Latest Content not Loading Properly

[freshpromo]

This support thread from a couple days ago describes my situation fairly similarly:

https://community.mybb.com/thread-207978.html

It started happening to me on the morning of Thursday Feb. 2nd.

http://www.roughingafterthewhistle.com/
Version 1.8.5
(yes I realize I need to upgrade)

1. Just about all of the forum users have been reporting odd behaviour when clicking the green arrows next to a thread title - ie. trying to click to the 'first unread post' in a thread. It looks like an issue with caching to me. There have since been 3 pages of replies made in this thread in our Off Topic section: http://www.roughingafterthewhistle.com/T...ng-problem

But when I click the green arrow to see the latest unread post from the main Off Topic page ( http://www.roughingafterthewhistle.com/F...Discussion ), I'm returned to post #9 in the thread every single time even though I've already viewed that post numerous times.

I know I've viewing an old version of the page because the "Current time" in the bottom right hand corner is a much older time. It's like certain threads are stuck at a specific period in time unless I refresh the page every time I view them.

I'm also experiencing the same old pages while logged in via the Admin CP. So the problem is not specifically limited to posts and threads seen publicly.

2. The following links near the top of all pages aren't working for some members:
View your posts - View New Posts - View Today's Posts
(note: you must be logged in to see those links. The URLs are essentially query strings like /search.php?action= getnew or /search.php?action=getdaily)

These two issues started suddenly and without any modifications made to the forums. Users have been forced to refresh their browser windows to see the latest content for the past two days and as you can see in that "This is a test" thread, many issues have been reported.

Apologies if this isn't enough info to go on. Please let me know what else you need and I'll provide it. I can also set someone up with a test account for the forum if needed. Thank you.

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Oh I forgot, one more problem (a potentially big one).

A user also reported that when he refreshed a page, the "Welcome back, username" message included the name of a different user. It was temporary and the proper greeting returned shortly thereafter. But if my users are accidentally logged in as other users, that's a pretty big security issue.

[Matt]

I can see that nginx is being used as the webserver, but is probably being used as a proxy server - ask your host if they have anything like Varnish installed, and see if they can turn it off.

A user also reported that when he refreshed a page, the "Welcome back, username" message included the name of a different user. It was temporary and the proper greeting returned shortly thereafter. But if my users are accidentally logged in as other users, that's a pretty big security issue.

This is exactly the same issue Steam had last year some time, people were seeing the dashboard of other users because their Varnish cache was setup incorrectly. It will cache the generated HTML for a certain URL, and return that same HTML for every future request to that same URL for, say, 60 seconds. Then the cache is cleared, and when someone else visits it, it caches their HTML, and then that is served for 60 seconds, etc etc.

This is fine if it is set up correctly, for the specific site, however what happens with hosting companies is they just blanket enable it, with no concept of the fact a lot of sites need to be loaded dynamically every time they are requested (i.e. forums). You're the third person this week to have this problem, it's a growing problem with shared hosts, but unless you host with a decent one, or have a VPS of your own, it might just suddenly be enabled without your knowledge or consent, and sometimes they won't even be able to disable it for just you.

[freshpromo]

That is very helpful feedback, thank you so much. I'll pass on the comments you made in your edit to the host (Hostgator) and see if they can help.

Assuming I have to migrate the site elsewhere to fix the issue, what would you consider a 'decent' host for MyBB websites (shared plans, not VPS)? Are there any resources you can point me to? Again, thanks for your help.

[Matt]

Hah, as it happens the user who PM'd me about this same issue the other day was also on Hostgator, and also had the issue since the 2nd of Feb, so obviously Hostgator have just rolled this out.

They were able to get it sorted quickly through their Livechat though, so they should get it disabled for you with no need to migrate.

[freshpromo]

Awesome! Good to know.