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Global PokédeX Plus Forums _ Bug and Errors _ Near constant 504's and connection resets
Posted by: Burichu Oct 21 2014, 02:25 PM
Over the past two days, it seems that the site has been going through a LOT of 504 Gateway Time-out and "The connection has reset" errors, making it almost impossible to do anything on either the site or here on the forum.
I'm not sure if there's a specific reason behind it but it's incredibly frustrating because it's happening multiple times per minute, so pretty frequently, rendering my ability to do simple things like just feeding/warming Pokemon and eggs in my party extremely difficult.
There are moments when it's clear for a good minute or two, then it's back to erroring.
Posted by: hundefrau Oct 21 2014, 02:41 PM
I'm experiencing the same problems. A lot of errors and lost connections (to the site)...
Posted by: Vande Oct 21 2014, 02:44 PM
It's been at it for nearly 2 hours now.
Posted by: Mistress Eevee Oct 21 2014, 02:44 PM
I'm not sure if there's a specific reason behind it but it's incredibly frustrating because it's happening multiple times per minute, so pretty frequently, rendering my ability to do simple things like just feeding/warming Pokemon and eggs in my party extremely difficult.
There are moments when it's clear for a good minute or two, then it's back to erroring.
Oh my gosh, I was just about to post something on this when I saw your post.
I'm here a lot, and everything was fine for me until today, now I'm just getting errors like crazy. I'm on the most current version of Google Chrome, never had a major problem with errors like this before.
The ones I'm getting are a 504 Gateway timeout error, a No data received error, that reads; Unable to load the webpage because the server sent no data. with some text underneath the says "Error code: ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE". And I'll also have the page load very funny sometimes when it does load, with the page really out of format.
I'm trying to do the Scavenger Hunt and Poke Hunt, and it's pretty much impossible right now to do ether. I'm so glad to know it isn't just me. I was starting to think something was screwy on my browser, lol. x.x
Posted by: Lithium Jay Oct 21 2014, 03:08 PM
Yeah, I'm also hitting it bad. Yesterday it was mostly slowdown, today I've been lucky to even access anything - and I usually hit a disconnect shortly after.
Clearly something's up with the server, I've run external ping tests through sites like IIDRN and they're showing server down messages frequently.
Posted by: Mistress Eevee Oct 21 2014, 03:26 PM
Seems like it might be getting better, I'm on to clicking and so far it's alright.
Posted by: 7eeveelutions Oct 21 2014, 10:50 PM
This isn't a new problem; it's been happening off and on for the past few months. It's better now than it used to be, earlier this summer the server had lots of issues.
I think part of it may have something to do with an incident this summer where people were redirected to an adult website. I'm not sure if they ever figured out why, but it could have been malware installed on the server using an ad, and that could have had lasting effects on server stability. I think many of these 504's have been happening since then, or at least they've been more common. I rarely had any problems before then, at least.
There was also an issue where server updates caused the site backup to not function properly, so its possible an update may have compromised stability too.
But I'm not a mod, so I don't know what the actual problem is. It could be something as simple as too many connections shutting the server down for short time periods. I had a problem a few days ago where the "Loaded in ____ms" thing at the very bottom of the page said 127,000ms.
Posted by: The Majestic Mr L Oct 21 2014, 11:12 PM
I think part of it may have something to do with an incident this summer where people were redirected to an adult website. I'm not sure if they ever figured out why, but it could have been malware installed on the server using an ad, and that could have had lasting effects on server stability. I think many of these 504's have been happening since then, or at least they've been more common. I rarely had any problems before then, at least.
There was also an issue where server updates caused the site backup to not function properly, so its possible an update may have compromised stability too.
But I'm not a mod, so I don't know what the actual problem is. It could be something as simple as too many connections shutting the server down for short time periods. I had a problem a few days ago where the "Loaded in ____ms" thing at the very bottom of the page said 127,000ms.
Yeah, yeah, the adult site thing.
I hope that isn't coming back.
I haven't had a whole lot of 504's, really only two or three each since I got home from school today at 3:00.
Could it also be that they're installing something new, like the SWSH reward? I'm not sure if that would have anything to do with it, but it's an idea, I guess.
Posted by: 7eeveelutions Oct 22 2014, 12:20 PM
It's possible, but coding in new features for the website is (usually) different from installing things on the server, so I doubt the coding in of a new feature like the SWSH reward would have much of an effect on the server itself.
Posted by: Burichu Oct 22 2014, 03:24 PM
Aaaand they're back again today. Hopefully this can be figured out and fixed.
*edit*
The site went down completely for a couple minutes there. Would really like to know what's going on.
Posted by: The Majestic Mr L Oct 22 2014, 03:43 PM
Yep, they sure are. It took me forever just to get to this to post about them.
Posted by: AdmiralPerry Oct 22 2014, 04:04 PM
Same issue. My poor egg hasn't gained any maturity either and I need it to so I can use it for the scavenger hunt! Really hope it's not that malware issue again, just some server hiccups.
Posted by: Hiraelle Oct 22 2014, 04:06 PM
I think it has to do with the number of users online.
I mean, all day it's around 150~250, but this past hour there has been a lot of 504's, and the number of users online kept increasing (300, 400, max I've seen is 565). Now it's starting to go down again and there is less lag.
I think I noticed the same thing every time there was lag.
But I don't know why there are a lot of people online at this hour, all at once, and why it decreases rapidly too.
Posted by: AdmiralPerry Oct 22 2014, 04:10 PM
Bah, it won't let me quote for some reason. But yes, I noticed that too and thought it kind of odd. Is there really that many people online all of a sudden? Or is it something else? Very strange...
Posted by: Oblivia Oct 22 2014, 04:14 PM
I thought I was the only one!
I couldn't even get on the site entirely a few minutes ago. I hope it doesn't happen again the second I pick a great egg from the shelter.
Posted by: Hiraelle Oct 22 2014, 04:25 PM
Yeah I find that odd too.
In one hour the number of users did this : 250 online -> 550 online -> 250 online (roughly). Is that not weird ?
Posted by: Lithium Jay Oct 22 2014, 06:17 PM
I've only recently come back to GPX, so I'm clueless as to any recent happenings with the servers.
It does seem to spike the worst in the US afternoon hours, game is nearly unplayable at times - and then it calms down later on. I'd suspect it was more an issue with their host than anything. No idea why users online are spiking though.
Posted by: Soren Pixels Oct 22 2014, 07:14 PM
I hope it's not something like a bot that makes like 250 accounts all at once which exist for a few minutes before being deleted. It's doubtful, but who knows.
Posted by: Kamizard Oct 22 2014, 08:56 PM
It was doing so well for the past few hours. And here we go again...
Posted by: Cajun Oct 22 2014, 09:38 PM
Happening every second or third page now :/
Seems to be tied to the number of people online. Slows down around 300 and goes haywire by 350.
Posted by: Assassynn Oct 22 2014, 09:47 PM
Users has jumped from around 320~ to 460~, and guests from 100~ to 250~ in the last five minutes, what the hell's going on?
Posted by: Walking On Sunshine Oct 22 2014, 10:09 PM
I think the Users Online going up has to do with the site going down. It would sometimes do that after the backup, and once it gets back online, a bunch of inactive users are suddenly "on" for a few minutes.
Posted by: 7eeveelutions Oct 22 2014, 10:53 PM
I'm beginning to wonder if the server lag is related to some kind of Denial of Service attack, considering how much the Users Online count goes up when the server goes down. The problem with the theory is that this isn't happening continuously but rather every few days...... and I don't see why someone would attack for only an hour or two every few days :/
It would really be great if the admins or at least a mod would say something about this.
Posted by: AdmiralPerry Oct 22 2014, 11:03 PM
It would really be great if the admins or at least a mod would say something about this.
I had the same thought earlier, actually. Though I don't know a lot about DDoS attacks, so... Also been having problems with loading my Pokedex tonight. Usually a few refreshes work, but now I can't get it to load at all.
Also seconding the wish for some clarification on what's going on. I'm sure the staff team is on it--they're pretty good about these kinds of things. Just like to know what's happening.
Posted by: Kamizard Oct 22 2014, 11:07 PM
And after the reset happened, the site went back to normal. Weird...
Posted by: Hannawolf Oct 22 2014, 11:09 PM
I came here looking for some answers. I had had a few problems the past couple days, but mostly didn't think anything about it because I usually was mobile for a few minutes. But I just tried to sit and do click backs to level a Scavenger Hunt Pokemon through the Pokewalker, and between 504s and errors when I went to the Berry Feeder on mobile... I think the Pokemon's like level 5. I usually could have gotten it done.
EDIT: The error part, not the site back up part. That is weird, though.
Posted by: 7eeveelutions Oct 22 2014, 11:13 PM
It would really be great if the admins or at least a mod would say something about this.
I had the same thought earlier, actually. Though I don't know a lot about DDoS attacks, so... Also been having problems with loading my Pokedex tonight. Usually a few refreshes work, but now I can't get it to load at all.
Also seconding the wish for some clarification on what's going on. I'm sure the staff team is on it--they're pretty good about these kinds of things. Just like to know what's happening.
I'm by no means an expert, but there was that incident with the malware this summer redirecting everyone to adult websites, and I would bet that could have done something that has to do with a DDoS attack (opening a backdoor or something, though I don't know if a DDos really needs a backdoor). If it is indeed an attack, I don't think there's much the staff can do about it since it originates from outside the server.
I was having Pokedex problems earlier too, couldn't get it to work either. Probably not a related problem though.
Posted by: Cajun Oct 22 2014, 11:37 PM
DDoS is effectively thousands of people using the site at once. It doesn't need any sort of backdoor, though it might affect the guests online stat.
Bit of a sidenote, but anyone know why there's always a hundred or so guests online? People logged out but lurking?
Posted by: The Majestic Mr L Oct 23 2014, 04:29 PM
Weird, a favorite YouTuber of mine had a sudden DDoS attack during his Minecraft stream a day or so ago. I seriously doubt the two are related, but I have no clue as to how DDoS attacks work.
Yes, I'm inclined to agree. It'd help if they'd at least tell us they're looking into it.
Right now I'm not getting any lag, but my GPX+ did turn into the white page again...
Posted by: Burichu Oct 23 2014, 09:10 PM
I don't think it's a DDoS attack. FA just went through one for three days straight and it basically rendered their server useless because no one was able to connect, thus the site was down that entire time.
I'm more willing to bet someone (or multiple someones) is being naughty and using a bot or something. It just strikes me as very odd that the times when the server hiccups have been around the same times every day.
Posted by: 7eeveelutions Oct 23 2014, 11:19 PM
Not necessarily. It just requires enough users to overload a server. For a low-end server that only sees a couple hundred connections at once, doubling the number of connections might be enough to cause problems.
Of course, GPX and GTS used to have far more people connecting than they do now and I doubt the admins downgraded their servers since those times, so that alone shouldn't be enough to prevent connections.
I'm honestly not sure what to think, partly since the staff has been so quiet about it.
Posted by: Cajun Oct 24 2014, 12:18 AM
There also wasn't a Berry Feeder then. 300 pings a minute wasn't exactly doable when you clicked eggs one at a time. Perhaps the same server's just eating 10x the traffic from 1/5th the crowd. Double the crowd and it collapses.
Posted by: Hiraelle Nov 4 2014, 08:07 PM
Aaaaaand it's horrible today. Any news ?
Posted by: Doom Hunter Nov 5 2014, 12:23 AM
Ok, it's back AGAIN. Time to get this across to the admins if not done already....
Posted by: Kamizard Nov 5 2014, 12:32 AM
I don't think I've ever seen it lag like this at this time of night before. Worth noting that there are ~500 users and ~300 guests online at this point, which is also much higher than usual for this time.
Posted by: khan noonien singh Nov 5 2014, 12:34 AM
i had the same thing happen yesterday as well as in the wee hours of this morning, CST. often when this happens, it takes over an hour for the site to become relatively usable, but really laggy and still get a white page every now and then. i've also noticed that before the 504 and 502 errors begin, i find a lot of pop-up errors in-site that i have to refresh to get rid of. pages will lag a few seconds each click, then BAM, nothing. site unusable.
I think it would help to invest in adding another server to take care of the excess data for the sudden high traffic during peak hours, like after school (typically 3:00-4:00pm using North American timezones), and after work (5-6pm).
Posted by: Kamizard Nov 5 2014, 12:40 AM
Yeah, it went on for about three hours earlier this afternoon. Then it let up, but the site was still fairly laggy on my end (taking at least 5 seconds to load each page, which is annoying when trying to feed Pokemon) for the rest of the night. Around reset, it worked fine again. And now we're back to this...
This is roughly the same amount of traffic the site gets during SWSH if I'm not mistaken, so I'm not sure if it's a traffic overload or what. Unless it's a variable server and hasn't been upgraded to handle these random traffic spikes? Assuming, of course, it's not some kind of attack or someone using a naughty bot. I'm no expert on server stuff.
Posted by: Doom Hunter Nov 5 2014, 01:10 AM
Actually, this is MUCH worse than usual, even for SWSH traffic, and if it ever got that high we'd still be operating normally. There is something very wrong at work here...someone hacking GPX perhaps....
Posted by: Kamizard Nov 5 2014, 01:22 AM
It could be some kind of caching issue (if I recall correctly because again I'm no expert on this stuff so I don't even know what a caching problem really is). I help out on a site and we had that problem. We treated it as a DDOS attack for a couple of weeks before realizing it was actually a plugin or some code that didn't want to work with the site. Basically any time a blog was posted and people visited the site to read it all at once, the site would generate a bunch of visitors based on all the connections. It added the new connections on top of old ones and flooded the site, taking it down completely within minutes. I'm not sure if that's what's happening here (probably isn't), but you never know.
Posted by: Mamanator Nov 5 2014, 12:51 PM
Today, 11/5/14, I'm having this same issue and it's effecting my timed Poke Hunt requirement. I'm just now trying to evolve my entry but it keeps coming up with "There was an error; please try again later." What concerns me is that, if I run out of time to evolve this Pokemon entry it will penalize my chances of placement in the Poke Hunt.
Any suggestions? 
Posted by: Big Bidoof Nov 5 2014, 01:25 PM
I'm not sure how this never surfaced sooner, but a pretty commonly-used page had a bit of a bottleneck that slowed the entire site down. I've corrected this, so there shouldn't be any issue now, yup yup.
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