Starting late Friday afternoon, and spanning all through yesterday, I was unable to log on here. kept getting an error message that my "credentials" were wrong.
I really suspected that I had been banned.
But today everthing seems to be back working. Anybody else have this problem, or am I "special"?
Personally - I have had no problems logging on. I am however getting times when I attempt to acces the site and NOTHING HAPPENS. After a period of time I access some other site and that site comes right up.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I had the same experience as C.O. Things seem fine today.
This happened to a bunch of other posters about a year ago. I was not affected then, and they do not seem to be affected now.
I suspected I had not been banned this time, you get a different error screen if you try to log in to a banned account.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
BaltACD Personally - I have had no problems logging on. I am however getting times when I attempt to acces the site and NOTHING HAPPENS. After a period of time I access some other site and that site comes right up.
Must be those darned I.T. Gremlins, at work again.... .
It seems that their philosophy is "..If it is 'workin..."
"... It must be a problem?..."
I had the same problem most of yesterday. Late in the evening I was able to log-on. I noted that many people were still posting things, and I suspect those people don't log-out and do not delete the cookies on their cornpewter (which is where the log-on status is stored), so when they return to the forum, the cookie is detected showing that they are logged-on and so they had no problem.
Most web-sites use multiple computers to perform different processes (so as to not overload just one). I figure just the one that was tasked with processing log-ons was feeling out of sorts, thus the forum worked, but no one could log-on new.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
SD70Dudeou get a different error screen if you try to log in to a banned account.
Is it abundantly clear from the message on that error screen that you've been banned?
Or is it just some cryptic "Nyah Nyah!!" type mesage?
Convicted One SD70Dude ou get a different error screen if you try to log in to a banned account. Is it abundantly clear from the message on that error screen that you've been banned? Or is it just some cryptic "Nyah Nyah!!" type mesage?
SD70Dude ou get a different error screen if you try to log in to a banned account.
If I recall correctly, you get a fairly blank page with Kalmbach letterhead at the top, similar to the PM screen. I forget the exact wording, but it informs you that the account has been banned/suspended/removed from the forums for about the next 100 years, and even gives you the expiry date of your ban down to the second.
For some time after being banned I could still comment on NewsWire stories, and access other parts of the trn.trains.com site. The ban obviously only applied to the cs.trains servers.
It was already a challenge for me on Friday night...just my three entries for Kalmbach (this, Newswire, and the Rochelle webcam). I finally got this Forum opened up yesterday, then accessed the Newswire late last night through the Forum. Guess we'll have to visit Rochelle in person...
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
I had problems starting Friday after I did a "cookie purge." When I tried to log in the system recognized my e-mail address and password, then it timed-out and said there was, you guessed it, a problem with my password.
"Well how the hell can there be a problem with the password if the system recognised it during my attempted sign-on?" says I.
I sent an e-mail to Customer Service Saturday morning and by the afternoon it was fixed. Sorry for everyone elses trouble but I'm glad to see I wasn't alone.
I have not had troubles logging in as such, but from time to time the system is slow in taking me where I want to go, even after a while telling me that it has timed out.
Johnny
Flintlock76I sent an e-mail to Customer Service Saturday morning and by the afternoon it was fixed. Sorry for everyone elses trouble but I'm glad to see I wasn't alone.
Here is a little twist to our story.
After I concluded that I must have been banned, I adopted a "wut, me worry?" outlook, and decided I had little to lose.
So I opted through the "Forgot your password?" help process, and they emailed me a link to a widget that would allow me to change my password.
So, after assigning myself a fresh password.....I still could not log on, still being refused over improper credentials..then tried my old as well as new password several times before accepting that I must be history, and that disabling my "credentials" must be the tool of preference they use to ban people.
Then, today I logged on with my new password...just fine.
I'm inclined to agree Semper Vaporo, they likely have various processes distributed across multiple machines, and their "authentication server" was likely taking the day off.
I think if you had cookies, you were good and if you didn't, you couldn't log in.
Firefox breaks the PM text box, so when I have to send one, I have to log in on Edge. Tried a few days ago and couldn't log in on any browser but was fine since I had Firefox signed in.
That reminds me, something else I noticed while browsing the forum, during the time I could not log in.....I had ads...all over that portion of the screen on the right side, (under The Newsletter Sign-up widget)
Friday night and Saturday morning I could not even get onto the Trains.com website. Google showed something like Gateway error.
MidlandMikeGoogle showed something like Gateway error.
Likely 504 - one of Kalmbach's servers asking for another one and not getting the expected answer in time. Perhaps site-improvement related. In older models of Web development the IT people would put up a 'men working' page when they took some of the site 'enablement' down to work on it, or when something broke or crashed. Now they just fix it and let the marks wonder.
Alan Kay and others had a theory about 'never say no to a user' back in the dawn of the "Internet experience" as surfer's paradise; the flip side of this was a "security" model that avoided saying 'no' by never allowing questions to be asked. One of the bastard grandchildren of this general idea appears when the 'login' problem crops up: you never actually get an error or fault message of any kind; the screen just blinks a bit and drops you back to the sign-in screen as if nothing had happened. No messages, no workarounds, no contacts for help -- no explanation forthcoming. And then you go to contact Customer Service and can't get past the mandatory screen for subscribers only if you don't know the secret Vulcan nerve pinch path to access the old e-mail form.
Now, I'd think that all the shelter-in-place home time would put Kalmbach IT with a big leg up on 'surprising' us with the New Forum Experience. That should get rid of most of the cobbled-together configuration differences between the various magazine forums -- I can finally read MR with last post first, like I have it in my defaults, without having to select it every time with every thread.
On the other hand, to paraphrase Dorothy Parker, what fresh hell will this be?
Yes, it is "504 error."
Keep in mind that this whole panic event is also serving as a test of the Internet in terms of capacity. People are doing things on-line that they haven't done before - on-line meetings, moving documents from home to business servers, email, watching movies from home because they can't go out, you-name-it.
Some gateway nodes that were getting by may now be over-subscribed. This can be something of a local issue. If all the hops between a site and me are running fine, I don't have a problem. If a hop between you and the same site has a problem, you'll have a problem.
There are usually a lot of hops between the user and the server, over some arcane looking routes. My packet may go from here to NYC to Chicago (via who knows where) to Chicago, and so on.
The tech savvy might be able to do a "tracert" to a server in question, but some sites have blocked such traces due to distributed denial of service attacks (DDOS). Still, the results you do get will sometimes amaze you...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
NorthWest Firefox breaks the PM text box, so when I have to send one, I have to log in on Edge.
Firefox breaks the PM text box, so when I have to send one, I have to log in on Edge.
The latest version of FireFox on the Mac has the same problem with the PM text box, but an old & decrepit FF v48.0.2 does not have the PM text box problem.
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