Problem with Grace Centered Forums SMF 2.0.5

[RainDuck]

Connection Problems

Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.

This error happens more often than not. Then there are database connection error messages. How can a new member there hope to find a consistent access? Is there something that can fix this or is the problem elsewhere than servers?

[Looking]

Hosting problems - you are on shared hosting? Who is your host?

[Kindred]

this means that either a- the site has a poorly configured setup or b- the host sucks and keeps dropping the database connection

there is nothing that can be done on the SMF side of things. it is 100% a server-side (or configuration) issue.

[Illori]

i think the op is trying to use that forum and is not the owner of it. if this is true as a user there is nothing you can do unless you can contact the admin and ask them to look into the problem.

[RainDuck]

I can contact the top administrator who is rarely on the forum because I have his email. Their host is aaccessusa.

Sometimes when I check to see if they're up and running or the error is just on my end due to my firewall at this site, hxxp:www.isitdownrightnow.com [nonactive], I get the message that says their server is not responding. Other times it's that they're down for maintenance.
This happens and sometimes for three to four days straight.
They have someone who's suppose to  be technically proficient but I don't know if they're aware of where the problems are. It's crazy because it's guaranteed you'll not be able to get onto the forum for a week straight without something like this happening.

[RainDuck]

Like, just now I get this message:

ERROR

The requested URL could not be retrieved

The following error was encountered while trying to retrieve the URL: hxxp:www.gracecentered.com/christian_forums/index.php [nonactive]

Connection to 104.254.99.207 failed.

The system returned: (110) Connection timed out

The remote host or network may be down. Please try the request again.


Generated Tue, 02 Jun 2015 17:54:27 GMT


And what's really concerning is when I tried to post this reply here at your site I get this:
This webpage is not available

The webpage at http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?action=post2;start=0;board=147 might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.


Now I'm wondering if this is my Verizon connection or what?

[Kindred]

the database connection message is definitely on the host side...

the connection timed out could be either the server/host or your connection...

in the case of simplemachines.org, it is definitely your connection.

[RainDuck]

Thank you. That's what I'm trying to figure out. I'm not at all computer savvy.

[Bigguy]

I think scanning for viruses and malware and crap is in order. This site has had no connection issues in a while now.

[Illori]

that forum was not loading yesterday. i dont think it is malware. also the hosts website was not loading at the same time...

[RainDuck]

I think scanning for viruses and malware and crap is in order. This site has had no connection issues in a while now.

The site has connection issues every single day. And at times it has been down for days straight. Like 2 and 3 days straight.
Now, it is down again. Apache/2.4.12 (Unix) OpenSSL/1.0.1e-fips mod_bwlimited/1.4 Server at hxxp:www.gracecentered.com [nonactive] Port 80

I have no idea what's going on but there are sites you can check to see if the site is down for everyone or if it is jut you. And very time it is down for me it is down for everyone.
Database can't be reached, is one message.
Site maintenance is another though I can't imagine that happens multiple times a day. But that is the message.
Can't reach server.

Can it be a hacker?
Is it a matter of buying more bandwidth?
Does a server kick people because that site isn't paying for a lot of up time?

It's ridiculous because this site has a lot of great forums for Christians to read and study from. But the inconsistent up time kills the desire to make GCF a link on a favorites tab.

Help? Any suggestions would be great.

[Kindred]

There really is not anything that we can do for you...  The owner of the site needs to talk to his/her host, because the issues are not within smf,.. They are at the server level