

[freebrickproductions]

Since I uograded the Forum yesterday and the PHP for the server, I reenabled the Like feature. Before it was routinely generating PHP errors.

The time outs and down time yesterday were the result of me trying to leverage Fail2Ban (in Plesk) to catch the IP addresses of bots doing bursts of get requests to the Forum. Unfortunately it appears that the rules added were far too reaching, likely capturing IP addresses each time a post was accessed or page loaded. I deactivated the Fail2Ban jail after Valerie let me know of the problems.

When I was using Tor to get around Fail2Ban, I noticed that the pages would get bogged down in image loading. I wonder if all the images that get downloaded on each page for the interface generates a small flood of requests with each page load.

I think that might have to do with the Tor system and you being used to the fact that regular browsers normally cache images. I've never used Tor, though, so I don't know if it caches anything or not.

IIRC, Tor doesn't save any kind of browser history (based on personal experience messing around with it some in high school), so it probably doesn't save caches either.
That being said, I noticed that even using standard, non-incognito Chrome still struggled to load images at the time.

[jakeroot]

Regarding the recent updates: I've not been able to access the forum without enabling my VPN. When I disable it, I get a "can't reach" / "refused to connect" message on Edge. My connection location doesn't seem to matter.

Before the down-time a few days ago, this wasn't the case. But, I continued getting the same error above until I tried accessing the forum through my VPN, so when that down-time started and ended, relative to when I started having issues, and relative to when I "solved" the problem by enabling my VPN, is unclear.

By chance, is anyone else here using a VPN? I ask because the first post in this thread is about how few posts there are, but that might be because others are having the same issue I am, and they may think the forum is still down for maintenance.

[freebrickproductions]

By chance, is anyone else here using a VPN? I ask because the first post in this thread is about how few posts there are, but that might be because others are having the same issue I am, and they may think the forum is still down for maintenance.

I ain't.

[Scott5114]

Regarding the recent updates: I've not been able to access the forum without enabling my VPN. When I disable it, I get a "can't reach" / "refused to connect" message on Edge. My connection location doesn't seem to matter.

Before the down-time a few days ago, this wasn't the case. But, I continued getting the same error above until I tried accessing the forum through my VPN, so when that down-time started and ended, relative to when I started having issues, and relative to when I "solved" the problem by enabling my VPN, is unclear.

By chance, is anyone else here using a VPN? I ask because the first post in this thread is about how few posts there are, but that might be because others are having the same issue I am, and they may think the forum is still down for maintenance.

The recent downtime was due to Alex working on a way to block all of the bots (and I think part of that was because his first attempt was configured too aggressively). If you're still getting blocked on your VPN, I imagine that means that your VPN is being detected as being a bot.

[hotdogPi]

The recent downtime was due to Alex working on a way to block all of the bots (and I think part of that was because his first attempt was configured too aggressively). If you're still getting blocked on your VPN, I imagine that means that your VPN is being detected as being a bot.

jakeroot is blocked except on a VPN.

[Scott5114]

The recent downtime was due to Alex working on a way to block all of the bots (and I think part of that was because his first attempt was configured too aggressively). If you're still getting blocked on your VPN, I imagine that means that your VPN is being detected as being a bot.

jakeroot is blocked except on a VPN.

Then his not-VPN might be detected as a bot and is VPN is being detected as a notbot.

[jakeroot]

The recent downtime was due to Alex working on a way to block all of the bots (and I think part of that was because his first attempt was configured too aggressively). If you're still getting blocked on your VPN, I imagine that means that your VPN is being detected as being a bot.

jakeroot is blocked except on a VPN.

Then his not-VPN might be detected as a bot and is VPN is being detected as a notbot.

Well, if they blocked me for being a bot, which I'm obviously not (and not using any weird ISP — just Xfinity), how many others were also incorrectly blocked?

I'm sending this from my phone (AT&T) and it works fine, so it's definitely something local to my machine.

[jakeroot]

The recent downtime was due to Alex working on a way to block all of the bots (and I think part of that was because his first attempt was configured too aggressively). If you're still getting blocked on your VPN, I imagine that means that your VPN is being detected as being a bot.

jakeroot is blocked except on a VPN.

Then his not-VPN might be detected as a bot and is VPN is being detected as a notbot.

Well, if they blocked me for being a bot, which I'm obviously not (and not using any weird ISP — just Xfinity), how many others were also incorrectly blocked?

I'm sending this from my phone (AT&T) and it works fine, so it's definitely something local to my machine.

Update: it's not my machine, it's my ISP that is blocked. Anything on my Wi-Fi not connected to a VPN will not connect to AARoads.

I understand there is a lot going on with updating this site, but I hope whoever is in charge of bot control is aware that some legitimate users might be getting blocked.

EDIT (few hours later): working now without a VPN. Not sure who or what to thank.