HTTP request status Problems and Solutions

Problems and Solutions

I feel it is necessary to start yet another page on the subject.

As I am fairly new to Drupal and are trying to find my way through this problem of HTTP request status for a second time I end up more confused and depressed as I keep reading on. And as I try out more & more of the suggested solutions I get further away from a working one for me.

So, the first idea is to get going with a list of all those discussions and nodes available on the subject. And please help by adding all the nodes not shown here yet - if you post a comment I will gladly add them.

On starting this node it seems the problem needs to be approached with the following steps:

• Listing of the problem - Node List of discussions & information below
• Classification of the problem - Installation: hosted, local server (development), RSS related, etc. ...
• Identification of the solution related to Installation (above)

I will try to add a summary of the gist of the thread - at least from the starting point. There is no specific order in the list yet.

Here we go:

List of Discussions & Information

http://drupal.org/node/245990#comment-909263 -->> "...here is an explanation of this bug ..."
http://drupal.org/node/222454 -->> Drupal 6 - DNS problems ....

http://drupal.org/node/245990 -->> Drupal 7.x-dev - Component: base system - Category: bug report
http://drupal.org/node/245853 -->> D 6.2 - moving to a new server ..
http://drupal.org/node/227791 -->> zilla note for kindred souls - web host problems ...
http://drupal.org/node/7881 -->> Drupal 7 and then back to 4.5 and back up-to-date - "... RSS feeds don't work if there is proxy server running ..."
http://drupal.org/node/50912 -->> Drupal 6.2. - HTTP request overrides headers and data on redirect
http://collectiveidentity.net/node/13 -->> "Collective Identity in depth discussion and walk thru of core hack"
http://drupal.org/project/http_request_fail_reset -->> Drupal 6 module - Http Request Fail Reset
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/index.php/Allow_url_fopen -->> Dreamhost wiki - "allow_url_fopen"
http://kb.mediatemple.net/article.php?id=793 -->> Article from Media Temple (MT) - Why is allow_url_fopen disabled on the (gs) Grid-Service?
http://drupal.org/node/346929 -->> Drupal 6.8. - Http request status fails after upgrade to 6.8
http://drupal.org/node/203998 -->> Drupal 6 - Upgrading from Beta 6 to RC1 ...
http://drupal.org/node/258760 -->> Drupal 6.2 - RSS feed ..
http://drupal.org/node/258735 -->>Drupal 7.x - dev - News aggregator should handle more HTTP statuses - RSS feed ..
http://drupal.org/node/236664 -->>"Unable to fetch any information about available new releases and updates" (HTTP Server Request Fails) while "off-line"
http://drupal.org/node/245990 -->> HTTP request status fails - 7.x-dev - .. problem appeared after the Feed aggregator had been working for several days ...
.. -->> ..

Classification of the problem

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Please help – your comments will be added here.

Solutions

Some general points in order to see if any change you did works:
Backup your Database - MySQL, etc.
Make a note of the changes you are doing and why – what is the expected outcome?!? then
Clear the Cache
- Empty Drupal cache -->> … /admin/settings/performance or
use the development module, add the block and click it from the block (usually placed in the left sidebar)
Another great tool -imho- is the administration module - http://drupal.org/project/admin_menu. It is a simple, clean and small menu bar across the top and it can be made to stay there when scrolling. There are other modules available, but for a beginner this might be a good start.
- Clear your browsers cache as well (Safari) has the “Develop” menu where you can tick the “Disable Cache” option easily.
- Run cron manually and then check if your changes have worked.
- Sometimes it might even help to restart your browser - and all the open windows - not just the one you are working in.
- Working on a localhost on your desktop (Wamp - such as WampServer, Xampp, A2T, etc.) it might be good practice to "Restart all Services" in order to get your server to start clean and fresh.
And be aware that the HTTP problem may be there one day and disappear the next. Especially with RSS feeds check if the feed is actually working or is the server of your RSS feed not available or so slow that Drupal is getting bored to wait and is timing out?
This aspect of unpredictable behaviour one yes, one day no makes this a very frustrating business to resolve.
Is the problem only on a particular feed or throughout your installation?

.....

Please help – your comments will be added here.

Note:
Please when commenting add sufficient detail about

• your set-up (hosted, running on localhost at home using Wamp, etc.),
• when the problem started (suddenly, after installing module XYZ, etc.) and
• how you solved it (installing module ABC, cleaning cache, running cron, snippet ..., patch ..., etc.).

Please do not be shy to tell us newcomers where exactly to put the code, where to find the file, etc. (for example some solutions refer to modifiying php.ini - well a newcomer might not find it, because on most third party host servers it is not accessible).

And thanks for the help of all and everyone!!