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[BillLeeDee]

I have a situation that appears out of the norm and could use your assistance. FYI: I'm running SMF 2.0.4.

About a week ago my host moved my web hosting account to a difference server due to server oad issues. I discovered the next morning my site was down for a number of hours due to a symlink patch that was somehow incorrect. The host remedied this after some time, making things appear normal.

That day (about a week ago) I had a member mention to be that they posted to an existing thread and that the post disappeared, then later re-appeared during the day and then disappeared again. I had performed all the maintenance routines in the admin area - no error was detected with the database before or after the maintenance. I did all the usual with flushing cache files, emptying unimportant logs, optimizing and they performing another backup.

Today the same member said they again attempted to post to the same thread and had the exact same problem. They also mentioned that another member had the same problem with the same thread as well. I again ran all the routines in the maintenance area and no error was reported.

I'm at a loss and simply have no clue what to do. Even though no errors were reported by the database checks do I just take a crap shoot and roll things back to before my server move? If so, I will lose more than a week's worth of posts but I have no clue if the move was the cause of whatever is going on. I would assume if there was a problem with the database that the maintenance functions would report it and (hopefully) take corrective actions.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[BillLeeDee]

Am I to assume that nobody has ever had posts simply disappear in spite of the maintenance routines not indicating any errors? I'd like to have an idea how to troubleshoot and resolve this short of rolling back my database or migrating to another platform.

[Chalky]

Have you spoken to your host?  If they've been messing with things it's quite possible they could have been restoring different backups which would have made posts appear and disappear.  I can't think of any other reason why posts would behave like that.

It's customary to wait at least 24 hours before bumping posts here as we're all volunteers with real life and family commitments and in different time zones.  Those best able to help you are probably either asleep or enjoying Sunday with their family, so please try and be a little more patient.  But do speak to your host if you haven't already as I strongly suspect the issue lies with them.

[BillLeeDee]

Have you spoken to your host?  If they've been messing with things it's quite possible they could have been restoring different backups which would have made posts appear and disappear.  I can't think of any other reason why posts would behave like that.

My host doesn't/didn't restore any backups at all. They took my account and moved it to a different server interacted with "no" changes - I put no in quotes as they claim they didn't change anything.

Also, a week after the move to a new server there appears to be two members who claim the situation is still going on. Knowing these members I honestly don't think they would imagine this happening, which is why I'm concerned.

It's customary to wait at least 24 hours before bumping posts here as we're all volunteers with real life and family commitments and in different time zones.  Those best able to help you are probably either asleep or enjoying Sunday with their family, so please try and be a little more patient.  But do speak to your host if you haven't already as I strongly suspect the issue lies with them.

I'm sorry for nudging the post but if I have to roll things back to before the server move that will mean I will lose a week's worth me posts and if that ends up being the only resolution I would like to limit the hard feelings in my forums when I have to break it to them. The more posts lost means more members who will get miffed and possibly not return to participate. Again, apologies for being proactive but I just simply want to limit damage that may happen if I have to roll the forums back.

[kat]

A small hunchette...

Can you get these two members to completely empty their browser's caches?

Even smaller hunchette...

Get them to delete their cookies, for your site.

Might even be an idea to change the name of the cookie, in Admin>Server settings.

That'll force a new cookie on everyone.

[BillLeeDee]

Great suggestion. I'll give it a whirl.

[kat]

Let us know if it sorts it, woncha?

[BillLeeDee]

Will do. I just changed the cookie name and I'm emailing the affected users.

[Colin]

Just FYI, K@ generally has good hunchettes

[kat]

Some go a bit wild, though, I have to confess.

[BillLeeDee]

I appreciate the hints, none the less. The only thing that concerns me is I could see maybe one member having a problem if is was something they with their browser, etc, but to have two members experience a similar problem makes me wonder if there's something that SMF's own data integrity checks isn't catching.

[kat]

I somehow doubt that. I think that the host move is the key, here. Some people's browser settings can be a bit weird.

So, there MAY be some detritus in their caches/cookies/other stuff that may be screwing them.

Give it a go and see how it goes.

[BillLeeDee]

So far the two affected members have yet to mention if any other posts of their have disappeared so I have my fingers crossed. Neither one has gotten back to me so I'm assuming things are fine.

I've got my fingers crossed. I'll let everybody know if the re-occurs as I'm really stumped on this. I appreciate everybody's assistance. Thanks again.

[kat]

[BillLeeDee]

UPDATE: I just had another member email me stating that they haven't seen any new messages on the forum in spite of things "looking" normal. I have a strong hunch that the web host has a duplicate entry in their system and some people are hitting the old site and some people are hitting the new site. It perplexes me why they haven't removed the old account on the old server and why it looks like some people's DNS records are either getting intercepted by the old server or not getting properly resolved.

The more I deal with this particular web host the more I'm starting to lose confidence in them. I asked them to move my account to a different server as high server loads would often bring every site on my account down. Now, after just short of two weeks of very good service, it's back to being unreliable. What a way to run an airline!

I appreciate everybody's assistance with this brain teaser. I'm just hoping that they can resolve this short of me moving the site to (yet) another web host.

[kat]

Heh... After I moved hosts, I was still getting database backup notifications after FIVE YEARS! So, yeah, your old site could be screwing things.

Something for your members to try, if they use Windoze.

Start>Run.

Type "cmd" and hit "Enter".

In the DOS window that opens, get them to type:

ipconfig /flushdns <Enter>

If that doesn't work, get them to try:

ipconfig /release <Enter> (They'll likely go offline)

ipconfig /flushdns <Enter>

ipconfig /renew <Enter> (They'll go back online, with a flushed DNS cache).

Note the space between "ipconfig" and the "/".

[BillLeeDee]

It appears there was a problem on the host's end, as I just got this email:

We could see some mismatch in nameserver in the zone file for your domain. We have corrected this issue.

I bet some folks never got a proper DNS update from their providers due to this error, so they were accessing the old site. It still makes me wonder why they didn't disable the old account on the other server - I might have found out about this problem sooner than two weeks later.

[kat]

Who can ever hope to understand some hosts...

Glad it's fixed, though. Trust me, some hosts would NEVER have figured that out.

[MrPhil]

Just FYI, K@ generally has good hunchettes

Cute, young bell ringers at Notre Dame? We call 'em Igorettes...

[kat]

**GROAN**