Tickets , Tips and Tricks

[parsonjack]

14 minutes ago, Lycra said:

Guess I'm being a bit of a devil's advocate but I can't help thinking that if I was in charge of See's  IT I wouldn't have my defences turned on right now. I'd have them upgraded, tested and ready to deploy later this week at the invading hordes.

In terms of the application layer and the booking pages then yes, that is all unreachable due to the web services for those pages being offline at present and redirects being in place to simply give the registration page you see currently.  The network layer though is all up and running, mainly as the DNS service that directs to the load balancers is the same for the main Seetickets site, and it's the load balancers which issue the 'busy' page.

[parsonjack]

33 minutes ago, Sasperella said:

Oh...this is interesting. So this only comes into force once you've exceeded the refresh limit within one load balancer? Or it's just one load balancer that you may happen to end up on?

 

Not quite.  As long as the balancer stays up and available during  your booking session then you shouldn't have a problem.  It would only be if the balancer you are pointed to becomes unavailable during your session that you'd be stuck as essentially you will continue to ge pointed by the cookie to a non-existent balancer.  Closing and re-opening the browser should therefore fix this, although there is still the chance that you could get directed to the dead balancer again next time you query....until See remove it from the list of available balancers that is.

[Sasperella]

Just now, parsonjack said:

Not quite.  As long as the balancer stays up and available during  your booking session then you shouldn't have a problem.  It would only be if the balancer you are pointed to becomes unavailable during your session that you'd be stuck as essentially you will continue to ge pointed by the cookie to a non-existent balancer.  Closing and re-opening the browser should therefore fix this, although there is still the chance that you could get directed to the dead balancer again next time you query....until See remove it from the list of available balancers that is.

And that could happen whether you exceeded this 1 hit a second limit or not, right? Im pretty sure thats what happened to me in the resale...

[Sasperella]

1 minute ago, parsonjack said:

Not quite.  As long as the balancer stays up and available during  your booking session then you shouldn't have a problem.  It would only be if the balancer you are pointed to becomes unavailable during your session that you'd be stuck as essentially you will continue to ge pointed by the cookie to a non-existent balancer.  Closing and re-opening the browser should therefore fix this, although there is still the chance that you could get directed to the dead balancer again next time you query....until See remove it from the list of available balancers that is.

And also - you dont know if your browser is pointing at that non existent balancer, right?

[parsonjack]

Just now, Sasperella said:

And that could happen whether you exceeded this 1 hit a second limit or not, right? Im pretty sure thats what happened to me in the resale...

Yup ?

[Sasperella]

Just now, parsonjack said:

Yup ?

Oh. Balls. 

Im glad someone answered my loop of death question though  So, what do we think the solution is? Close your browser every three mins or so? It's not going to lose anything if you do that, is it? other than a couple of seconds...

 

[parsonjack]

Just now, Sasperella said:

And also - you dont know if your browser is pointing at that non existent balancer, right?

Exactly.  Once See spot the issue then admins can take the iffy balancer out of the equation, by removing it from the DNS list, and new sessions won't then get pointed to it.  It won't help anyone who has a cookie pointed to it though until they close and reopen the browser to get a new cookie.

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, Sasperella said:

Oh. Balls. 

Im glad someone answered my loop of death question though  So, what do we think the solution is? Close your browser every three mins or so? It's not going to lose anything if you do that, is it? other than a couple of seconds...

 

so are we ... you've been going around in circles for a bit  

[parsonjack]

2 minutes ago, Sasperella said:

Oh. Balls. 

Im glad someone answered my loop of death question though  So, what do we think the solution is? Close your browser every three mins or so? It's not going to lose anything if you do that, is it? other than a couple of seconds...

 

I would only do that if you are getting the white screen of death to be honest....if the balancer you are connected to is dead you won't get anything...not even the 'busy' page.

[Sasperella]

1 minute ago, crazyfool1 said:

so are we ... you've been going around in circles for a bit  

I will accept you apology for this when you stuck in the loop of death and know what to do ?  

[Crazyfool01]

Just now, Sasperella said:

I will accept you apology for this when you stuck in the loop of death and know what to do ?  

I'm happily eating cookies and balancing load ..a perfect saturday evening  

[Sasperella]

 

1 minute ago, parsonjack said:

I would only do that if you are getting the white screen of death to be honest....if the balancer you are connected to is dead you won't get anything...not even the 'busy' page.

Oh. 

Maybe  this is a sign that I shouldn't think about tech too much. I have more questions now than when I started.

[parsonjack]

1 minute ago, Sasperella said:

 

Oh. 

Maybe  this is a sign that I shouldn't think about tech too much. I have more questions now than when I started.

There will likely be other things in play that I'm not aware of and which could give all manner of odd results so I'm not certain that what I'm describing is the cause of what you experienced...but it could be.

I think if anything all this perhaps suggests that the safe approach is to keep things simple and to know what to do if it all goes a bit pear shaped...only have one device per connection, only one browser, one tab....avoid refreshing like crazy...and re-open the browser if it becomes unresponsive.  Pretty much what the ticket info suggests actually....the rest is all down to luck.

[Sasperella]

5 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

There will likely be other things in play that I'm not aware of and which could give all manner of odd results so I'm not certain that what I'm describing is the cause of what you experienced...but it could be.

I think if anything all this perhaps suggests that the safe approach is to keep things simple and to know what to do if it all goes a bit pear shaped...only have one device per connection, only one browser, one tab....avoid refreshing like crazy...and re-open the browser if it becomes unresponsive.  Pretty much what the ticket info suggests actually....the rest is all down to luck.

I think you're right. My friends that get through seem to do it in the most nonchalant ways possible (in bed, rollie in one hand etc etc)

I never refresh like mad, but I definitely make things too complicated....and i cant multitask so its stupid really. I think one laptop on hotspot, one on wifi, and just a methodical refresh on one, auto on the other. Or switching, so you cant go over. 

Oh, and telling my friends over and over again from now until next week not to whatsapp the groups unless they have tickets!

Edited September 28, 2019 by Sasperella

[parsonjack]

1 minute ago, Sasperella said:

I think you're right. My friends that get through seem to do it in the most nonchalant ways possible (in bed, rollie in one hand etc etc)

I never refresh like mad, but I definitely make things too complicated....and i cant multitask so its stupid really. I think one laptop on hotspot, one on wifi, and just a methodical refresh on one, auto on the other. Or switching, so you cant go over. 

Oh, and telling my friends over and over again from now until next week not to whatsapp the groups unless they have tickets!

Yep...your last point is our golden rule....radio silence by everyone trying until you either get a payment confirmation page or it sells out.

[TheGoodWillOut]

Another potential spanner that could delay you is the banking verification when putting in your card details. Bought Sam fender tickets on Friday through see tickets and had to create a username & password on the banking system and then log in after putting in card details.  Make sure you know both these prior to Sunday ! 

[cerv]

36 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

Not quite.  As long as the balancer stays up and available during  your booking session then you shouldn't have a problem.  It would only be if the balancer you are pointed to becomes unavailable during your session that you'd be stuck as essentially you will continue to ge pointed by the cookie to a non-existent balancer.  Closing and re-opening the browser should therefore fix this, although there is still the chance that you could get directed to the dead balancer again next time you query....until See remove it from the list of available balancers that is.

You're on the right lines here but to be picky I think it's web server not load balancer that's determined by that cookie. But everything you've said matches with what I've been thinking and said similar elsewhere. That is... if you get white screen a cause might be that your cookies are pointing you to a dead/overloaded web server. And as you say you need your cookies cleared and then reconnect to (hopefully) be issued a new cookie that point you to a different web server.

I figured the best way for people to do this is to have ONE private window open to use for refreshing. If you hit a snag, close it then open a new private window. and go again. I figured this might be slightly quicker than closing the full browser and opening again. Important thing to note is you must have ALL private tabs/windows closed before opening a new one as cookies are shared across the private windows, hence the emphasis on only having the one private window.

 

 

Edited September 28, 2019 by cerv

[ceetee]

2 hours ago, Lycra said:

Guess I'm being a bit of a devil's advocate but I can't help thinking that if I was in charge of See's  IT I wouldn't have my defences turned on right now. I'd have them upgraded, tested and ready to deploy later this week at the invading hordes.

I think you might be overestimating their capabilities

[parsonjack]

1 hour ago, cerv said:

You're on the right lines here but to be picky I think it's web server not load balancer that's determined by that cookie. But everything you've said matches with what I've been thinking and said similar elsewhere. That is... if you get white screen a cause might be that your cookies are pointing you to a dead/overloaded web server. And as you say you need your cookies cleared and then reconnect to (hopefully) be issued a new cookie that point you to a different web server.

I figured the best way for people to do this is to have ONE private window open to use for refreshing. If you hit a snag, close it then open a new private window. and go again. I figured this might be slightly quicker than closing the full browser and opening again. Important thing to note is you must have ALL private tabs/windows closed before opening a new one as cookies are shared across the private windows, hence the emphasis on only having the one private window.

 

 

Yes...I think you're correct...the cookie is issued by the load balancer to maintain the session on the back end web server.  Again....everything points to keeping it simple.

[chatty]

9 hours ago, parsonjack said:

Pretty sure that little avenue of pleasure has been closed off for the last couple of years now, and once you have made payment the session ends and you're back to fighting for a new one.

Nah, we done it the last two so it was definitely working last time, you get kicked back to the queue but in the loading screen instead of completely at the back making it easier to score another lot which has worked great for us. Theres only six of us this year sonit doesnt matter but defo worked 2017 and 2019.

[mandolin]

11 hours ago, Little Andy said:

Nightmare! My ticket group ended up with 7 people (the dreaded number). Everyone knew everyone except me, so I've bitten the bullet and been the 1 to pull out. Is there anyone out there in a group with space for 1 more? I'll be all hands on deck for the sale, and have never missed out on tickets on all 5 attempts (either me or a friend getting through!)

We have the awkward five so would be happy to make you the sixth.  PM me your details and we’ll do everything we can.  Only able to try for tickets on Sunday though.

[Avalon_Fields]

@parsonjack this is probably a dumb question: if the ticket window is automatically opened at precisely 09:00 (By computer not man I mean), how long might it take from you hitting the button to that request being received, therefore is there any real benefit in trying your first attempt at some exact point just before 09:00?? 

[guypjfreak]

Hope and pray if your religious.. I just hope and hope some more lol 

 

[Crazyfool01]

[Sasperella]

11 hours ago, cerv said:

You're on the right lines here but to be picky I think it's web server not load balancer that's determined by that cookie. But everything you've said matches with what I've been thinking and said similar elsewhere. That is... if you get white screen a cause might be that your cookies are pointing you to a dead/overloaded web server. And as you say you need your cookies cleared and then reconnect to (hopefully) be issued a new cookie that point you to a different web server.

I figured the best way for people to do this is to have ONE private window open to use for refreshing. If you hit a snag, close it then open a new private window. and go again. I figured this might be slightly quicker than closing the full browser and opening again. Important thing to note is you must have ALL private tabs/windows closed before opening a new one as cookies are shared across the private windows, hence the emphasis on only having the one private window.

 

 

By private, do you mean incognito? Or just a normal window?