Site downtime

[Jeff]

The site has been hosted on the current server for over three years now, and when server get this old I start to get worried about SSDs failing, etc. So I'm planning to move it in the next few days.

The plan is to do it in the early hours of the morning so most people won't even notice the downtime. Normally this kind of move is completed within an hour or two, but once it's finished some people might not be able to see it for a bit longer due to cached DNS records.


Rather than a new dedicated server, I'm going to try a cloud based virtual server. I'm hoping there won't be any noticeable difference in the performance of the site, but won't know for sure until the move has taken place.


Once the move has started I'll update Twitter with any news - https://twitter.com/talkingballs

 

[Jeff]

The site is now running on the new server.

 

[Jeff]

There may be some problems receiving emails from the site at the moment, either being flagged as spam, or not being delivered at all. I should have this fixed in a couple of days.

 

[Feriol]

The site is still running smoothly. I don't receive emails anyway but everything else seems to be fine.

Thanks for your investment of time and money into this site Jeff. Is there a way we can make a donation to its upkeep please?

 

[Jeff]

Is there a way we can make a donation to its upkeep please?

I'm not looking for donations, but if anyone wants to give me something I'll gratefully accept it and put it towards the next update of the forum software. Thanks.
paypal.me/jefff66

 

[Blaarev]

No problem receiving email.

 

[Jeff]

No problem receiving email.

It should be OK for everyone now, I fixed the problem this afternoon.

 

[Jeff]

Having some problems with the web server crashing at the moment. It seems to restart automatically after a few minutes. So if you can't read this, that'll be why...

I thought I'd fixed it a couple of hours ago but it's just happened again. I'll have another look at it in the morning.

 

[Jeff]

Apologies for the down time we've had tonight. There are obviously some glitches with the new server. I've been in deepest Cumbria with no phone signal so I've been unable to fix it.

 

[Jeff]

For the last 45 minutes or so there's been a problem at the datacentre, which meant the server's connection to the outside world has been down intermittently. It seems to be OK now.


I'm beginning to wonder whether it was a good idea to change providers. Fingers crossed this was just a one off. I only deleted everything from the old server and cancelled it last night, maybe I should have kept it running for a bit longer...

 

[bloo]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing Jeff. You do your best, nobody can ask more than that. Fortunately, your best is good enough!

 

[Magellan]

The site has been unavailable consistently for me since 19th. The server just times out before it can connect.
At first I thought it was my end, so changed various browser settings, used a different browser, used my phone, tried using the link in the tweet about the server switch. All no good.
The only way I'm on now is because I've gone through a VPN with a tunnel in the UK.

 

[Jeff]

Where are you?

There are some countries that are completely blocked by the firewall, due to the number of people trying to hack and spam from those countries. But I've only blocked countries where I believed we had no members.

 

[Jeff]

The site has been unavailable consistently for me since 19th. The server just times out before it can connect.
At first I thought it was my end, so changed various browser settings, used a different browser, used my phone, tried using the link in the tweet about the server switch. All no good.
The only way I'm on now is because I've gone through a VPN with a tunnel in the UK.

I've worked out where you are from previous posts, and had blocked your country. Sorry about that. There was a brute force login attack coming from multiple IP addresses and it was having the effect of a denial of service attack, slowing things down. So I banned the whole country, not realising we had any members there.
I've removed that rule from the firewall so you should now be able to access the site normally.

 

[Magellan]

Thanks Jeff.
I guessed it must be a location-based issue.
Can confirm I can now access the site normally.

 

[City Fan]

I've worked out where you are from previous posts.

Alright show off. I just looked at his profile page.

 

[Jeff]

Alright show off. I just looked at his profile page.

Most people don't put a location in their profile (you, for example), or they make something up. So the first thing I checked was the IP address of a previous post.

 

[pork pie fox]

Most people don't put a location in their profile (you, for example), or they make something up. So the first thing I checked was the IP address of a previous post.

Nobody knows where I’m from. It’s a secret.

 

[Magellan]

Alright show off. I just looked at his profile page.

Jeff wouldn't have got much info from that because I only filled in my location after he'd already sorted it out for me.
My location, or more specifically the time difference (which makes back-and-forth discussions difficult), is mainly why I'm not very active in a lot of threads, so I can understand him thinking there were no members on this side of the world.

 

[lazzy]

Not sure if Singapore is on the shit list? I don't seem to be able to connect from home but it work at the office, which is via Switzerland/UK!