Problems with S3 server? Or connecting? Or is it just me?

lostinasia
July 27, 2008, 09:44 AM posted in General Discussion

I'm getting lots of problems accessing things on the site this weekend (July 27/28) - I can't get any of the html files, and often I can't get audio from the buttons in the vocabulary / dialogue/ expansion sections. Much less importantly, many of the photos aren't coming through.

With Firefox, I keep getting "Firefox can't find the server at s3.amazonaws.com."

With Safari, I keep getting much the same thing.

I assume I'm not alone in this - but I just want to confirm.

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lostinasia
July 28, 2008, 03:35 AM

Question for Mac users: can you currently access the html transcript files? Or do the sound buttons in the Vocabulary/ Expansion/ Dialogue tabs work for you? Or do you get all the pictures?

For about 3-4 days, I've been mostly unable to access things that seem to be based on the s3.amazonaws.com section - html files, audio buttons, etc. However, my wife's Windows computer, on the same internet connection, DOES work for those things.

Otherwise my internet connection seems to be fine.

So the problem I'm having seems to be Mac-based. Now I'm trying to figure out if it's MY-computer based or more generally Mac-based.

The whole Mac mobileme thing has caused so many problems; maybe this is related. Or maybe my four year old laptop is starting to go.

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auntie68
July 28, 2008, 03:48 AM

Yes, this weekend I was having, here in Singapore (!!!!!), EXACTLY THE SAME problems logged by you. That's why I haven't been posting. The connection is just too twitchy. I am using a MacMini, Leopard, and Safari. Very strange, because I don't have this problem with any of the other (very many) sites which I habitually visit. Including the "-101" sites which John Pasden hates so much. But really, I am past caring, because when my "Basic" subscription expires, I won't be renewing it.

Having said that, I need to stress that I'm only a "Basic" subscriber, so I can't say anything useful about the Premium features you mention. However, I can say for sure that even things like logging on to "Conversations" or listening to something as simple as the free audio has been like one big nothing for me all weekend here in Singapore. Hmph...

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John
July 28, 2008, 03:57 AM

lostinasia,

Thank you for the report. Where are you based? We've been getting reports of connection issues to S3 from Taiwan. If you're in Taiwan, it's likely an issue with the Taiwanese internet connection.

I'm pretty sure auntie68 is not in Taiwan, though, which is definitely strange.

If you have any more clues to this puzzle, please let us know.

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auntie68
July 28, 2008, 04:04 AM

Erm, John, I think I mentioned twice in my post that I'm in Singapore... it's strange, but nothing that I can help. That's just how it has been for me.

Really wish I could help you more on this, but I've only been able to access CPOD maybe one time out of three (or four, or five, or not at all) during the past three days or so... the same applies to FPOD and IPOD.

If it helps you to solve the mystery, I haven't had any similar problems accessing any sites other than "me.com", which has owned up bravely to some transition problems, and these are well-documented too. I know it's not easy for the CPOD/Praxis team, I'll just hold back for the next few days until you sort it out. Take care.

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lostinasia
July 28, 2008, 04:29 AM

Re: Mac problems connecting to s3.amazonaws.com

Thanks for the reply John.

The problem FOR NOW has gone away. Did I do this? Did Amazon do this? Did ChinesePod? Did the typhoon (exciting weather outside my window today, and a day off work)?

What *I* did just now: I plugged my notebook directly into the internet cable. Usually that cable goes through an Apple Express router. When the computer was plugged directly into the connection, everything was great with ChinesePod. Hmm, I thought. Maybe this is a problem with the Airport.

I then disconnected the cable, and plugged that back into the router. Re-connected through the router. And, presto, everything works now. I have absolutely no idea why; perhaps this was the online equivalent of "turn it on and off and see what happens." Maybe it was just a bizarre coincidence with something else simultaneously being fixed at the other end of the tubes. 

Detailing the problem a little more: this morning, when I was still having these issues, everything on my wife's Windows computer was totally fine. We have a decent internet connection in a suburb of Taipei.

For places that I normally go online, ONLY ChinesePod was giving me trouble. (Other sites sometimes seemed slow, but don't they always...) I think the issue's lasted 3-4 days. The problems I had sound a little different from auntie68's: I could access and log on to Conversations/ Community without any problem; I could download podcasts. I could *almost* never get anything out of the audio buttons - it worked just often enough to be really confusing. I could *never* get any of the html files. I never use the audio players so I don't know if those were working or not. If I looked at the Community page, I'd see some avatars but not all of them; same thing for lesson pictures.

Auntie68, I think John's line about you not being in Taiwan was a joke... to be honest at the moment I'd be more inclined to think this problem comes from the Apple end, not the Praxis end, especially because resetting (?) my internet connection SEEMS to have solved the issue. The mobileme fiasco has wreaked havoc all over the place; for example, my free hard drive space dropped from 16GB to 2GB because of some iDisk sync thing that I'd toggled years ago and forgotten about. (That was a problem for Tiger users, not Leopard, and I've sorted it out on my system now, but I'm sure lots of other people remain bewildered.) 

Calkins uses a Mac too, right? I wonder how things are working for him.

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John
July 28, 2008, 05:03 AM

lostinasia,

Thanks for the update. ChinesePod is working on other issues, but it hasn't changed anything related to your issue. I'm wondering if you use any other sites that utilize S3 for hosting? It could be some kind of weird "Apple + S3" issue.

Anyway, yes it seems to be different from auntie68's issue, which is a strange one. (And yes, the comment about her not being in Taiwan was a little joke... guess it wasn't too funny.)

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auntie68
July 28, 2008, 05:04 AM

Hi LostInAsia, thanks for much for putting things into perspective. For CPOD as well as for hyper-sensitive, grumpy users like myself. Your "mobileme fiasco" explanation makes sense to me, I'm a mac.com user and have been very confused in recent days because of the transition to mobile.me. Thanks so much.

John, CPOD, Praxis, please let me turn down my own volume now, the problem I described could very well be down to some teething problems on the Apple side. Take care, and 加油.

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calkins
July 28, 2008, 05:09 AM

Hi Lostinasia,

My subscription ended 2 days ago and I haven't renewed yet...so I can't help with any of the premium content issues right now.

However, last week I was having the same problems with lesson photos.  Most of them were there, but some weren't.  I assumed it was an amazon issue, because at the time there were a number of lesson mp3's that weren't available from the amazon server.

I've been in the Conversations this weekend (both of my Macs - PowerBook G4 and iMac) without any issues, and without the avatar issue.

Hopefully it was just "resetting" your connection like you did.  I'll never blame anything on Apple :)

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lostinasia
July 28, 2008, 05:25 AM

Until my hard disk free space disappeared last week I'd never have blamed anything on Apple either...  at least I'm not in the (supposed) 1% of users that have lost all e-mail access. Apple's really messed up with the mobileme transition.

John, for future reference, do you know any other sites that are hosted with S3? That could help with trouble-shooting in the (hopefully distant) future.