AVSIM Guest Access Restriction

[anthony31]

Hello All

So I clicked on my AVSIM button on my favs bar and get greeted with this message:

Because of current system loads, we are only allowing 250 unregistered guests online at the moment. Please check back later when system loading has reduced and we have removed this restriction. Thank you for your patience. Also, we suggest that when you do get access, please take the opportunity to register, or better, you can register by using the link below. Access to the AVSIM site is free and it is very easy to join.

If you are already a registered member or would like to register, register or login here.

You can attempt to get Guest Access again by clicking here.

I don't know whether I should bother trying to login (could AVSIM have been hacked and this is just a method of phishing logins? I remember a similar thing happened to SOH a few years ago). Of course, clicking on my favs link normally takes me to the site where I am logged in but today it seems I have to login again. And if I do log in will I have to keep logging in every time I decide to visit AVSIM again.

[stiz]

Gotta love avsim, always having problems

[OleBoy]

The server overload has been going on over there for at least a couple weeks now.

[ryanbatc]

Gotta love avsim, always having problems

I enjoy all forums. I agree they seem to have slowdown especially near the Holidays but in their defense they run a TON of people through there. PMDG has their forums there which is a big reason for the slowdowns.

Lately it it has been pretty slow for me though too.

[dandog]

NBD, not to be confused with NDB, just sign just as you do here. Unless you are on a stealth mission.

[modelr]

I have mine set to automatic log--in, or "keep me logged in" all the time, at Avsim, Flightsim.com, and here at SoH. Never any problem. All of them do reset the log-in at least once a month. So I just log in again, check the box to stay logged in. No problems.

[n4gix]

The two AVSIM forum servers were designed to accommodate up to 900 simultaneous connections, which a few years ago represented the absolute peak load, with ~600 being the average.

For the past six months, the average has risen to ~960, which is considerably higher than the max planned for! Of course, the temporary "fix" of limiting "Guest Access" is sort of self-defeating, since many of those who were semi-regular "Guests" have now registered...

[Milton Shupe]

Gotta love avsim, always having problems

We all have our issues, and issues from growth is better than alternatives.

Happy to see AVSIM growing like this. Patience and support will see them through.

Thanks Fr. Bill for the update.

[Paul Domingue]

Any site that interests you more then then a handful of visits is worth registering with. That is what AVSIM is to me.

[anthony31]

Well, I usually have my AVSIM account logged in which is what threw me. And I am always careful about new things asking for passwords. I logged in again to AVSIM (has to reset my password as I have forgotten it) so hopefully that will stick when I next try.

[n4gix]

Adding to the current "woes" at AVSIM, apparently the currently installed version of IPBoard forum software isn't IE11 aware yet, so I've had to learn to work around some of the incompatibilities. It does make my job as a global moderator a bit more of a challenge though...

[adi518]

Noticed this problem too.. luckily I don't need guest access.

The server overloading has been going on for a few months now.. I think they should definitely upgrade the server to keep up with demand. Hopefully, the site is profitable enough to allow that, at some point in 2014.

[n4gix]

The server hardware is still relatively new. What's really required is a rebuild of the MySQL database and refactoring of the code to allow for faster access and searches.

[stansdds]

One of the things I find most appealing about AvSim are the payware unofficial support forums. I have gleaned much information about products that I own or am thinking about purchasing. Sadly, my settings are set to automatically log in, yet I get a "503 Service Unavailable" message. I hope they get their issues sorted out.

[stansdds]

I managed to get logged in! I quickly went through the forums that interest me most, read posts in which I have posted or seemed important, then quickly left the site so someone else could get in. It was a bit "jerky". Some pages loaded quickly, others took a while.

[Canelo]

I believe the open source backend software is the issue. With upgrades to MySQL and PHP modules and the addition of more modules the legacy code causes server overloads. If you look at the facts AVSim actually has less traffic now than a year ago.

Apache, MySQL, PHP, Zlib and other plugin libraries have several upgrades every year as well as server interfaces like cPanel/WHM. Open source code doesn't get the attention commercial packages do and after a few years it actually slows down upgraded server hardware. It's like putting regular gasoline in a nitro burning funny car!

Take a look at SOH, we spend $14,000 a year with a large percentage going to software upgrades and active support. We use only supported commercial backend and front end software and pay to stay on the leading edge in license and support fees. SOH gets about 1/2 the traffic of AVSim but we have many more interactive features such as streaming video & audio, full size images in posts and extended attachment uploads. Our software resizes images, makes thumbnails and does other processes to cut server calls and the bandwidth required for all the extras.

After our last upgrades to Apache and all the supporting modules our server loads were cut in half, heck we were even able to up bandwidth settings for Warbirds downloads and attached forum images and videos.

It's important to have a single login security system with one set of cookies, this also improves server loads. In using different open source routines that don't share your backend login and security systems causes higher server loads and lots of small conflicts.

It would be a large undertaking for AVSim to change software specially the legacy file library. It would also be expensive to buy the commercial backend system with a single login and permission sets. Lets face it you can no longer write your own routines and have a good front end experience with better access and lower server demands.

The above comments are not those of SOH, just mine as a professional web site developer. The comments aren't meant to be critical of AVSim but to be helpful in improving an already great web site.