435 replies to this topic

[kissdbyfire]

Sparks, on 30 June 2012 - 04:43 PM, said:

You may need to say what tablet; I don't see this on either an iPad or Kindle Fire.

Sorry... iPad.

[Maia]

I have to say that I have problems viewing the ASOIAF boards on various PCs and have been forced to switch to an iPad almost exclusively.
There are just too many advertisements and cinematics loading when I try to browse on PC, which ultimately leads to slowdowns and browser crashes. Does anybody else have these issues?

P.S.

Fragile Bird, on 27 June 2012 - 02:22 PM, said:

Ever since that damn video game ad went up I have problems with being on Westeros.

Ah, a fellow sufferer, I see. So, it is not just me...

Edited by Maia, 05 July 2012 - 08:58 AM.

[Fragile Bird]

Every time I switch threads, or post, the ad re-loads, and slows everything down.  I am turning into Stannis, grinding my teeth constantly.

[Sparks]

I have to say, Ran, even your sysadmin hates that ad.  

I've resorted to mostly reading via Tapatalk because that ad chews CPU, drags down site responsiveness and scrolling, and generally makes me want to turn on ad-blocking.  I'm wearing my 'I read this board too' hat here, rather than my sysadmin one, but count me in as one more who'd really like to see that Flash ad go away.

(I can read the boards fine on my Mac Pro, mind you, but I should not require a 6-core monster of a machine to read a webpage.  On either the Windows or Mac laptops, the board is paaaaaaaaainfully slow due to that ad loading.)

Edited by Sparks, 05 July 2012 - 04:25 PM.

[Eyron I]

Yup, it is really slow again, for me it starts after a little while after logging on, not immediately. And weird things are starting to happen. When a page is loading (terribly slowly) it shows a distorted version of the page I watched before I opened the board, plus the infamous ad. Every time it freezes this happens, which is every now and then when I go to a new page on the board.

So the update of flash did not solve it, unfortunately.

[Alia of the knife]

How will this "virus" that is supposed to hit Monday affect things?
I did the check-up, and it seems so far so good.

[Sparks]

What's happening on Monday is not a 'virus hitting,' per se.  Allow me to provide the non-technical form.

First off, as background, the Internet as a whole doesn't know domain names.  Think of the telephone network; everyone has a number, but the phone system doesn't know that 555-1212 maps to Fred and 867-5309 maps to Jenny; you don't pick up the phone and dial 'J-E-N-N-Y,' but rather you look in a phone book for what Jenny's number is, then dial that.  The internet works the same way; "asoiaf.westeros.org" is not an Internet address that you can connect to; you have to actually 'dial' the machine's address, which is 108.168.195.26.

Because numbers are a pain to remember, we have what's called the Domain Name Service.  Your machine will have DNS servers set up (which, often, will just be your home router, which will then send queries outwards).  When you enter 'asoiaf.westeros.org' into your browser, your machine contacts that DNS server and says 'Hi, I need to reach asoiaf.westeros.org, what's the number?'  And the DNS server either knows (and answers), or goes out to ask a DNS server that *does* know.  (Bonus note: this is why server moves can take a while before everyone sees a new site.)

So, on to the Monday issue.

Some time ago, there were several trojans which targeted both Windows and Mac.  (Note: viruses will spread on their own, while trojans require tricking the user into running something.)  Among other things, these Trojans changed the DNS servers your machine (and in some cases, your router) would go to look up addresses on.

This meant they could control your Internet experience.  For instance, if you went to Google.com, they could resolve 'www.google.com' to their own servers and take your query, pass that to the real Google, get back the answers and put a few of their own paid/malicious links into the search results. They could misdirect or break all your searches for antivirus programs and so on.

Now, some time ago, these folks got shut down.  But many machines had their DNS changed over, so the FBI took those DNS servers and set up real ones there, so that everyone wasn't cut off.  But running those servers takes time and money (they are taking a fair amount of traffic!), and they were going to shut those down months ago.  But a court ordered them to keep the servers up a while longer, to give folks more time to clean up and ensure they weren't still using bad DNS servers.  

That came to an end today.

So if you *did* get your DNS settings changed by the trojan and you *haven't* fixed them, when the servers shut off you would have found you still had Internet access but that your computer no longer could resolve a name to an address; if you entered 'asoiaf.westeros.org' in your browser, instead of 108.168.195.26 you'd get back a SERVFAIL, meaning the server couldn't answer.  Same for Google.com, Facebook.com, whatever else.

On the other hand, the servers were shut down already this morning, so chances are that if you're seeing this site at all to read my message, either a) you're fine, you're reading from someone else's machine or your phone, or c) you still had asoiaf.westeros.org in your name resolution cache, and the Internet will vanish shortly.

I'm putting my money on a, statistically.

[Alia of the knife]

Sparks, on 09 July 2012 - 01:38 PM, said:

What's happening on Monday is not a 'virus hitting,' per se.  Allow me to provide the non-technical form.

First off, as background, the Internet as a whole doesn't know domain names.  Think of the telephone network; everyone has a number, but the phone system doesn't know that 555-1212 maps to Fred and 867-5309 maps to Jenny; you don't pick up the phone and dial 'J-E-N-N-Y,' but rather you look in a phone book for what Jenny's number is, then dial that.  The internet works the same way; "asoiaf.westeros.org" is not an Internet address that you can connect to; you have to actually 'dial' the machine's address, which is 108.168.195.26.

Because numbers are a pain to remember, we have what's called the Domain Name Service.  Your machine will have DNS servers set up (which, often, will just be your home router, which will then send queries outwards).  When you enter 'asoiaf.westeros.org' into your browser, your machine contacts that DNS server and says 'Hi, I need to reach asoiaf.westeros.org, what's the number?'  And the DNS server either knows (and answers), or goes out to ask a DNS server that *does* know.  (Bonus note: this is why server moves can take a while before everyone sees a new site.)

So, on to the Monday issue.

Some time ago, there were several trojans which targeted both Windows and Mac.  (Note: viruses will spread on their own, while trojans require tricking the user into running something.)  Among other things, these Trojans changed the DNS servers your machine (and in some cases, your router) would go to look up addresses on.

This meant they could control your Internet experience.  For instance, if you went to Google.com, they could resolve 'www.google.com' to their own servers and take your query, pass that to the real Google, get back the answers and put a few of their own paid/malicious links into the search results. They could misdirect or break all your searches for antivirus programs and so on.

Now, some time ago, these folks got shut down.  But many machines had their DNS changed over, so the FBI took those DNS servers and set up real ones there, so that everyone wasn't cut off.  But running those servers takes time and money (they are taking a fair amount of traffic!), and they were going to shut those down months ago.  But a court ordered them to keep the servers up a while longer, to give folks more time to clean up and ensure they weren't still using bad DNS servers.  

That came to an end today.

So if you *did* get your DNS settings changed by the trojan and you *haven't* fixed them, when the servers shut off you would have found you still had Internet access but that your computer no longer could resolve a name to an address; if you entered 'asoiaf.westeros.org' in your browser, instead of 108.168.195.26 you'd get back a SERVFAIL, meaning the server couldn't answer.  Same for Google.com, Facebook.com, whatever else.

On the other hand, the servers were shut down already this morning, so chances are that if you're seeing this site at all to read my message, either a) you're fine, you're reading from someone else's machine or your phone, or c) you still had asoiaf.westeros.org in your name resolution cache, and the Internet will vanish shortly.

I'm putting my money on a, statistically.

As always Sparks, your just awesome.

Thanks for that information.
(I might also add thats the most clear, concise explaination I've heard for this issue).

The way some were talking about it, you would think your computer was going to explode when you turned it on.

[Dracarya]

I can't upload a GIF as my avatar. It worked once, but the GIF didn't move. It works on another forum at a smaller size. I've tried it for 3 different sizes, and it always says the picture is too big, when it isn't. Any idea what's going on? Thanks!

[ICE CROW]

Dracarya, on 14 July 2012 - 08:48 AM, said:

I can't upload a GIF as my avatar. It worked once, but the GIF didn't move. It works on another forum at a smaller size. I've tried it for 3 different sizes, and it always says the picture is too big, when it isn't. Any idea what's going on? Thanks!

I have had the exact same issue, not just animated GIF's either, a bunch of different pics that are of proper size that worked before just won't work now and say file too big.

[Dracarya]

ICE CROW, on 14 July 2012 - 09:52 AM, said:

I have had the exact same issue, not just animated GIF's either, a bunch of different pics that are of proper size that worked before just won't work now and say file too big.

I want my Madden GIF goat dammit

[Howling Mad]

Sparks, on 09 July 2012 - 01:38 PM, said:

What's happening on Monday is not a 'virus hitting,' per se.  Allow me to provide the non-technical form.

First off, as background, the Internet as a whole doesn't know domain names.  Think of the telephone network; everyone has a number, but the phone system doesn't know that 555-1212 maps to Fred and 867-5309 maps to Jenny; you don't pick up the phone and dial 'J-E-N-N-Y,' but rather you look in a phone book for what Jenny's number is, then dial that.  The internet works the same way; "asoiaf.westeros.org" is not an Internet address that you can connect to; you have to actually 'dial' the machine's address, which is 108.168.195.26.

Because numbers are a pain to remember, we have what's called the Domain Name Service.  Your machine will have DNS servers set up (which, often, will just be your home router, which will then send queries outwards).  When you enter 'asoiaf.westeros.org' into your browser, your machine contacts that DNS server and says 'Hi, I need to reach asoiaf.westeros.org, what's the number?'  And the DNS server either knows (and answers), or goes out to ask a DNS server that *does* know.  (Bonus note: this is why server moves can take a while before everyone sees a new site.)

So, on to the Monday issue.

Some time ago, there were several trojans which targeted both Windows and Mac.  (Note: viruses will spread on their own, while trojans require tricking the user into running something.)  Among other things, these Trojans changed the DNS servers your machine (and in some cases, your router) would go to look up addresses on.

This meant they could control your Internet experience.  For instance, if you went to Google.com, they could resolve 'www.google.com' to their own servers and take your query, pass that to the real Google, get back the answers and put a few of their own paid/malicious links into the search results. They could misdirect or break all your searches for antivirus programs and so on.

Now, some time ago, these folks got shut down.  But many machines had their DNS changed over, so the FBI took those DNS servers and set up real ones there, so that everyone wasn't cut off.  But running those servers takes time and money (they are taking a fair amount of traffic!), and they were going to shut those down months ago.  But a court ordered them to keep the servers up a while longer, to give folks more time to clean up and ensure they weren't still using bad DNS servers.  

That came to an end today.

So if you *did* get your DNS settings changed by the trojan and you *haven't* fixed them, when the servers shut off you would have found you still had Internet access but that your computer no longer could resolve a name to an address; if you entered 'asoiaf.westeros.org' in your browser, instead of 108.168.195.26 you'd get back a SERVFAIL, meaning the server couldn't answer.  Same for Google.com, Facebook.com, whatever else.

On the other hand, the servers were shut down already this morning, so chances are that if you're seeing this site at all to read my message, either a) you're fine, you're reading from someone else's machine or your phone, or c) you still had asoiaf.westeros.org in your name resolution cache, and the Internet will vanish shortly.

I'm putting my money on a, statistically.

Sparks you are the best! I wish you ran my IT dept at work

[Sparks]

Howling Mad, on 15 July 2012 - 12:11 PM, said:

Sparks you are the best! I wish you ran my IT dept at work

Oh please god no.

(Though I actually enjoy writing non-techie versions of technical stuff sometimes.  On a game I codewizzed on, I once was asked for the 'non-technical fuzzy bunny explanation' of how the MUSH/MUX database structure worked and what 'cleanups' on the database were... and so I literally used fuzzy bunnies to explain the database model.)

[Fragile Bird]

Sparks, on 15 July 2012 - 03:37 PM, said:

Oh please god no.

(Though I actually enjoy writing non-techie versions of technical stuff sometimes.  On a game I codewizzed on, I once was asked for the 'non-technical fuzzy bunny explanation' of how the MUSH/MUX database structure worked and what 'cleanups' on the database were... and so I literally used fuzzy bunnies to explain the database model.)

Wow.  Whatever gets your gears going, lol!  It's all Greek to me, good thing you're here!  And by the way, the board is loading better since I first complained about the game ad.  Is that because we're not seeing the ad moving anymore?

[Linda]

Yes, we switched out the flash version to just the image version. Not sure why it was causing issues, both of us had no problem, but since we had several reports we changed it.

[Sparks]

Linda, on 15 July 2012 - 04:07 PM, said:

Yes, we switched out the flash version to just the image version. Not sure why it was causing issues, both of us had no problem, but since we had several reports we changed it.

Yay!  Thank you guys.

[Triskele]

I am still having the issue of not getting notifications.  A thousand gold dragons to anyone that can fix this.

[naz]

Ok, here's a weird thing that just started happening. When I enter a thread or hit refresh while I'm in a thread, the top half of my screen will go black for half a second, then back to normal. This is only happening here; nowhere else. Doesn't happen when I browse on my work PC (using Chrome). It doesn't happen when I go to View New Posts, or Settings, or anywhere else on the board.

Chrome 20.0, Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8

Edited by naz, 24 July 2012 - 06:58 PM.

[naz]

Now other kinds of weird shit is happening. I tried to edit my post and it didn't save the edit. I tried the full editor and suddenly page elements started moving all over the place (Oldtown background jumped to the right.)

[Xray the Enforcer]

huh. that's really odd. I've had a page-shift event maybe once a week, but never had a problem with a post not editing.

That said, I also notice this board not loading completely (it mostly loads, then hangs for 15+ seconds then ends). I wonder if Naz's experience is tied to that as well.

Using Chrome on OSX, Ubuntu AND Windows 7 (these are all different machines), and it has happened on all of them. Maybe it's a Chrome thing?

Edited by Xray the Enforcer, 25 July 2012 - 07:11 AM.