WordPress.org

1. Chocolate-Covered Katie
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #

   I don't know what to do, and I feel like my blog will NEVER be fixed :(

   About a week ago, people started telling me that certain links on my blog were giving them 404 errors. However when I went to the pages, I could see the posts with no problem (even if I wasn't logged in as the admin).

   And many of the people are able to see the page again a few days later. (Also, different people are reporting the error on different pages.)

   Here's just one of the pages that some people can't see: http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2011/03/29/frozen-hot-chocolate/

   Any help would be appreciated SO much!

2. Jan Dembowski
   Volunteer Mod. & Brute Squad
   Posted 4 months ago #

   That's odd, some of the graphics are loading via an IP address (not optimal) but the generated URLs are DNS based.

   Can you check if that post exists as a published post on your WordPress installation anymore?

   That link generated a 404 for me. Google has that in it's search but going there via Google gets a 404 too.

   The Google cached version looks fine.

   When you get that page, it's either from a cache on your browser, or somehow you are getting the W3TC. Check the post status.

   Also how is your server set up? Shared hosting, VPS, Cloud VPS? If your WordPress blog is fronted by a caching server then that may explain why it sometimes work/doesn't work.

3. Chocolate-Covered Katie
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #

   Hey Jan,

   Thanks so much for replying! I just checked, and my dashboard DOES say that the post's status is published.

   My server is VPS (with Servint). They did change my caching plugin from supercache to w3tc one day when the traffic was overloading the server. But that was almost four months ago.

   The really odd thing is that people who can't see certain pages one day will check again the next day and suddenly see it.

4. Jan Dembowski
   Volunteer Mod. & Brute Squad
   Posted 4 months ago #

   That's just really odd.

   When I get the 404, I also did a search on your site for frozen hot chocolate. I did get hits, but not that post. That worries me and disturbs my sense of well being on the Universe ;) I mean, I was communicating with a WordPress blog, it looked like yours, and I got 404. It's like there are two WordPress installations, the one you see and the one I saw.

   So please consider doing the following.

   Backup all of your files and database off of your server and be prepared to restore them just in case.

   http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups
   http://codex.wordpress.org/Backing_Up_Your_Database
   http://codex.wordpress.org/Restoring_Your_Database_From_Backup

   If everything works out you won't need it but better safe than sorry. If you do need it you'll save yourself hours of work.

   Run a repair on your database.

   http://codex.wordpress.org/FAQ_Troubleshooting#How_do_you_repair_a_MySQL_database_table.3F

   That link has steps for using phpMyAdmin. Backups first! This is usually harmless but something weird is going on.

   Afterwards post back here and I'll see if I get the 404 still.

5. Chocolate-Covered Katie
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #

   Hi again,

   I just wanted to check before I did anything, because I am NOT knowledgeable when it comes to computers. I don't want to mess anything up... :-/

   I found the php myadmin page. Am I supposed to check ALL the tables and then press "repair tables"?
   Also, will this make my site go down temporarily? (In other words, should I do this late at night? Right now I'm getting around 9,000 visitors per hour, so I don't want the site to go down.)

   So sorry for all the questions!

6. Chocolate-Covered Katie
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #

   Apparently one of the technicians at Servint tried repairing my database on the 14th (after I first started having the problem a few days before). It didn't help :(

7. Jan Dembowski
   Volunteer Mod. & Brute Squad
   Posted 4 months ago #

   I don't want to mess anything up...

   I think that that's 100% the right attitude to have. Being careful can save you lots of grief and you do want to play it safe.

   I found the php myadmin page. Am I supposed to check ALL the tables and then press "repair tables"?

   Yes. If there's a table in need of repair then selecting all the tables would be the correct thing to do.

   Also, will this make my site go down temporarily?

   I've never seen it do that (take it down) but your problem is odd, and you are getting a lot of visitors so read on.

   This problem you are having is odd and annoying, but nothings on fire and your blog isn't down. Some posts are showing up as 404 and that's not really "the sky is falling!"

   So do this: make those back ups (harmless to do), read those links on restoring your database, and sleep on it (assuming you're in the western hemisphere).

   Tomorrow speak with your hosting company. 9,000 visitors per hour is not a small number and your host may be spreading your database over multiple servers. When you look at your blog, you see the missing posts. When I looked at that example post, I got a 404.

   So ask them this: "Why is it that someone in NY gets a 404 page not found but Google and I can see that missing post without a problem?"

   If they're using a Mysql database spread over many locations, some of those locations may not be right. Or it could be something else, ask them and see what they say.

   So sorry for all the questions!

   No worries, it's a volunteer support forum. You will be obligated to respond to other forum questions that you can answer, but only in a non-obligatory way. It's cool like that.

8. Jan Dembowski
   Volunteer Mod. & Brute Squad
   Posted 4 months ago #

   Apparently one of the technicians at Servint tried repairing my database on the 14th (after I first started having the problem a few days before). It didn't help :(

   Well, that answered the downtime question! Ask them about the differences that you're seeing and I'm seeing anyways. See if they can provide a clue as to what's going on.

9. Chocolate-Covered Katie
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #

   Unfortunately, I've asked them this repeatedly. They don't know :(

   They usually can see the page links I send (such as this hot cocoa one). Only once were they able to reproduce the 404 message, and then the next day they could see it again!

   I will ask them if they're spreading my content over multiple servers, though. They tell me that I'm within my limit for my server package (in other words, that I don't need to upgrade). But I'm wondering if maybe they're wrong?? Do you know anything about how much a person ought to be paying per month for server space based on traffic? Right now I'm paying around $90... maybe I really DO need a better package?

   Once again, I am so sorry I'm not more knowledgeable about any of this. I feel like I'm in over my head... I started out as a blogger who knew nothing about computers, and I'm trying to learn as quickly as possible. Hopefully someday I'll know enough to be able to help others on this forum, because I am SO appreciative that you're taking the time to help me!

10. Chocolate-Covered Katie
    Member
    Posted 4 months ago #

    I just talked to my host provider, and they say I'm all on one server. Still no clue what could be going wrong :-/

11. zoonini
    help me help you
    Posted 3 months ago #

    Hi Katie, I'm closing this thread as it's another duplicate. If anyone has more ideas, please chime in here on the most recently updated thread:

    http://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-is-wordpress-telling-people-my-pages-dont-exist

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