Website Offline, No Cached Version Available

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So the implication is that if people get this error message (which seems very frequent) then WP is effectively a dead-site unless/until they clear their cookies. Just how many people are going to know they need to do this - or even how to do this, especially if they can't even view the pages here explaining the problem in the first place? Some people never close their browser anyway, leaving multiple tabs open permanently.

I discovered yesterday that I was able to get online again after closing and reopening my browser (but it is set to delete all cookies automatically at close anyway), however, I still kept getting the error message subsequently after restarting the browser either at log in or within one or two clicks after that. After the error message there was no way to get the site to display no matter how many times I clicked the back button on the browser and tried again.

Very many, I expect. It does seem to vary by location - during the peak of the troubles last night I was having problems keeping an April Fool thread going with OliveOilMom because of CloudFlare, yet she was having no problem at all. She has also been the only user I know of who has had a CloudFlare-related demand for a captcha code.

Just the same for me. I wandered off in the end because it was getting to be too much.
And yet, I've not found a case where WP is actually offline: every time I restart the browser there is no problem and WP works fine - for a few minutes, maybe even 30 minutes - and then it starts again with the no cached version errors.
Once that appears, you're done for and for me, only a browser restart fixes it. Clearing session cookies didn't help.

I've just done a little experiment, wondering if the problem was restricted to Firefox or its add-ons. Just tried MS Internet Explorer 9 (default settings and no add-ons) and after a couple of minutes got the same error message about the site being offline with no cached version available.

Yes. At the moment CloudFlare blocks WP much more effectively than it assists.

Clearing cookies, even if that was a reliable method and ignoring that it's probably too technical for most members anyway - might also be easier on some browsers than others.
In Firefox it's still a multi-click, multi-dialog route that would be difficult to explain. I have a plugin which makes it easy to select cookie types - but since I practically breath, eat and sleep IT - it would be easy...

Clearing all cookies might work - but I often have many tabs open which are unrelated to WP so there would very likely be unfortunate side-effects.

Hmph. Well then, there we have it.

Experiment #2.

Tried with IE9 again. Again after a few minutes got the error message. Tried using the back button on the browser and opening different things but always got the error message. So it confirms that once you get the error it is permanent, the site never works again. I tried deleting all cookies, browsing history and the cache without closing IE. I was prompted to login again (as one would expect) but immediately got the error again. So the only way to work around the problem is to close and reopen the browser. It does not appear to be directly cookie related. This appears to be the case with both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Interesting.
I'll wrap up a few things I have open on other tabs and then try to confirm all that with a "nekkid" Firefox.

We just tweaked some of the security settings on the server-side to try to eliminate issues. I'm especially interested if issues are still occuring.

I have had no problem with it and I am on safari.

Yep, confirmed with Firefox.
I started it in safe mode, bypassing all bolt-ons and tweaks, and logged on without problem.

Here's the initial screen - note the orange CloudFlare headers telling me the site is offline, but a cached copy can be used.
(reduced in size for posting so the text is a little squished)


So I scrolled about a bit, spotted the other orange header bottom left (which appears to relate to external ad. content not being available), then clicked on the "Community" tab, top left - to immediately get this:

As quickly as possible I restarted Firefox normally and then checked access the other way: no problems - WP is accessible and CloudFlare lies.

I ran it again in safe mode some time later: this time there were no "cached copy" headers and I was able to successfully browse several forums and posts for around 15 minutes - until the "no cached copy" error popped up again.
The only escape then was a browser restart - to discover that WP is still up and running fine.

Spotted this after I'd made my previous post so I'm back in "normally" and we'll see how it goes...

Far from being fixed. I just open IE9, copied and pasted the address for this thread from Firefox to IE.

This page came up fine.

Clicked "Log in" and immediately got the message: Website Offline, No Cached Version Available

Virtually an instant fail.

Redacted

Last edited by nat4200 on 21 Apr 2012, 1:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

I managed about 15 minutes of problem-free usage with my normal FF browser setup and the usual URL - but then got the "no cached version available" error and that was that.

Well, actually tweaked isn't so much the word as "blew everything away just to see what would happen"

Nothing in any logs about cloudflare being blocked server-side - but I figured it was worth a shot anyway. Looks like that did just about nothing.

EDIT: Admittedly, I'm getting rather desperate. This is the part in the troubleshooting process where you throw a whole bunch of stuff to the wall and see what sticks.

Redacted

Last edited by nat4200 on 21 Apr 2012, 1:57 am, edited 3 times in total.