500 Internal Server Error

[kruser]

Hi all,

I've been seeing a ton of "500 Internal Server Error" messages as I try and navigate around RR today. Mainly when I try and access the forums.
I needed to refresh the page about 6 times before I could even get this forum to come up so I could post this.

Is this something on RR's end or something I should investigate from my end? I can't say I've had any similar issues with any other sites today however.

Under the "500 Internal Server Error" line, it also says "cloudflare-nginx".

I also had timeouts the other day after the DHS advised people turn off java or javascript. Those errors appear to be gone now and only at RR did I see those errors as well. I don't recall the specific error message but figure those were related to the java flaws.
If I see those again, I'll post the error message I see.

[Jim41]

I also encountered several of these messages earlier this morning.
I have previously installed the recent and latest Java update.
I am using IE 8.0.6001.18702 with Windows XP.

Jim41

[Jim41]

I have just finished a 50-minute browsing session of the forums with NO sign of the 500 Server Error. For now, I will assume it was a temporary condition.

Jim41

[kruser]

Originally Posted by Jim41

I have just finished a 50-minute browsing session of the forums with NO sign of the 500 Server Error. For now, I will assume it was a temporary condition.

Jim41

I'll browse around and see if I still see it. I was able to get to the forums just now from the email notice of your message so that is a good sign.
I also am using IE8 but on Win 7 and also updated Java to the latest version and build 11. I did that the other day though and did not have the 500 error after the java update.

EDIT: Yep, it all seems good now. I could reproduce the error pretty often just by refreshing the page by using the button that opens the list of forums.
I've done that several times and not a single error so I agree it was something temporary or someone fixed the issue.

[blantonl]

Sorry, I just came across this thread - it's tough for me to monitor all threads but I should have been on top of this one..

It appears that on Jan 20th, one of our service providers who provides security proxy services to us (Cloudflare) had a problem. We weren't aware of it, nor was a notified, but it is what it is.

Cloudflare has done, a questionable job if you will, in providing overall services to us. We've seen these hickups more often than we would like. Our primary use Cloudflare is to protect the forums and wiki (only those two) from Spam and phishing attacks since they are enormous vectors for attack (open content edit driven). The RadioReference Forums rank up there as a top VBulletin site, and as such is actively targeted by spammers. If you could only see what our moderators have to deal with in terms of Spam, you wouldn't believe it, EVEN with enormous gates in place.

With that said, we are still evaluating Cloudflare as a viable protection, and if/when things change we'll let you know. We do know that they've done a decent job of protecting the forums from SPAM and malicious intent, but also have prevented legitiment users from accessing the forums without jumping through CAPTCHAs and other authentication mechanisms.

But also understand some of the stuff we face. There are thousands of people on the Internet that are paid to go through a registration process on a site, establish a legitiment account, and then Spam everyone with their Viagra drug ads when they are approved. We manage that by restricting all new members to requiring their first 3 posts in the forums to be approved before they can post without moderation. Guess what? Sometimes even that doesn't work - there are ways around that.

Anyway, thanks for everyone's patience. We're doing our best

[Chauffeur6]

Originally Posted by blantonl

There are thousands of people on the Internet that are paid to go through a registration process on a site, establish a legitiment account, and then Spam everyone with their Viagra drug ads when they are approved.

Sounds like a good way to make some extra cash when I can't sleep at night...got any leads?

[searingxheretic]

Originally Posted by blantonl

With that said, we are still evaluating Cloudflare as a viable protection, and if/when things change we'll let you know. We do know that they've done a decent job of protecting the forums from SPAM and malicious intent, but also have prevented legitiment users from accessing the forums without jumping through CAPTCHAs and other authentication mechanisms.

I think they/you/moderators do a great job mitigating the spam. Thanks for the hard work. I also hate CAPTCHAs! While I understand the modern need for them, they are truly the most annoying things on the modern internet. Some of them are impossible to read from the get go. At any rate, thanks for your efforts.


Sent from my cm_tenderloin

[bleague]

As a fellow server admin, I hear ya Lindsay. It's definitely hundreds of thousands against a small handful of server admins.

Just don't give away too many anti-spam methods to the public.

[kruser]

Originally Posted by blantonl

Sorry, I just came across this thread - it's tough for me to monitor all threads but I should have been on top of this one..

It appears that on Jan 20th, one of our service providers who provides security proxy services to us (Cloudflare) had a problem. We weren't aware of it, nor was a notified, but it is what it is.

Anyway, thanks for everyone's patience. We're doing our best

Thanks for the update Lindsay. I have not seen that error since the day I made the post so whatever the cause, it seems to have been fixed.

Now if I could just figure out the pesky script errors I'm seeing!
I did find they are not specific to this site. I get them in even greater numbers when visiting a site like weatherunderground and trying to open the page of Personal weather stations for any state.
I removed every Windows update including .NET updates back to 12/20/2012 and still see the script errors so not sure what the cause is.
I don't see them that often here but some days seem worse than others it seems. I suspect it had something to do with the Java mess and perhaps there is some "beyond my control" filtering going on along the path to the sites that seem to throw a lot of these script errors.

Someone suggested using Firefox in my other thread. While that does work, I personally hate FF as well as all versions of IE newer than 8. I like to customize my menu's or toolbar and it seems they all dumbed that ability down in most current browser versions. I like to put things the way I like and not have many settings forced upon me!

Oh well.
Again, thanks for the update on cloudflare issue.