Archive for June, 2010
Pathping
Is your MindTouch instance experiencing slow resolution of pages? Before assuming an issue with your MindTouch software, it is important to rule out network latency. Pathping is a great tool for just this type of research.
PathPing is similar to traceroute, though will provide you with additional information on packet loss between hops (routers along the path of your Internet connection). If packet loss is present, this can indicate an issue with your network connection, causing slow resolution of your MindTouch installation.
How do you use pathping? Simply open the command line interface and run “pathping domain.com” substituting ‘domain.com’ for the domain you are trying to reach. Please note that this command can take several minutes to return results.
Unfortunately, this diagnostic tool is only available on Windows, though can be achieved on Linux by combining both “ping” and “traceroute” commands.
MCP Update: Now with page ratings!
A glimpse at page rating
You may have noticed some changes to the MindTouch Community Portal wiki last night. We’ve upgraded the site to the experimental build to test MindTouch’s latest features coming in the Olympic release.
Please take a few moments to help us test out some of the new functionality by rating pages. Is there a page that you’ve always found helpful? Give it a thumbs up. Always wanted to point out a page that needs attention? Thumb it down and leave a comment.
By rating pages, you’ll not only help us test this feature and deliver the best experience for everyone, but you’ll help us improve the content of our site! Page rating will be the staple feature on MCP which will allow you, the community, to help us highlight the great content and improve the bad.
Other changes around authoring you might notice includes a new tagging interface and editor toolbar. Please test drive all these new features and be sure to let us know what you think! We’re really excited about using the Olympic release to improve MCP, and by virtue, your ability to learn about everything you can do with MindTouch.
Traceroute
Let’s face it, from time-to-time circumstances can arise where you’re not able to reach a specific site from your Internet connection. In the event that you can’t reach your MindTouch installation, one key aspect to note is whether or not you’re having network issues. Can you reach other websites? If you can, it’s easy to jump the gun and think your network connection is working fine. The truth is, you still could have a network issue.
The best way to find out? Traceroute. No rhyme intended.
Traceroute will provide you with ping times (speed) between hops (routers along the path of your Internet connection). While you may be able to reach other websites, your Internet Service Provider could have an issue with the way it routes traffic to a specific domain. If you see (*) asterisk symbols within a traceroute report you may be having network routing issues.
How do you use traceroute? It’s simple. Pull up a command line interface and run “traceroute domain.com” (Linux / Mac) or “tracert domain.com” (Windows), substituting ‘domain.com’ for the domain you are trying to reach. A more detailed tutorial can be found at the link below:
http://www.mediacollege.com/internet/troubleshooter/traceroute.html
Having trouble understanding your traceroute output? Contact a MindTouch Support Agent today and we’ll be happy to point you in the right direction.
MindTouch 9.12.3 (Noatak) Released
MindTouch 9.12.3 has been released! This is a stablization release in the Noatak family containing 18 bugfixes.
Take a look at the changelog, and download the release from MindTouch.com (VM users need to simply run “updateWiki.sh” from the command line).
