Determine network status if timeouts are occuring

Question

This past weekend we began seeing a significant number of 504 connection timeouts in our web application. Here is a brief overview:

1) The web application is hosted on GoDaddy. 2) The web application makes several ajax calls (using javascript) to various PHP pages (We make several AJAX calls simultaneously.) 3) The PHP pages include API calls to Quickbase and returns data as json_encoded strings. 4) The returned JSON is parsed on the client and it's local data store is updated.

The timeouts are occurring in bunches at different times of day for different lengths of time.

Out of frustration, we made a copy of our application and put it on a completely different server (RackSpace), and the timeouts do not occur there (NO CHANGE IN CODE)!!

Since the code has been working for several months, I suspect there is a new network or server issue. I have tried traceroutes from my development box (ie. laptop), but don't understand what to make of it (not a networking guy :)).

We have engaged GoDaddy, Quickbase, and our ISP (Telus) in hopes they might be able to determine why these problems are happening all of a sudden. However, each player has told us everything looks good from their end and they cannot help us any further.

Are there any network specialists out there who might be able to explain what I need to look into to narrow down what is causing our timeout issues?

Answer 1

Your question is very confused.

Assuming that the information you have provided is accurate....

You say these timeouts manifest as 504 responses meaning that the timeout is occurring between your PHP code and Quickbase. I would like to think you would know if your code was deciding that a timeout had occurred and was making the 504 response (although I note that you have not stated if you have established this). That mean the 504 response must be coming from Intuit or from a transparent proxy implemented by goDaddy for outgoing web requests.

You go on to say that they are occurring in bunches - implying that the service is working some of the time without changes to your code. This therefore means that they are occurring as a result of an infrastructure or capacity problem at Intuit or on the GoDaddy network.

This is not something we (or you) can fix.

You are paying GoDaddy and Intuit for a service, including support which at least one of them is failing to deliver - really you should be talking to them.