Forbidden Access

Every once in a while when trying to access a wiki page (and it seems that it happens right after I've been seconding some page deletions) I get a page that says Forbidden - Access Denied, etc. A few minutes later (more or less) and everything is back to normal. Since the problem is intermittent the explanation on WikiHelpDesk does not seem to apply. Any light on the subject would be very much appreciated. -- MarkTilley

Just a guess, but I suspect it's Ward's system doing some sort of updates, like the reverse search database, or similar. It's consistent with being in the wee small hours Californian time.

Except it happens midmorning EST, so not really that early Pacific Time.

I also get Forbidden at random times. I don't know whether it's a throttle or whether the web server engine just has a threshold for "don't let any more people in" that gets tripped by high access request levels. Usually the condition subsides in a few minutes, occasionally I'm blocked for an hour or more.

Is there a doctor in the house? Someone with enough understanding of web servers and/or the db engines (if any) at work here? Some illumination, please? -- GarryHamilton

Perhaps it's Wiki's way of suggesting that we should visit the BigBlueRoom.

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Moved from elsewhere...

Ward, an administrative question:

When trying to access WikiWiki this morning, I get occasional messages of the following sort:

 Forbidden

 You don't have permission to access /cgi/quickDiff on this server.

(In trying to save this message, got a similar error)

Usually retrying (several times) to load the page fixes the problem.

Just wondering whassup. If this is a bug or server configuration problem, consider it duly reported. If it is normal behavior of Wiki under load (or during maintenance), let us know.

Thanks!

--ScottJohnson

This error also seen (within the last 10 minutes (10:20am PST) as well as intermittently yesterday here in Carson City, NV. -- GarryHamilton

I HadThisPattern too :-) But I remember, that it indicated an overload of the server (something about a bandwidth or number of connections limitation in the server). -- GunnarZarncke