[Forum] Halp! Don't know what's wrong w/ forum

[dollster68]

A few weeks ago I installed 4.0.1 and everything was running smoothly. Fast forward to two days ago. In the morning I tried to access the site and got a 404 warning site not found. That lasted about a half hour then everything was fine again.

Right after that, I tried to back up my SQL at my host's web page. Later that day (about 4 hours from the time I couldn't access the site) I noticed that the forum was acting weird. I couldn't access the forum, most of the page wouldn't load, etc. I logged out and logged back in and got nothing. Went to another site and came back and the same thing...only part of the page would load, but most of it nothing. Then, I started getting emails from my users about not being able to access the forum.

So, then I log back into my host's webpage to check the SQL and it says "back up failed." So, I figure the problem is caused by the database. I phone my host and they research the issue. They can find no problems with the database nor the server. They backed up the SQL it backed up correctly. So, they said that if anything's wrong it's with the vBulletin. I opened up a support ticket yesterday but have heard nothing yet.

Can anyone help? Has anyone seen this before? Could there have been some sort of attack? Could a member have uploaded a photo with a virus or something?

I'm a complete novice. I knew only enough to buy the software, find a hosting, and upload everything to get it working. I would appreciate any advice.

www.dollydaily.com/community

[melbo]

can you access http://www.dollydaily.com/community/adminCP ?

I think you need to re-uplaod all of your forum files and select overwrite. Then go in and change back to your default vB theme.

[dollster68]

Hi, melbo. Thank you. Yes, I can access the adminCP. I'll re-upload the files. Does that mean I'll also need to run the upgrade script again? The vB theme hasn't changed. I did all of my color changes using the stylevars one by one.

[melbo]

If you can get to the admin CP, try creating a new default style first . If that doesn't work, try re-uploading your files; you do not need to run the upgrade script.

[Lynne]

The first thing I would do is look at the error_logs. If you don't know where they are, you should ask your host.

Support is a bit backed up these days, but they will get to your ticket. Don't try to 'bump' it because that will just put it to the end of line again.

[dollster68]

Thank you for your help. I re-uploaded all of the files and re-installed my few pluggins. Everything is working again (I think).

[Videx]

The symptoms you describe could very probably just be with your ISP (404 errors, partial page loading). It could also be an overloaded shared server (check server loads in cpanel if you can get to it during these times). The last thing I would do is go screwing with a vb install that was working fine the day before.

And no, users can't upload viruses in pictures. Or anywhere else, unless maybe you allow them to post html.

[melbo]

Thank you for your help. I re-uploaded all of the files and re-installed my few pluggins. Everything is working again (I think).

Well, I'm seeing your login page so I suppose it is working but, It is the slowest vB4 load I've ever seen. Are you on a free or $5.95 a month shared host? For what its worth, I'd never endure those load times as a visitor and would click 'back' after 5 seconds. You have a serious server problem and that may have caused your problems in the first place.

edit: For that slow of a server, you need to resize your logo, 196K is too big. The 5 frame gif looks great but it's also adding to your load time and resources.

edit2: impatient folks may have been hitting refresh over and over in rapidfire and it hurt something on your server or they throttled you.