Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

I regularly get a: critical error, flood detected message from phpBB while trying to navigate through the different rooms on the site

I am on dial-up but I never used to get this message until recently (during the last month I'd say) and it happens whether there is 16 people on line or 50. :?: :?: :?:

Anyone help me with this? Is there some setting on my 'puter I need to change??

We've been going through quite a number of upgrades that most of you don't know about. One in particular we've been hoping would solve a major problem the Admins used to deal with regularly. While I can't imagine how it could affect someone on dialup, we've taken note of your problem and are looking at it.

Bumping this one along to the head cheese.

I get that once and a while, I normally just hit back and try something different.

You're behind some sort of cache server (network-wise, anyway).

We'd been having problems for a while where cache servers would swoop in and image the site, often sending out several hundred connections for forum pages in a matter of seconds. That barrage of connections would overwhelm the BC server and cause other users to see errors about the forum being unable to connect to the database. (There'* more to it than that; if anybody is interested, pm me for a detailed explanation.) The site would require several minutes to recover from the hit and clear the backlog.

For a while, the standard solution was to ban the IP addresses of the cache servers; however, that is slow and reactionary, as the flood must occur before the offending IP can be banned, and one of the admins had to enter the IP address by hand.

After thinking about the problem for a while, I wrote a script that can dynamically detect flood events from cache servers and drop those connections before they overwhelm the site; essentially, an auto-ban. When my script detects that the flood has ended, the offending IP address is un-banned within a few seconds of the last request.

The result has been amazingly successful. The server is much more responsive, the admins aren't bothered with manually entering IP bans, and most users don't notice any difference. My script has turned away hundreds of floods since it was implemented a few weeks ago.

There are some problems for the users stuck behind the cache servers. For the most part, you won't be able to do much except try to convince your network admins to configure the cache server so that it doesn't hammer web servers.

That brings me to your situation. It appears that your ISP is Juno. Juno is a particularly egregious perpetrator of these "floods;" there were a half-dozen today that the script caught. It'* probably related to their "5x faster web surfing" feature; cache servers have the potential to significantly increase perceived speed for users behind them. You might try turning that off, but that may or may not be possible and may or may not solve the problem. You could switch ISP, but that'* quite drastic.

The most straightforward "solution" is to simply grin and bear it. If you see that error, there'* nothing wrong with your computer or the BC server, it just means that the BC server is detecting a flood from your IP address. Wait a few seconds and try again.

Admittedly, the flood control script is only a crutch. The real solution would be to get a more powerful (read: dedicated) database server to complement the BC web server. Unfortunately, what you see is what I can afford (one dedicated server) Of course, I'm always open to other solutions if anybody has any ideas.

Sorry for any inconvenience,
Jeff

Not much of an inconvenience sir, happen once to me all nite(in and out) and I just refreshed and fine. Great site and it'* very generous of you to spend your time and resources. Thank you

Willren & Teuobk, Thank you both for your quick response to me problem. I appreciate you taking the time to address personally and explaining the situation. I guess I'll just have to learn to deal with it because this site is managed too well to leave it over what amounts to a minor annoyance. Thanks again and keep up the good work.

BTW, I am able to turn my 5X off and after trying it out that way... no more flood messages. Thank you for the tip.