Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   Cacophony
   Member

   I've tried several times to write a comment on today's giveaway, Angel's Vox, and I keep receiving the error:

   502 Bad Gateway
   nginx/0.5.33

   I noticed a couple of other threads on this problem, but it doesn't appear to have been fixed. I've only managed to successfully post one comment on this site, and that was before the new commenting and rating system was installed. I thought that sharing my experience with the software might help other users (and provide feedback for the developer), but I guess I'll have to keep my comments to myself.

   Posted 14 years ago #
2. 

   aRenegade
   Member

   After you clicked submit and got the Gateway error have you gone back to the GOTD site later to check the Comments? Reason I ask is I've experienced those same Gateway error messages only to find my comment had posted later in the day. Strange but true......

   Posted 14 years ago #
3. 

   caulbox
   Member

   That's exactly what's been happening to me too. Though today I probably attempted to post the same comment 4 or 5 times. Each time I waited (sometimes quite a long time) to see if my posting might actually have got through when the comments were next updated.

   I was quite surprised when my comment did eventually appear today. It was timed a long time after my first attempt at posting. I can only presume that my final attempt might have dropped lucky, whereas the other attempts failed?

   I've actually been trying NOT to repeatedly submit the same comment. In fact today I eventually gave up and posted here in the forums instead. But this really does need sorting. Being left with uncertainty is a very frustrating experience, and I'm wondering if the GOTD staff are themselves being burdened by (understandable) repeated postings? But with the paucity of a clear explanation about the error message, users can hardly be blamed for concluding that their submission of a comment was not received by GOTD.

   Could someone please clarify exactly what the problem entails?

   Posted 14 years ago #
4. 

   Cacophony
   Member

   Unlike the two of you, the comment I attempted to post a dozen times, over a period of several hours, never appeared. What's most frustrating about this situation is that I went to a lot of trouble to write a detailed explanation about my experience with the software - the kind of thing that I always hope other users will write to help me decide whether to download a program here.

   Useless one-sentence comments, often unrelated to the software, always seem to get posted and quality comments do not (judging by the content of the comments I read here on a daily basis). What, then, is the point of having a comment section?

   I suspect that some of our comments have been deleted as duplicate submissions. But, without some answer from the GOTD staff regarding the nature of this problem, there's no way for us to know for sure.

   GOTD is doing itself a disservice by not addressing this problem. Quality feedback from users may serve as an incentive for developers to offer their products for download here. It may also encourage more users to try the offerings on this site. Clarification of the problem, and a fix for it, would benefit us all.

   Posted 14 years ago #
5. 

   Anonymous
   Unregistered

   GOTD or bad Router ? https://www.grc.com/dns/dns.htm

   Router Crash Test

   http://smarterware.org/3889/how-to-know-when-your-dns-servers-are-failing

   Posted 14 years ago #
6. 

   caulbox
   Member

   No problems surfaced for me with the DNS server test. Dig was not recognized as a valid command (on XP SP3) but nslookup giveawayoftheday.com informed me that the server was dsldevice.lan and returned an IP address. I was also given a non-authoritative answer reporting the GOTD site name and address.

   Posted 14 years ago #
7. 

   linennis
   Member

   I'm also getting the "Bad Gateway" errors in trying to get today's download. Tried both links.

   Posted 14 years ago #
8. 

   Inas
   Member

   Hi Cacophony and others, hope you are all doing well. First of all, I wish everyone (and your families) a very happy, healthy new year.

   Second, with respect to comments not being posted - I know that when I try to post comments via AOL, it does not work sometimes, and also, the "awaiting moderation" queue message does not show up at all, so I'm not sure whether my comment went through successfully (and it's just a problem with the message) or whether my comments did not go through at all.

   You may want to try Firefox, which is what I use now, and it works like a charm. Not only do my comments go through successfully, but I also see the "awaiting moderation" message every time.

   That said, if it's not a web brower issue - you may want to contact the GOTD admin staff directly, via the online "contact form." I did this back when I was having problems with my comments, and the GOTD admin staff were very nice and helpful. Maybe they can give you some helpful suggestions. It's just a thought.

   In summary - wishing everyone a very happy, healthy, safe, successful new year, and may peace reign supreme (all over the world) in 2010.

   Best,
   Inas

   Posted 14 years ago #
9. 

   Violet4714
   Member

   hi, linennis...

   if your problem is only downloading, & you are trying to download from the main english site, try to download from the other (non-english) main pages of the site...

   that has worked for some when these glitches occur...

   some also have success with right-clicking the download link & selecting "save as" (or similar wording), but i've been lucky & never had to try that...

   hope something there helps...

   Posted 14 years ago #
10. 

    RoseD1st
    Member

    502 Bad Gateway
    nginx/0.5.33 here too,Im on firefox

    Posted 14 years ago #
11. 

    caulbox
    Member

    There's a layman's explanation of this error message on the Mahalo Answers page linked below:
    http://www.mahalo.com/answers/technology-and-internet/can-someone-explain-to-me-in-layman-terms-please-what-502-bad-gateway-nginx-means

    ....with more specific emphasis on the nginx (pronounced as "engine X") portion of the error message, a poster in another Mahalo Answers topic states that:
    "nginx is the Free and Open Source Software That Mahalo Answers Uses To Run Their Database, that error most probably means that there is a problem with your name and details entry on the answers database"
    http://www.mahalo.com/answers/technology-and-internet/any-ideas-what-might-be-causing-the-502-bad-gateway-nginx-that-ive-been-getting-trying-to-load-mahalo-pages-today

    As I only encounter the Gateway errors when attempting to submit a comment, I'm now speculating as to whether the errors could be related to glitches which only become apparent after filling in the Name and Mail fields?

    Posted 14 years ago #
12. 

    Cacophony
    Member

    Well, since we're trying to troubleshoot this ourselves, without assistance from the GOTD staff, I'd guess that the problem is related to a configuration error with GOTD's WordPress installation. (The comment section is run by a WordPress blog.)

    After repeatedly refreshing the error page I received, I got the usual WordPress duplicate submission message: "Duplicate comment; it looks like you've already said that". The 502 gateway error may be allowing some of our comments to be submitted to the server, even though it returns an error message. This makes us think that the comment did not go through and try again. By clicking on the submit button more than once, our comments may get caught by WordPress' filter. I've seen WordPress return this error message when only one comment is submitted (not multiple attempts), but only when there's a problem on the server.

    Unless GOTD investigates the configuration problems on their server, we'll continue to have difficulty posting comments (and in some cases, users will be unable to download the software).

    Posted 14 years ago #
13. 

    zzyzx
    Member

    I've been getting the same error for days now. At first, the mirror download URL worked to download to archive, now both links cause to 502 gateway error.

    Posted 14 years ago #
14. 

    caulbox
    Member

    Mmmmm....if Cacophony is on the right trail, then I hope that malicious code isn't a feasible further possibility? I know nothing about WordPress, but Wikipedia does raise a lot of concerns about security vulnerabilities:

    "In May 2007, a study revealed that 98% of WordPress blogs being run were exploitable because they were running outdated and unsupported versions of the software."

    "In a June 2007 interview, Stefen Esser, the founder of the PHP Security Response Team, spoke critically of WordPress's security track record, citing problems with the application's architecture that made it unnecessarily difficult to write code that is secure from SQL injection vulnerabilities, as well as some other problems."

    ....(as recently as) "In December 2009, an attacker breached a RockYou! plaintext database containing the unencrypted usernames and passwords of about 32 million users by using a SQL injection attack"

    Am I demonstrating my ignorance here, or could there be justified grounds for being a bit concerned ?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_injection

    Posted 14 years ago #

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