I don't think it's a hack. It's just a weekend off for the server team.

Oh, for everyone except the one who sent the email encouraging everyone to start demanding tasks again.

Not getting into website or at least not the fora. Two ARP tasks now running. I am having to do a lot of encouragement to get files for the other five to download. Only the first one got going without any encouragement.

Oh, for everyone except the one who sent the email encouraging everyone to start demanding tasks again.

They were afraid that they would lose crunchers if they didn't give us a pep talk.
It should have adhered more closely to the facts on the ground.

Eventually filled my 8 real cores.

It's really bad PR for WCG, that they can't even take 5 minutes to post about the website problems on their Facebook, or Twitter accounts.
Sure, it's still Sunday in Canada, but if they're going to run a big project like WCG, they must have someone on call 24/7.

I tried opening the website in an incognito window. It opened i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-y slowly, especially the photographs - but it looked as if it was all there.

Then, I clicked for the latest news. And the latest news is ...

{"errors":[{"error":"An unexpected error occurred: Could not open Hibernate Session for transaction; nested exception is org.hibernate.exception.GenericJDBCException: Unable to acquire JDBC Connection"}]}

And uploads are so slow! I am running with the defaults of maximum 2 concurrent uploads per project and total throughput was less than 22KB/second. Maybe I should do some editing and see if upping the number increases throughput?

Maybe I should do some editing and see if upping the number increases throughput?

You could try, but I doubt it would help much. I've been getting quite a lot of new tasks today, and returning them pretty steadily. Uploads are normally going through automatically, though some of them get stuck for a few seconds.

The real problem remains with downloads, and the speed and connectability seems to fluctuate every few seconds. I'm only doing a significant amount of work thanks to OCD of the retry finger...

One thing that confuses me is that the small files are the ones that don't download cleanly, and once a few small files are stalled everything falls to bits.....

You could try, but I doubt it would help much. I've been getting quite a lot of new tasks today, and returning them pretty steadily. Uploads are normally going through automatically, though some of them get stuck for a few seconds.

Might give it a go. Like you say it is the downloads that are the real problem so increasing the number there may make some difference as the download rates are also well below what even my connection can handle.

I tried opening the website in an incognito window. It opened i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-y slowly, especially the photographs - but it looked as if it was all there.

Then, I clicked for the latest news. And the latest news is ...

{"errors":[{"error":"An unexpected error occurred: Could not open Hibernate Session for transaction; nested exception is org.hibernate.exception.GenericJDBCException: Unable to acquire JDBC Connection"}]}

I get the same. Errors nearly everywhere except a very limited number of pages.
One place that does seem to work is the "Contact Us" page. I just sent them a note telling them they'd better let us know what is going on, or they'd start shedding volunteers fast. Now to sit back and see if anyone bothers to reply. Here's the URL, in case anyone else wishes to join in: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/viewContactUs.do

You could try, but I doubt it would help much. I've been getting quite a lot of new tasks today, and returning them pretty steadily. Uploads are normally going through automatically, though some of them get stuck for a few seconds.

Might give it a go. Like you say it is the downloads that are the real problem so increasing the number there may make some difference as the download rates are also well below what even my connection can handle.

Seems to help a bit on Downloads, certainly reduces the need for ocd on the mouse index finger a bit.

One thing that confuses me is that the small files are the ones that don't download cleanly, and once a few small files are stalled everything falls to bits.....

I thought that for a while, but I don't think it can be true. Whenever I've looked into that "transient HTTP error" on downloads, it's been a "503 HTTP service unavailable" - in other words, no connection has been made. And if there's no connection, the rest of the server - in particular, the BOINC bits - has no idea what you were asking for.

I think the small ones stand out because the 107 bytes or 0.10 KB show as progress for the small ones. But I think it's been established that those very consistent byte counts are just the HTML version of the error message, not really BOINC data.

... reduces the need for ocd on the mouse index finger a bit.

I've moved the OCD to the enter key - it's easier to find if you're doing something else while waiting.

Select all pending transfers. I use a Windows remote Manager even for Linux clients, so I can 'marquee select' - hold the mouse button down in the empty space below the list, drag it to the top, and let it go. Click the 'Retry Now' button once, and then stop molesting the poor wee beastie. Hitting the enter key retries all selected transfers again, and again, and again...

Extremely slow website, but now it's possible to log in, and also reach the forum and other pages.

Yup, somebody's running around with an oilcan, oiling the squeaking wheels. Sometimes, downloads stop, then limp into action again. Then, uploads will pause for a minute or to, and then start again. The forum loads - slowly, but the page with today's news item can't be found. And so on.

And I just had one ARP task fail to download. Currently six running two downloading. Possibly being sent by the striking postal service when they reach UK. And a second failed to download.

That oilcan must be filled with water and sand, and not oil.......

Well, the WCG website disappeared into a black hole again. "System error", and the message: "World Community Grid is currently experiencing an unexpected error. Please check Facebook or Twitter for more information"
And the download errors aren't getting any better either, on the contrary.
No OPNG tasks available either since many hours. I only run OPNG, so I simply do not run anything.

I'm starting to get some OPNG, helped by a 5-minute update script. Some batches very slow to download, but I've just seen one go through at full speed. Depends on which way the wind is blowing, or something.