A variety of issues

[H-J Kaabii]

I'm not sure whether this is specifically related to the workings of SMF or simply something on the host side, but I'd thought I'd ask here first.

1. Some members of our forum find that when they try to make an edit or post on a topic, they get a 403 Forbidden Error. One particular case involves a board mod editing one of his own posts in his own topic. Would this issue be due to some unusual checks between post and user IDs or is it more likely to be some IP banning on the forum host's part? (The strange thing is, members can post normally in general, and there doesn't appear to be any ban triggers set on normal members either).

2. Other members experience a timeout/unable to connect when they access our forum - errors thrown include 404 and 503 errors. They are able to access via proxy but this prevents them from editing or making posts (and I'm aware that it's not a viable method of access in the short or long term). Asking the members to flush and renew DNS doesn't seem to make a difference. Sometimes the problem resolves on its own, only to relapse again on occasion.

3. "Table './mariopar_forum/smf_sessions' is marked as crashed and should be repaired" was thrown some time during the US afternoon, however the problem appeared to self-resolve. Is there a means of checking the database files' integrity besides running the general checks via Admin Center?

4. Another staff member got a 134 Storage Engine Error when attempting to log in; following a cookie/browser history they were able to access the forum again. Is this potentially linked to any of 1 through 3?



Forum details:
URL: hxxp:mariopartylegacy.com/forum [nonactive]
Running SMF 2.0.2

Mods (some are manual installed, some were installed via emulated older SMF versions):

Code Select Expand

Member NotePad 1.3.1
Allow Access while in Maintenance Mode 1.1
SMF 2.0.1 Update 1.0
Member Color Link 3.1
Activity in Profile 1.1
Country Flags 2.1
Additional Membergroups on Profile 1.1.2
SA Chat Beta 4-1 Rev43
Default Avatar 2.2
AjaxChat Integration 3.2.2
Custom Report Mod
Team Page 1.1.7
Aeva ~ Auto-Embed Video & Audio 7.1
Simple .htaccess Cache Mod 2.6
Simple Award System 2.1
Countdown BBCode 2.0.1
SMF 2.0.1 Update 1.0
Ultimate Profile 0.9.1
Top 10 Posters and Topic Starters Stats (Today, Week, Month, and Year) 2.6
SMF 2.0.2 Update 1.0
PM to New Members 1.2
Auto Refresh Who Index 1.1
Spoiler Tag 0.7.2a

[Elmacik]

1. It might be regarding to mod_security that your host might have had installed. 403 Forbidden error is casted by the server and SMF probably has nothing to do with it. Check the corresponding topic in the online manual if this is the case:

http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Mod_security_-_Having_problems_with_mod_security

2. Probably your server is placed in a data center (DC) that is not within your country and assuming your vast majority of users are not foreigners; DC's or your ISP has some problems with outer connections. For example, there are some web sites that are reachable only from a particular list of countries. You will need to cross-check your site from different proxies and ask both your DC and your ISP to check the issue.

3. From time to time, MySQL database tables may "crash" as indicated in the error message and running a basic SQL query like "REPAIR table smf_sessions" (or the regarding table) would fix this issue. SMF has a feature to automatically repair crashed tables and that's probably why you don't see it now.

4. The same applies in the 3rd issue.

[H-J Kaabii]

Thanks for the prompt response.

I will look into #1, and probably contact the DC for #2 (it's based in Canada with most of our members coming from the States). I think some members may have contacted their ISPs already but I'll be sure to let them know.

Marking as solved.