PBW status
 

Ok, the good news is we have Gold demo support, and are on schedule to get full SEIV Gold support by this weekend.

The bad news is that right at the moment the server appears to be down. We are pretty sure it's nothing serious, but considering the recent problems we wanted to let you know right away so you wouldn't panic.

It will be this afternoon sometime before we can get some hands on it at the data center and get it booted back up, so be patient and we'll be back up asap.

Geoschmo
PBW Admin Team

[ 07 March 2002: Message edited by: geoschmo ]</p>

Re: PBW status
 

Argh! The wonders of modern technology. It makes you utterly dependent on it, then stops working! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: PBW status
 

I just noticed PBW is up and running again.

Excellent, just in time to send my turns before going to bed http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif .

Thanks guys,
Rollo

Re: PBW status
 

Seems like everyone is bombarding the PBW site with frantic withdrawal-induced activity! It seems barely able to serve its web pages, although it seems to be cranking out the turn files ok.

PvK

Re: PBW status
 

Down again? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

Re: PBW status
 

Ya, I think it died again.

Re: PBW status
 

So, does anybody know what is up with PBW? Is it just not connecting to the internet, but still happily processing turns whilst the AI's destroy everybody's best laid plans?

Re: PBW status
 

Sorry for all the trouble. I am not totally sure what is happening. The server appears to be up, but sending and receiving files very slow. Admiral thinks there may be a problem with the DSL connection. We are working on it. Bear with us.

Geoschmo
PBW Admin Team

Re: PBW status
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by dumbluck:
So, does anybody know what is up with PBW? Is it just not connecting to the internet, but still happily processing turns whilst the AI's destroy everybody's best laid plans?<hr></blockquote>

I told you you would never believe how far Aaron got the AI. Now it has taken over the Server and is retaliating against us humans! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

Re: PBW status
 

Whatever the problem is it's intermittant. Right now it seems to be running very smoothly. At other times it goes very slowly.

Geoschmo

Re: PBW status
 

Ya, it's working fine at the moment.

I noticed yesterday that while the web page service was crawling, it seemed to be processing and returning turns quickly.

PvK

Re: PBW status
 

I have note been able to get in all day from Canada. Maybe the yankees are worried we're winning &lt;g&gt;

Yohan

Re: PBW status
 

I feel your pain, 'eh? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I can tell you the server has been up all day, but most of the day has been very slow connection, transfering files to and from, waiting on the pages to populate, etc. You might try the text Version if you aren't already. With less graphics to load it might perform a little better for you.

Geoschmo

Re: PBW status
 

Hmm. Shrapnel's been slow off and on lately too. Perhaps a bunch of new people bought Gold and are overloading the servers?

Phoenix-D

Re: PBW status
 

Ya, it's crawling again. It'd be interesting to see if its traffic is really high. I bet it's some DOS attack or other traffic deluge probably on a site near PBW but not it itself.

Re: PBW status
 

Looks like anything servlet-related is taking FOREVER to work itself out.

I know that for one, I am completely unable to do much of anything (and I'm not able to use the realtime client since I have differing passwords).

I can't even get in to do game admin (in text mode, no less). The index page at the web root loads fine for me in most cases (but that could be Cached, too...)

Geo, if you could help me out with taking care of a turn due date or changing an empire password, contact me somehow (e-mail?) and I'll give you the specifics...

Re: PBW status
 

I haven't been able to load anything on the sight for at least 2 days. Nor have any of my game turns processed; well, at least I haven't recieved any email notices to that affect.

Re: PBW status
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Achernar:
Geo, if you could help me out with taking care of a turn due date or changing an empire password, contact me somehow (e-mail?) and I'll give you the specifics...<hr></blockquote>

Unfortunatly I am suffering the same as everybody else. I am only able to access it sporadically.

Geoschmo

Re: PBW status
 

Can you stop auto processing on my game DIVERSIONARY STRATEGEMS? I am trying to set it to after Last player uploads but i can't get on

Re: PBW status
 

Geoschmo:
Can you guys disable the auto-turn processing until this problem gets sorted out? I already missed one turn, and I'd rather not miss any more.

Re: PBW status
 

Maybe PBW needs some sort of communication problem detection so that it stops automatically processing turns if an unusually high percentage of games had not submitted turns in a period of time.

I should have turned off automatic processing on one of my games early today when I had the chance.

[ 09 March 2002: Message edited by: LGM ]</p>

Re: PBW status
 

Arrghhh! Now I am missing turns in both the Great Experiment and Big Fat Zero 3! I haven't been able to get on the server for the Last two days. My empires are doomed! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: PBW status
 

PBW is really slow. I'm currently downloading a turn 56 bytes per second.

Re: PBW status
 

I am in the middle of posting to turn off automatic turns on one of my games. It has been running about 10 minutes. I hope it finishes.

PBW's ISP must be really hit by something.

Re: PBW status
 

Just wondering if someone else has had the same run-in.

I was trying to post a turn to PBW, and I decided to use the Text Version. I clicked on the right link, and began to wait. After about 10 minutes of loading, a German porn pop-up page(several actually) opened and froze my computer unless I installed their software.

I killed the thing with task manager of course...but still. Could this have something to do with the slow down? Has anyone else seen this?

Re: PBW status
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Jmenschenfresser:
I was trying to post a turn to PBW, and I decided to use the Text Version. I clicked on the right link, and began to wait. After about 10 minutes of loading, a German porn pop-up page(several actually) opened and froze my computer unless I installed their software.

I killed the thing with task manager of course...but still. Could this have something to do with the slow down? Has anyone else seen this?<hr></blockquote>Hmmm. That's the first I have had anybody mention that. I have been on the site pretty much constantly the Last two days, although most of the time it's been doing nothing, just trying to load pages. If anybody else sees that let us know.

Sorry for everbody's frustration. Unfortunatly we are all stuck with the same problem. I can't even get in remotly and turn off auto processing. If you have a particular game you want set to "after Last player uploads" my only suggestion is keep at it. Emailing admin or posting here is not going to help because we can't get to the site either.

At some point Admiral will be able to get back out to the data center and hopefully we will have this resolved. Until then, sorry.

Geoschmo
PWB Admin Team

Re: PBW status
 

It took a l o n g time but I was able to get on and set my game (Duplicity) to Last player upload. And we had just reached the point where all the players were functioning and we could get some turns in...

Re: PBW status
 

Just visited PBW site and it was normal speed March 9 at 2:46 PM EST. If you need to take admin action now would be a good time to do it.

Re: PBW status
 

Ya, it seems to be up, but I hadn't gotten the Last turn which I had replied to by email. So, I uploaded my Last turn again, got the turn back and... something really weird happened. Although the game is set not to go to AI control, it looks like two turns happened in the log report, one of which seems done by the AI.

Maybe it had run my emailed turn but not sent me the next turn, and then it accepted my plr file even though it was for the wrong turn... or something? Bizarre stuff that I've not seen before.

PvK

Re: PBW status
 

Ok, the site does seem to be communicating better at the moment. I was able to get in and turn the auto procesing back off so if your turn has not run yet it should not unless all the players upload, or if the game owner manually kicks it off. That should eliminate further game issues until we can work out what exactly is happening.

Geoschmo
PWB Admin Team

Re: PBW status
 

Ok, my opponent says he didn't have problems, so apparently what happened to me was:

I didn't get the latest turn in email during the "down time", so I sent my turn once in email and then uploaded it again for the next turn, resulting in the game running using the wrong plr file for me, with screwy results. Moral - if you're not certain what turn it is, load the current turn from PBW to make sure you send it the right plr file.

PvK

Re: PBW status
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by PvK:
Moral - if you're not certain what turn it is, load the current turn from PBW to make sure you send it the right plr file.

PvK<hr></blockquote>Good advice. Nine times out of ten that I have checked out games where the AI played a turn for somebody, it has been that they uploaded a previous turn for one reason or another.

Geoschmo

Re: PBW status
 

Just do a little dance (smoke a little bud haha like th AIM icon) and then you log on and it might work, it is working now so i think it could be an intermittent thing, the dance is important.

Long Live PBW (how do you say that in latin?)

Re: PBW status
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Skulky:
Long Live PBW (how do you say that in latin?)<hr></blockquote>

"Vivat PBW!"

I also like:

"Vita sine PBW mors est" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Geo

Re: PBW status
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by geoschmo:
Ok, the site does seem to be communicating better at the moment. I was able to get in and turn the auto procesing back off ...
Geoschmo
PWB Admin Team<hr></blockquote>

Have you got any ETA for turning auto processing back on? The site seems to have worked fine for quite some time now. Got any idea what caused the problems?

Re: PBW status
 

While the site does seem to be moving quite good and has been for the Last 12 hours, we are still seeing some symptoms. They aren't affecting any games, but until it's back to 100% I don't feel safe turning that back on.

Having auto-processing doesn't interfere with the operation of the games. It only means that it won't process at the turn timeout. The game will still process when all player turns are sent in, or if the game owner wants he can manually run the turn.

Geoshmo

Re: PBW status
 

Yes, the site seems to be running full speed... with one exception: I am receiving very few "turn" emails. I've had to download most of my turns. So, anyone out there waiting for their turns via email had better check their games on the PBW site. They may be waiting just for you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ 10 March 2002: Message edited by: Grandpakim ]</p>

Re: PBW status
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr> Maybe it had run my emailed turn but not sent me the next turn, and then it accepted my plr file even though it was for the wrong turn <hr></blockquote>Note that PBW has no way of telling that you've uploaded the wrong turn, other than trying to run it.

capnq
PBW admin

Re: PBW status
 

So, umm, did you ever find out what was going on Last weekend w/ the non-responsive server? And when were you planning on turning the auto turn processing back on?

Re: PBW status
 

No, we don't have anything concrete to pin this weekends problems on. It looked mainly to be a DSL connection and nothing to do with the server. I guess that's the story we will stick with. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
We haven't had any symptoms in a while so I will turn auto-proc back on sometime today. Probably this afternoon.

Geoschmo

Re: PBW status
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by capnq:
Note that PBW has no way of telling that you've uploaded the wrong turn, other than trying to run it.

capnq
PBW admin<hr></blockquote>

That would be a good feature to request getting added to SEIV. A way to validate a turn file from the command line. That would allow PBW to report the error when it receives our turn so that we could download the proper turn and redo it.

I have downloaded the same turn several times just to make sure I have the right one (50 hour turn intervals). I might download it to look at battles right away, but I may not have had time to actually do the turn. Then when I come back to it, I cannot remember if I have the right turn. This was not a problem until I started playing more games than I can keep track of.

I have found it easier to track having my turns attached to emails and sending them back that way rather than downloading and uploading the turns. Emailing works better because I can look at the times when I received the turn and the notificaiton that PBW received my reply.

Otherwise, if I download a turn and look at it, I still download it when I come back later to do the turn just to make sure I have the right Version. Having a cable modem I am not that concerned about downloading extra times.

Re: PBW status
 

Did PBW go down again or is it just me that cannot reach it?

Re: PBW status
 

I think it just went down again http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: PBW status
 

It's up now. If it went down it was in between visits for me.

Geoschmo

Re: PBW status
 

PBW is definately NOT up now.

"Cannot find server or DNS error", whatever the #ell that means...

Re: PBW status
 

But now it came up!!!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: PBW status
 

I think PBW is still having problems.
5 minutes ago, I was getting DNS errors but now it appears ok.
Lucky I decided to check one more time.
...Baron Grazic...