Hi All,

You probably all noticed the downtime yesterday. As I mentioned in this thread I was going to carry out fileserver maintenance, however due to last minute bug fixing on the DDO, I didn't get a chance to do so. I pushed the maintenance forward, and carried it out yesterday.

The following was done:

• Removed traffic throttling modules on the Apache servers Chii and Freya, and instead moved the throttling down to the ethernet layer. The upshot of this is that there wont be any more 503 errors, however, under high load situations you may experience a delay in getting files as before.
• Added a module to Apache to stop download accelerator programs from completely leeching all the slots and bandwidth. See note below.
• Re-enabled the check for a valid MTS2 cookie login for getting files from the servers. See note below.
• Updated the Thanks counters to generate the correct number per user, thread and total number of posts thanked.

A note on download accelerators:

Badly configured download managers try to grab the same file once a second or every 2 seconds, and every single attempt uses slots on the fileserver, preventing normal downloads from starting and completing. Looking through the logs I've seen the same person attempt to grab 4 or 5 different files every second or two, which is unacceptable. We do not have lots of servers, or unlimited bandwidth.

From now on, any download accelerator requesting more than 1 file every 2 seconds will be blocked from any further downloads for a period of 60 seconds.

A note on cookie errors:

As mentioned above, I have re-enabled the cookie check for downloading files from MTS2. This is to prevent leeching of our bandwith by external sites and unregistered members. All MTS2 cookies should work across the entire domain of *.modthesims2.com, however if you use some extra security or cookie blockers, then downloads from files.modthesims2.com will fail.

If you have issues downloading and get the nocookie page, then you may check at http://chii.modthesims2.com/test.php - if that script reports that you have no MTS2 cookies then you must look on your system for how to fix it.

I will not be disabling this functionality since I believe it is in the best interests of the vast majority of members that they get fast, quick and non corrupt downloads and for the extremely small minority that might have issues, often only small changes are required to get it working again.

Summary:

The upshot of this work is that, with the traffic limitation in place at a lower level, and with extra blocks for leechers, this should give a much faster and more efficient download service to our members so you can all get the custom content you want.

Regards
Delphy

I am happy to see leechers and download manager thing taken care of. I look forward to improved downloading. Thanks a ton. Is there any way to temporarily ban or block people who will still try to do both or either?

As I mentioned, people who attempt to leech are disabled from downloading for 60 seconds. People who just wont give it up are then permenantly banned from downloading by the firewall.

Ah good! That is what I meant-the people who would not give up.

I happy that this has been sorted out. I've always had to wait ages until i can actually save the download, as well as getting loads of 503 errors.

Ah, I'm also glad that the 503 errors should be fixed...

It was never too much of a hassle, but it did get tiring having to hit Back and refresh the pages over and over again before I could download some of the files.

i have been trying to download the Majorsmadeeasier, but i cannot download anything from t his website. i have not downloaded anything in a long time.

thanx i hope for no more 503 errors!

I saw "Thanked 27606 times" in my own - now I know that was a bug thats fixed (It is a pity :D)

BTW this nice lady still has incorrect display counters
http://www.modthesims2.com/member/LyricLee

Thanks for fixing the counters, it was a bit annoying when were wrong all the time.
I actually never had any trouble downloading, I guess I'm just very lucky But it will be nice not to hear people complain about it all the time, I'm sure you think so too

I hate downloading corrupt files and this will really help. Thanks!! :D

THANK YOU! I had stopped downloading from here for a while because of the 503 errors! You're awesome, Delphy!

Please tell me how to fix it. I can no longer download anything.

No cookies found!
No valid MTS2 login could be found. Please note that you must be logged into MTS2 to use this server. If you are logged in, then make sure you aren't using any kind of cookie blocker, like Norton Internet Security. Try allowing "files.modthesims2.com" in your security software for cookies.

It's like this just like you said. What should I change to be able to download again?

You could just try this: In Internet Explorer 6 or 7, Tools, Internet options, Privacity, Sites, and add new site, i.e. *.modthesims2.com. Accept. Please note I'm translating from a Spanish Windows system.

To Delphi,

as always these improvements are for good and greedy people will have to take it easy from now on... Thank you!

umm... I used 2 right-click on the download, choose save target as, then I choose desktop, and its saved there!

Thanks, as always, for spending so much time and attention on making MTS2 ever more wonderful!

awesome!thanx so much!

Will Q-Express be affected by this change?

Mind you, avoiding the 503s was the main reason I had for using Q-Express, so it's not that big a deal if so...

EDIT: Well, I suppose I could have just tried it before asking, but where's the fun in that?

Anyway, Q-Express seems to work fine (I've noticed a tendency for it to choke while unpacking .rar files, and spread their contents to random corners of my computer instead of my download directory, but that's obviously a separate issue). Without having to worry about 503s, I'll probably only use it now to avoid having to click on 20 different eye colors or the like in cases where no single file download is available.

Last edited by Ray Radlein : 18th Apr 2007 at 06:43 PM.

Thanks, Delphy! I was getting so sick of having to wait ages just to get the one file and I kept getting the 503 error.

thanks delphy this is great- i use q-express installer to get almost everything from here will that mean that i will be stopped when i try to get quite a few things using q-express
but its nice to see some the 503 errors fixed as when i download some things like the download organiser it always came up with it at least once
i love this site thankies for everything you do for it
~leigh

Thanks Delphy - in fact, many thanks for spending so much of your free time making 'MTS-2' ever better for us hopeless Simmers!.

[Cue a classic "Wayne's World"] We're not Worthy, we're not Worthy... [bows down in front of the PC]

URk -- I'm getting 503s again.

Thanks again for all of your hard work, Delphy! I was having a hard time getting downloads regularly - HP's wonderful casual women's clothes yesterday were giving me a conniption fit! Hopefully this will smooth it all out. You are truly the best!
Virtual brownies all around!

This sounds like a wonderful thing to update...but I am having problems downloading now...I checked everything you said and got this message..."Detected MTS2 cookies ok. You will be allowed to download from the server" but I went to download the CEP and I can download the manual but not the auto install, I get the no cookie message, Is there anything i can do about this? I can download about half of what I try to get...and what is leeching?how do i prevent it?

Yeah, stop using download accelerators.