The received string length is longer than maximum allowed (36 > 16)

Duplicates MC-16008
Duplicates MC-16767

As of last night; my server members and I are receiving the following Internal Exception:

io.netty.handler.codec.DecoderException:java.io.IOException:
The received string length is longer than maximum allowed (36 > 16)

I am using 14w08a and have been since its release.

I have rebooted (computer and internet) re installed Minecraft server files and my client files but the error remains constant no matter the remedy I ply. The server has been running fine for over a year up until yesterday.

We players are logged off by the server it displays this:
[10:33:13 INFO: <PlayerName> lost connection: TextComponent{text='Disconnected', siblings=[], style=Style{hasParent=false, color=null, bold=null, italic=null, underlined=null, obfuscated=null, clickEvent=null, hoverEvent=null, insertion=null}}

It never used to have all those values.... so many nulls ??? lol

Anyway I am sure its an update issue with the snapshots and will be resolved in due time.