TromboneChat Status Update (2018.11.09)

[Neo Bri]

Hey Chatters,

I'm happy to announce that we're migrated the site to a more stable platform and we shouldn't have so many problems in the future. Several things still need to settle, and anyone having problems is encouraged to dump their cookies, but in a short time everyone should be good to go. Thanks for your patience!

I fully expect to have no outages anymore. Expect a few other subtle upgrades as well.

[BGuttman]

Thanks, Bri.

I really got worried when I got a 403 error this morning. Guess I just tried to log in while the move was on.

For everybody else, don't be surprised if you have to log in and request save credentials again.

[Nhtrombone]

As others have said, I'd be happy to make a monetary contribution for the continued success of trombone chat.

[LarryPrestonRoberson]

I can view and login from Facebook—mobile app at least. But when I attempt to login from a browser, I’m getting errors—unable to connect to server.

[BGuttman]

You may need to use our IP address: 206.189.209.207

The URL translator tables on some servers may not have updated to the new site location yet.

[afugate]

FYI, HTTP is working for me, but HTTPS is not. I receive a "connection refused", which makes me think the apache instance isn't listening on port 443.

Also, in reviewing the network responses, it looks like we might be able to reduce the server load/capacity by offloading some assets (like favicon, gifs, etc) to a content distribution network like cloudflare or cloudfront. Inexpensive, and allows the primary server(s) to focus on delivering unique content.

FYI, I spent almost 2 decades leading the development team for Oklahoma's highest trafficked website, NewsOK.com. Happy to help with any of this, if it would be beneficial to "the cause".

--Andy in OKC

[Matt K]

Sorry, those issues should all be taken care of now. That's what happens when you do the work at 1AM so that it doesn't affect most users

That's a good suggestion too, Andy! We'll be taking that into consideration for sure

[Kbiggs]

The IP address—206.189.209.207—now shows up in the status bar, rather than “trombonechat.com.” Also, I get the message that this site isn’t secure. Is that right, or do I need to reset something?

[Matt K]

The IP address—206.189.209.207—now shows up in the status bar, rather than “trombonechat.com.” Also, I get the message that this site isn’t secure. Is that right, or do I need to reset something?

That's a DNS problem. Basically, after a DNS change, your ISP, local nodes, computer, browser, etc. will have the the DNS records updated within 72 hours of the change. You might be able to reset all of your browser settings but that isn't guaranteed to work. On Chrome (which I don't normally use), trombonechat.com is redirecting appropriately and the SSL cert is in place. In Firefox, which I normally use, it still is pointing to the old IP, which is forwarding directly to the new IP.

[afugate]

The IP address—206.189.209.207—now shows up in the status bar, rather than “trombonechat.com.” Also, I get the message that this site isn’t secure. Is that right, or do I need to reset something?

That's a DNS problem. Basically, after a DNS change, your ISP, local nodes, computer, browser, etc. will have the the DNS records updated within 72 hours of the change. You might be able to reset all of your browser settings but that isn't guaranteed to work. On Chrome (which I don't normally use), trombonechat.com is redirecting appropriately and the SSL cert is in place. In Firefox, which I normally use, it still is pointing to the old IP, which is forwarding directly to the new IP.

@Matt, it sounds like your browser itself has cached the DNS. I bet if you ping www.trombonechat.com, you'll find the new server is responding. It's the computer itself that does the DNS lookup, but applications are permitted to cache as they see fit.

And if we need to move again (and let's hope not), it can be useful to set the DNS Time To Live (TTL) to something relatively short like 5 minutes. Just do it a couple of days in advance, and then bump it back up after the move.

(Sorry if I'm telling you stuff you already know.)

--Andy in OKC

[Kbiggs]

Fixed it. For Mac and iOs users on a iPad: delete the icon on the Favorites page, and then install another.