Recent Forum Issues - August 2021

[jNizM]

You need to wait till the SSL certificate cache is cleared

[joedf]

Yup, and I have feeling it will stay laggy because of requests with outdated certs will cause timeouts. So imo it's likely we'll experience slowdowns on and off until everyone has updated certs...

[RussF]

Does this mean it will be laggy for everyone regardless of their own certificate's validity? My ahk cert shows valid until 12/31/21, but I still timeout 3 out of 4 attempts to read, post, etc.

Russ

[joedf]

I unsure about this, just a theory of mine. I think tank has a better idea of whats going on.

[tank]

firefox executes TLS handshakes independent of host OS. no othee browserdoes this

[tank]

yes there have been some other issues over the past couple of all unrelated there was network issues in our posting provider resolved and there were a lot of configuration and server updates

[whynotregister]

Is it correct that the recent ddos ​​has slowed the loading of the site?

[tank]

no we have been struck with issues with certificat authorities like many other major sites

[kczx3]

I don't claim to be a certificate expert but why is a simple expired cert causing timeouts exactly? Usually that wouldn't impact response times. Instead the users browser would just alert the user that the site is claiming to be secure, but isn't. What is it about this scenario that is causing timeouts?

[safetycar]

I think the best summary is in this comment:

what i do know is when a request is made the connect occurs and the cert handshake seems problematic. keeping the http connection open. this leads to have to many active connections open and then more delays and eventually the equiv of a ddos.

(notice that it doesn't say an actual attack, just the equivalent result)

[tank]

I don't claim to be a certificate expert but why is a simple expired cert causing timeouts exactly? Usually that wouldn't impact response times. Instead the users browser would just alert the user that the site is claiming to be secure, but isn't. What is it about this scenario that is causing timeouts?

it isnt expired. the handshake with the cert authority lags n times out. causing communication with our actual server to never occur

[MrDodel]

I seem on only have issues around 3pm onwards UK time, in the morning, it's fine.

[TheArkive]

Yup, and I have feeling it will stay laggy because of requests with outdated certs will cause timeouts. So imo it's likely we'll experience slowdowns on and off until everyone has updated certs...

Is there a way to force getting the new certificates? Or maybe clear the SSL cache like @jnizm suggested

EDIT: I'm using Firefox mostly

[joedf]

I'm not sure this is possible, I think we have to wait it out or everyone has to do it manually....

[sirksel]

Seems like everything is working super snappy again. Was there a configuration change or did it turn out to be one of the cloud hosting platforms' broader outages?

[kczx3]

Yeah no kidding. Seems very quick to me now… although that may just be due to the lengthy time spent moving at a snail’s pace ha

[sirksel]

And as of this morning, it's now back to slow-mo again. Not the slowest it's ever been, however. Every forum link for me is taking on average 6 seconds to resolve, and about 40% of them end up timing out.

[kczx3]

6 seconds is quicker than what I'm seeing.

[RussF]

I have found, over the past few days, that from 06:00, when I get to work, to about 08:00 eastern time, it is completely responsive. After that, it's hit-or-miss. I've had some refreshes take 30-60 seconds while others are instantaneous. Restarting browser or rebooting make no difference. Thought I'd mention this in case it helps in troubleshooting.

Russ

[gregster]

I think it's mainly responsive in the hours when there is typically the least traffic on our forums (late evening US eastcoast = middle european night and early morning)