On Wed, 9 Jun 2004, Paul A. Rubin wrote:
> > Actually, I think it *is* a matter of the amount of text. The page above
> > was on a different server.
>
> So you think the text quantity issue is tied to a specific server (as
> opposed to a specific client, or client configuration, or failure to
> make an appropriate propitiation to the gods before clicking "save")?
I don't know what I think - the last time I actually tried to get a handle
on this problem nothing made sense really...
> You're right. Deleting paragraph 5 did not do the job, but deleting 4
> and 5 let me save it.
So we know this problem only occurs if the size is above a certain limit.
> I do this from my office (Ethernet to OC3 (?) link to regional net). I
> have a personal firewall on my office PC, and there are allegedly
> firewalls in place between my building and our campus and between our
> campus and Out There.
The firewall could be a common denominator... my router at home has a
built in gateway. Actually, I wonder if the problem disappeared when I
got a new router at home? If I have enough energy I'll see if I can plug
the old router back in and see if I get problem again.
> However, the building firewall (allegedly) only filters inbound traffic,
> and I believe the same holds for the campus firewall. So the edited
> page should be reaching the server.
> > This seems to be a problem that only happens when you:
> > * Do the save from some network (unknown what the characteristics are)
> > * The page contains more text than some unknown limit
> >
> > Maybe there is something in the network path that doesn't like posting
> > data over a certain size?
>
> Highly unlikely in my case. The server I used for a successful remote
> post is on the same network segment as my office PC, so the successful
> and unsucessful traffic should have followed pretty much identical
> routes.
Ok, that's actually good since it means that the problem is "closer".
> The server has a static IP and my PC gets its IP address by DHCP, but
> that seems unlikely to explain the difference.
I agree.
> Hmm. Just edited the page successfully from two PCs across the hall
> from my office (same segment). One was Win 98, the other Win XP (same
> as my office), so the OS is not the differentiator.
> (Incidentally, FYI, the Wiki pages do not display correctly on Netscape
> 4.76, perhaps indicating a problem with CSS support in an older browser.)
Probably... was it really bad? (Maybe it's enough if I write a note in
the Site.FAQ that Netscape 4.76 is too old.)
> Aha! (Or perhaps I should say "Aha??") I turned off my firewall
> momentarily (scary thing to do here), and an edit went through just
> fine. Stranger still, I then turned the firewall back on, and I can
> still edit the test page.
Ok... I can buy that turning of the firewall (what kind of firewall btw?)
allows you to edit, but why would it keep working???
> I can't find anything in the firewall log with respect to traffic
> to/from wiki.lyx.org. However, there is an entry with a similar IP
> address (maps to tott.linpro.no).
I think the wiki server is in Norway and here's a funny thing:
wiki.lyx.org is an alias for aussie.lyx.org.
aussie.lyx.org has address 80.232.38.164
tott.linpro.no has address 80.232.38.218
so these two machines are very close... this seems significant since I
don't remember encountering this problem on other wiki servers.
> It's about the right time frame for one of my unsuccessful edit attempts
> (prior to turning the firewall off), and it indicates that the firewall
> blocked 19 ICMP Type 3 (Destination Unreachable) packets from
> tott.linpro.no, apparently in response to traffic I sent.
>
> Ok, this is getting a bit stochastic. I closed the browser and
> restarted it, then (with the firewall on) edited the LotsOfText page and
> tried to save. The browser hung, and the firewall reported a bunch of
> ICMP 3 packets from tott.linpro.no. Fine. I then ran netstat to check
> network connections, tried another edit (without shutting down the
> firewall, without restarting the browser) and the edit went through
> (!?). Then I tried another edit, and it failed, but I got no new ICMP
> packets from tott.linpro.no. And then another attempt succeeded.
This reminds me of something else that I've noticed... the first time I
want to upload a file, I have to click on the upload button twice (nothing
happens after the first click, just as if a request has been sent but
there's no response).
I'll bring this up on the devel list to see if tott.linpro.no is known.
/Christian
--
Christian Ridderstr�m http://www.md.kth.se/~chr
