40 replies to this topic

[Kyle Polulak]

To all whom have problems with white pages, "Get A Better Browser" and the like...

We may have finally tracked down the problem bug and squashed it. Let me lead you down the rabbit hole I had traveled down. We need to make sure our CSS and Javascript files are served as fast as possible. We use Apache to serve content to our CDN (Content Delivery Network) which in turn serves you guys. Lately we have been building caching rules and behaviors so our content can been accessible to more and more people.

One of these new rules is that Apache will send only a 304 Not Modified header to a browser or CDN node should that asset not been changed since it was last fetched. This makes things faster and more efficient.

Or so we thoughts. Apache being the robust and steadfast server software of the ages had a deep and dark secret lurking in it's codes.

Apache also, normally, sends a header called Content-Type. The Content-Type header is a happy little fellow who's job is to let the browser know that the incoming content from the webserver is a certain type. So if we were going to serve a HTML page, Apache would, normally, send along it's Content-Type: text/html.

Here's where it gets interesting; once our Apache server was returning 304 Not Modified headers it would omit any Content-Type header we had set along with it; so the CDN was left with the task of 'guessing' what the Content-Type would be and by default it's text/html. If the browser tries to load a CSS file that it's expecting to be text/css and the server returns text/html the browser may not render the CSS file leading to a white screen.

Inversely this can happen with the browser tries to load a Javascript (JS) file and the browser is expecting a Content-Type of text/javascript but getting text/html the browser may not parse the javascript file leading to "Get A Better Browser" messages on the home page.

You guys can use this forum, which I left open but closed the others, to let me know if it's still happening to you. Remember to clear your cache to get new versions of the CSS/JS files and to disable any browser plugins that deal directly with the blocking of assets (AdBlocks, NoScript) even if you've white-listed or allowed our site. Just to be sure it's us and not you.

Thanks again for bringing this to our attention, you guys rock!

[Team Leader]

No idea what this post means but its a good thing to know someone at PGI is enthusiastic to share their progress! Lol

[Rema86]

Suprising thread given the current radio silence.

I had the issue he speaks off for the past couple of days. Entire backgrounds and links would change color to the standard white/blue. Seemed to have this primarily on Chrome v27 as did a mate while a 3rd on firefox said he did not(or simply missed it).

Hasn't returned since your post. I'll edit it if it does.

[superbob]

Well that sure is weird, I'd have thought that after so many years of service and terabytes of sites served, Apache would no longer have bugs like that. Then again one might at least hope that the CDN would try to be smart about the content type, and infer it from the file extension. Or that, finally, the browsers would be more rugged and just ignore the content-type from the headers and use whatever is specified in the link/script tags.

Can't really blame a person after this much unexpected fail happened in one place.

Then again you just can't trust computers to behave on Fridays, it's especially at the start of the weekend that things break down in the most bizarre ways. Better be on the safe side and triple-check for effects of cosmic radiation, solar flares and gremlins before you call it a day.

[Haradim]

Well, it was happening to me for a couple weeks, and now appears to be resolved on at least 2 of my affected PCs.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Possibly related, IOS7 safari browser has the same white page issue when attempting to log in.

[saintchuck]

Still broken for log-in page.

Edit: Still broken all over.

Edited by saintchuck, 09 July 2013 - 04:35 AM.

[Tyranum]

Yay! Fixed...after the better part of a month it is finally back to normal. Thanks for the update!

[Kyle Polulak]

saintchuck, on 09 July 2013 - 04:34 AM, said:

Still broken for log-in page. Edit: Still broken all over.

Did you clear your cache, I mean a hard cache clean?

[Playdoh]

Kyle Polulak, on 09 July 2013 - 09:39 AM, said:

Did you clear your cache, I mean a hard cache clean?

I have the same problem - I cleared the Cache in chrome and I am still getting the white page/trashed forum

Double checked and loaded IE - same problem.

Would the anti-virus have anything to do with it? (I'm using Avast)

edit again - I think I have found a way to fix it (besides clearing the cache). go to the main website and browse to the forum from there.

I was going directly to the forums before.

p.s. i agree with SjurWarEagle: please keep up the information

Edited by Playdoh, 11 July 2013 - 03:56 AM.

[SjurWarEagle]

Kyle? Please don't get infected by the pgi-not-informing-disease currently going through the forum.
I really like your posts

[T Hawk]

Site is still bugged or bugged again, Javascript is enabled other sites work mwomercs doesn't.

I can't purchase MC. Tried Firefox, Chrome and IE with latest Java versions 32 AND 64 bit. No addons installed.

[Kyle Polulak]

T Hawk, on 11 July 2013 - 09:05 AM, said:

Site is still bugged or bugged again, Javascript is enabled other sites work mwomercs doesn't.

I can't purchase MC. Tried Firefox, Chrome and IE with latest Java versions 32 AND 64 bit. No addons installed.

Let's get one thing clear first-off; Java does not have anything to do with Javascript.

In Chrome, if you can figure out how to get to the Inspector then to the error log, could you copy and paste it to me in a private message? I can very well isolate your rendering issue if the error is in there.

SjurWarEagle, on 11 July 2013 - 03:49 AM, said:

Kyle? Please don't get infected by the pgi-not-informing-disease currently going through the forum. I really like your posts

I'm the antidote.

Playdoh, on 11 July 2013 - 03:39 AM, said:

...go to the main website and browse to the forum from there. I was going directly to the forums before....

What was the exact URL you were using that would cause the problem?

[Oderint dum Metuant]

http://imgur.com/PUj7w1o

why are we not allowed to post .jpg?

[Kyle Polulak]

DV McKenna, on 11 July 2013 - 10:07 AM, said:

http://imgur.com/PUj7w1o why are we not allowed to post .jpg?

This screenshot doesn't help at all, all it tells me is you block ads with your browser.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Kyle Polulak, on 11 July 2013 - 11:49 AM, said:

This screenshot doesn't help at all, all it tells me is you block ads with your browser.

Forgot about that, however that was the only error on that page in the chrome dev console.

[Checkergott]

i donwload the online installer, and i doesnt works whats wrong?

[Ensaine]

Still borked, and now worse than ever. http://mwomercs.com/login leads to a white page with text, and fields available for logging in, but all down the left side as if in one column. Logging in, the site returns to normal, log out and refresh, back to white w/ text.

However, going directly to http://mwomercs.com/landingpad shows totally normal page layout.


If you don't get a grip on this soon, it's going to be buried in code, and interlinked with so much other code that eventually we're gonna get a perma-broken site.

Time to optimize and clean up.

Firefox, cache dumped, cookies for this site dumped, addons disabled, still issues.

IE: same, same, same.

Edited by Ensaine, 12 July 2013 - 03:39 AM.

[Playdoh]

Kyle Polulak, on 11 July 2013 - 09:53 AM, said:

What was the exact URL you were using that would cause the problem?

the link i have in chrome is: mwomercs.com/forums/

after i googled MWO and went through the main website (after clearing cache and turning adblock off) forum seems to work again

[sicky]

it still dont work for me.
I use Firefox 22.0, deactivated noscript, cleared my cache and deletes all cookies.
I also tryed IE 10.0.7, even with my Windows Phone 8 Mobile, and i just installed google chrome 28.0.
I restarted my Computer and my Gateway (router).
Everytime the "Get A Better Browser" Button appears.
This is very frustrating since i want to purchase Overlord tier(Project Phoenix).

Edited by sicky, 12 July 2013 - 09:46 AM.