Moving to new host

[gstark]

Moving tonight.

I'll probably shut this down around 10:30 tonight. It'll take me a couple of hours or so to make the move, and then you should be able to access the site using dslrusers.net or d70users.com. I'll transition the other domains once the move has been completed.





In preparation for the move to BlueHost, I'm asking everyone to please chack that you're using the dslrusers.com domain.

I will use the dslrusers.net domain to expedite the changeover, but that means that if you are currently using that domain to access this site, you will experience problems over the next day or three.

As the changeover occurs, there will be some downtime for the site, but I am hoping to keep that to a minimum - maybe a couple of hours or less.

Hopefully things will be better at Bluehost. We shall see.

[biggerry]

Nice work Gary,

what do Bluehost not provide? they have a pretty serious rap sheet of features!

Anyone interested in linux and and webhosting should have a look at the Bluehost's CEO's Blog http://mattheaton.com/, I was particularly impressed by it! I quite like his honesty (as much as one can glean from a blog) and the indepth knowledge for a CEO.

As I said if you interested in linux, its definitely worth a read imo.

[gstark]

what do Bluehost not provide? they have a pretty serious rap sheet of features!

The feature set is comparable to that of Dreamhost, and so far the only question that I've asked that has had a negative response was that they do not provide support for MySQLi, which is what we're running at DH. No big deal, it's a one character change in the config file (remove the "i") to pull it back to vanilla MySQL.

But I do have cron jobs, I do have multiple databases, I am able to host multiple domains ... I do need to check on custom DNS entries. That's something that I've not yet checked up on.

They have an optional greylist facility on the email which I asked DH to implement well over a year ago, but which hasn't yet been done. That works by asking new email senders to confirm that they're sending you an email. Not foolproof, but better than nothing, I think. Three different webmail interfaces that I'm exploring ...

And live chat for support, 24/7. For each of the questions that I've had so far, I've been able to get answers via chat, in real time. it takes a few minutes as they're dealing with several people at once (and they tell you this) but getting something sorted in five or ten minutes over chat is way better than sending an issue to support, and then waiting for anything between 2 and 48 hours for a response.

[Matt. K]

Good luck Gary! It's all black magic to me!

[Glen]

A big thanks Gary for all the work you are doing on this, I think most of us here are unaware of how much time you spend to make these unseen things work!

[gstark]

I'm expecting to make the move for this site within the next 48 hours.

I've just moved my Redbacksweb.com over, and it mostly went ok. The DNS is propogating, but I did have a minor issue with my email, and I think it's worth letting you know what happened, and how it was handled, support wise.

The issue was that, as the DNS propogated, incoming email was switched to the new servers, but it was then being bounced, with relay denied messages. I was seeing this from several different sites too: all incoming email was bouncing.

Bluehost have, as I've mentioned, live chat support. Within a few minutes of identifying that I had an issue, I was discussing the problem with a support tech. I don't think it would have been any quicker on the phone (probably slower, as they usually just tend to one issue at a time. I explained the symptoms, we went through some diagnostics, I made a couple of changes at his request, still no joy. Went through few more things ... waited a bit, did some other stuff, while monitoring the chat window.

Bottom line was that there was a minor internal DNS error at BH, which they were able to correct in real time. All up, the problem was fixed in about an hour and a quarter. That might sound like a long time, but the reality is that, for support, on a Saturday afternoon (and sometime after midnight - Saturday morning - in the US) that's actually very fast.

With DH, I would have submitted a support request, and waited, with a likely ETA for a response anywhere between 12 and 36 hours. That's a response, not a fix! Given that the issue was slightly obscure, and the ensuing dialog and series of tests, the actual resolution with DH could have been taken quite some time.

Colour me happy.

[zafra52]

I am not sure if you have moved already, but I can tell you the website seems as fast as lightning. It is incredibly fast in comparison with the last few weeks. Congratulations and thanks to all involved.

Oooops! I think I spoke too early? I hope the transitions goes smoothly!

[gstark]

I am not sure if you have moved already, but I can tell you the website seems as fast as lightning. It is incredibly fast in comparison with the last few weeks.

It's actually been somewhat better over the last two or three days, but no, the move hasn't yet happened.

It seems to me that DH have done something, because I've not done any more in terms of working at this host. I suspect that some other user of our our shared resources has been relocated or something, but DH keep a lot of the information closely held. I've given up on 'em.

[biggerry]

I do have multiple databases

yeah.. but only a 100

sounds like their support is pretty fine and dandy! I am interested to hear about the full move over and your final opinions on bluehost !!

[gstark]

I do have multiple databases

yeah.. but only a 100

Which, for me, is plenty. I think I'm using about a dozen at DH, many of which are duplications: copy one to another to use to test an implementation or upgrade, use it to complete the task, and then forget to remove the source.

Given the stated resource and usage limitations, I wonder how many databases one could actually put to use.

sounds like their support is pretty fine and dandy! I am interested to hear about the full move over and your final opinions on bluehost !!

I am certainly impressed with their support and the use of live chat. Every question I've asked has, in effect, been answered within minutes, rather than days. I think there have been two questions that have had a negative answer, but neither of those were drop-dead deal-breakers. More curiosity stuff than anything else.

By way of contrast, I have had a couple of issues with the streaming host provider for the radio station's live stream for which I've had to ask support some questions. The first of these was that I noticed that the date and time on the streaming server is inaccurate. Not by just a few seconds, which I think is ok, but by about seven minutes. I'm wanting to interrogate our log files to see who is listening, and when, and with the timestamps on the entries being that far out, I consider that to be a (minor) problem.

So I sent off a support request, also asking about whether they know of any log file parsers, plus getting access to the log files via ssh, which would be better than having to log in through https. That request is now ten days old, has been followed up by me several times, and remains outstanding and ignored. Not happy.

A couple of days after I lodged that issue, I changed one of the global settings on the server, so that if the stream source dropped out for longer than the stream source cut-out time, it would automatically kick any listeners off. No big deal I would have thought, but that change required me to restart the streaming server.

Again, not a biggie, except that having restarted the server I could no longer get a clean feed of the logs, server status, or most of the management interface features. To the extent that for about 70% of the time, those queries would either fail-over, or just return an empty browser screen.

I submitted a support request for that, expecting some simple action to be taken at their end.

The issue was resolved within about 8 hours (acceptable, as the issue wasn't a major one) and their fix was very simple, but not at all what I expected. They just opened up a new account for us, which "fixed" the problem simply by bypassing it (classic and literal work-around) but it also meant that all of our access parameters had changed. So I had to go into the webserver and modify all of the streaming references there, plus modify the streaming references internally at the station (firewall, etc), and also field some support issues myself for those people (not a lot) who had bookmarked the original connection settings, and which were no longer working.

Temporary inconvenience, but inconvenience nonetheless, and as I said, pure and simple, classic workaround.

And the other issue that I raised ... remains outstanding.

Quite a contrast, really.

[norbs]

Gary, the BH live support is a god send. Any time I have had to deal with them, they have been terrific. Its a pity there arent more hosts like them. It gives you a warm feeling in the cockles of your heart when you know the person on the other end of a chat session can actually do something to help, not just pass the buck.

[Mr Darcy]

Have you moved yet?

I have just had the Login issue rear its ugly head again.

I logged in (.com)
Opened several posts I was interested in in tabs
I replied to a post (.com) hit submit, then got the login screen. I had multiple tabs open so didn't realise straight away, and closed the tab without doing a cut &Paste as I usually do. Grrr!

When I realised, I closed all tabs, logged in in again. Cleared all cookies. Logged out, logged in, then replied to the post (.com) again. Got the login in screen AGAIN on submitting. Hit the back button. Copied my reply. Submitted again. Logged in when it asked AGAIN. Then pasted my reply in the new reply form, then submitted again. It finally worked.

All on a Mac using Safari.

EDIT: and it happened again posting this message

[gstark]

Have you moved yet?

Not as yet.

Still waiting on Leigh to finish the artwork

[ATJ]

I have just had the Login issue rear its ugly head again.

Odd. I haven't had to log in for weeks, maybe longer. My login is remembered between reboots and all. Windows XP and Firefox 3.0.4.

[gstark]

The move is on for tonight ... starting in about a half hour.

Please see the portal page for more details.

[methd]

wow... much quicker!! i dont have to wait 2 min per page anymore (literally).

[scott s]

awesome work.
lightning fast,!
thanks

[who]

Yay..... Beers for you

Just as a Q - are you wanting the specials prices to show for those not logged in, or is that just work in progress?

[Mr Darcy]

I have just had the Login issue rear its ugly head again.

Odd. I haven't had to log in for weeks, maybe longer. My login is remembered between reboots and all. Windows XP and Firefox 3.0.4.

I don't stay logged in on this machine. It is Pam's, so I browse as guest, then log in if I want to reply to something I see, then log out. ATM (New host as well) it is a more than painful issue. I recently sent a PM. I had to log in 5 times to get it sent. This despite being a reply to a PM I received, so I was logged in at the time I started the process. BTW Gary,
Some glitches:
THere is some odd stuff appearing in the USer Panel of a post

GIVEN }: { THANKS }
{ RECEIVED }: { THANKS }

Also, If I try to go to the SECOND (or later) page of a thread from the "Recent Topics" tab, I get a 404 not found error. If I just click on the topic title then navigate through the pages, I get there OK.

Also I am not happy with the "joke" messages in threads when not logged in. As mentioned above, I often browse as guest when I am using Pam's machine. I do this more and more as my dinosaur takes half an eon to fire up these days. Pam's Mac is up and running in seconds.

[MATT]

Seems heaps fast and I like the new layout. well done Gary and team.

I am having similar issues as mr darcey with the second page thingo. Firefox is my browser of choice.

MATT

[gstark]

Yay..... Beers for you

Just as a Q - are you wanting the specials prices to show for those not logged in, or is that just work in progress?

Hi Ian,

Yes I am.

It's partly a performance issue: the system doesn't need to do as much checking on you (as a user) in rendering the page. I have things like the calendar, bargains and PotW blocks all pre-definedI now. They don't change all that often, so there's no point in rendering them from a real-time query, is there?

I set them up as a predefined block, and the code just grabs the static text from the database instead of running some more complex and multiple queries.

And by showing the bargains block to all and sundry, I don't think I'm losing anything.

[gstark]

I had to log in 5 times to get it sent. This despite being a reply to a PM I received, so I was logged in at the time I started the process.

What is the actual domain that you're logged in under?

BTW Gary,
Some glitches:
THere is some odd stuff appearing in the USer Panel of a post

GIVEN }: { THANKS }
{ RECEIVED }: { THANKS }

Yep. Rel mentioned this already.

So did I, very early this morning.

Also, If I try to go to the SECOND (or later) page of a thread from the "Recent Topics" tab, I get a 404 not found error. If I just click on the topic title then navigate through the pages, I get there OK.

Can you please give me more details of this? What, exactly, are you doing when this happens?

Also I am not happy with the "joke" messages in threads when not logged in.

What exactly do you mean by "not happy"? I really don;t undertsnad that comment. It's not a "joke"; as noted above it's just some boilerplate text that I expect is coming in from a default setting somewhere, and I cannot understand how it might make you "not happy".

Most of my testing was done whilst logged in. I really don't care too much for people who use the system while not logged in - which is why most functionality requires one to be logged in. But as such, I didn't get to see this problem. Further, I am seeing some changes between what I tested and what was actually implemented. I put that down to user error ID-TEN-T on my part, and that gave me some element of frustration last evening when implementing the changes.

[cyanide]

You are probably fiddling with something to cause this, but on dslrusers.net I now get the default "We have moved to Bluehost" message, instead of the new forums like a few hours ago.

D70users.com works, which is what I'm using now.

Also, If I try to go to the SECOND (or later) page of a thread from the "Recent Topics" tab, I get a 404 not found error. If I just click on the topic title then navigate through the pages, I get there OK.

Can you please give me more details of this? What, exactly, are you doing when this happens?

I'm getting this too. I click on "View new posts" from the board index page and it displays the list of threads with new posts just fine. I can see that there are two pages of recent posts. When I click on the "2" to go to the second page, I get a 404 error.

[gstark]

Also, If I try to go to the SECOND (or later) page of a thread from the "Recent Topics" tab, I get a 404 not found error. If I just click on the topic title then navigate through the pages, I get there OK.

Can you please give me more details of this? What, exactly, are you doing when this happens?

Ok, I think I can reporduce this one.

Click on recent topics tab; look at the list of threads. Where there is a thread that appears to be rendered over more than one page, click on one of the page numbers, rather than the thread.

This appears to be a bug in the portal code, but I will look more closely at it later tonight. I suspect the fix may be fairly simple, from looking at the expected link in the status bar, but I may be wrong on that point.

Could you please confirm that I've identified what you're highlighting?

Thanx.

[cyanide]

A little different, gary. The "2" I am referring to is not for an individual thread, but (only) appears when there are so many unread threads that the list spills over onto a second page.. and then the " 1 2 " navigation links appear down the bottom of the screen.

ETA: Perhaps it is also happening on the individual thread second pages as well, but I hadn't noticed it there.

[gstark]

A little different, gary. The "2" I am referring to is not for an individual thread, but (only) appears when there are so many unread threads that the list spills over onto a second page.. and then the " 1 2 " navigation links appear down the bottom of the screen.

Rae,

So, at the bottom of the list on the "Recent Posts" tab, it may say something like "94 recent topics found", then "Page 2 of 10", and then there's some boxes with number in them, 1, 2, etc. You're saying that if you click in one of those boxes, you get this error?

I'm not seeing that: what browser, are you logged in, did you have a different skin before? For the moment we just have the one skin, so I'm trying to understand what the differences may be ...

Could you please enable your status bar in your browser and post a screen dump, with your mouse over one of the numbers, but including the status bar and its message for me?

[cyanide]

gary, I am logged in, on FF3 / Win XP Pro v5.1.

However, I can't replicate it at the moment as it is only showing less than one page's worth of threads with new posts. So I'm guessing a screen dump as you requested won't help, right?

[cyanide]

gary, just to check, did you see my note a few posts back about the dslrusers.net domain not working? Just there would normally be more people on who might be able to help, but perhaps they aren't thinking to check the other domain options.

[gstark]

Also, If I try to go to the SECOND (or later) page of a thread from the "Recent Topics" tab, I get a 404 not found error. If I just click on the topic title then navigate through the pages, I get there OK.

Can you please give me more details of this? What, exactly, are you doing when this happens?

Ok, I think I can reporduce this one.

Click on recent topics tab; look at the list of threads. Where there is a thread that appears to be rendered over more than one page, click on one of the page numbers, rather than the thread.

This appears to be a bug in the portal code, but I will look more closely at it later tonight. I suspect the fix may be fairly simple, from looking at the expected link in the status bar, but I may be wrong on that point.

Could you please confirm that I've identified what you're highlighting?

Ok ... I have fixed what I can see in this issue, and I've done it with a few different point's of attack.

First of all, the code that actually published the link pushed a relative link into the code that was being referenced through the number. As the code which does that doesn't live in the site's root folder - it's portal code - it was pushing its path onto the relative link as well. I have specified the site's base path as a link now, and that corrected the problem.

But wait: there's more.

That file also (naughtily) includes two variables that respectively set a line count for the number of items to display on a query and also for how many posts to render within a page for each thread. Both values were set to 10.

While the line count was not a major issue (but it may be related to what Rae is seeing), the posts per page count is low, considering that we have this set at 50. From a coding integrity point of view, both of these variables should be set with reference to the board configuration, but hey, who does a code review?

So ... I've set the line count to 20, and the posts-per-page count to 50. This means that, for both of these issues, they will, if they occur, start at a later point in time that being more threads do display, or more posts in a thread being referred to.

[gstark]

gary, just to check, did you see my note a few posts back about the dslrusers.net domain not working? Just there would normally be more people on who might be able to help, but perhaps they aren't thinking to check the other domain options.

Thank you for pointing me to that; no I'd not seen it.

But it's also not an issue.

You've been (normally) using the dslrusers.net domain, right? In your case, the new DNS settings have not yet propogated, because you have a different (DNS) cache contents to me - I use dslrusers.com. You're actually seeing the opposite of what I'm seeing, but it should resolve itself by the weekend, as the various DNS hosts update themselves. This is a normal thing, and nothing to worry about.

FWIW, when I was accessing the site from the radio station today, I could access the new host from each of the four domains, as there was no stale DNS there.

gary, I am logged in, on FF3 / Win XP Pro v5.1.

However, I can't replicate it at the moment as it is only showing less than one page's worth of threads with new posts. So I'm guessing a screen dump as you requested won't help, right?

Right. But just use the "number of days" section of that screen to force more threads to be displayed.

[cyanide]

You've been (normally) using the dslrusers.net domain, right? In your case, the new DNS settings have not yet propogated, because you have a different (DNS) cache contents to me - I use dslrusers.com. You're actually seeing the opposite of what I'm seeing, but it should resolve itself by the weekend, as the various DNS hosts update themselves. This is a normal thing, and nothing to worry about.

Ok - so if there is an issue, it must be at my end. But just to note, I usually use dslrusers.com; I switched to dslrusers.net at lunch today when I read the "We've moved" message on the old site. I could access the new site via dslrusers.net just fine at that stage, but then I got the same "We've moved" message (and still do) when I checked dslrusers.net again a few hours later. Anyway, I'll clear my cookies and see whether that fixes it.

Right. But just use the "number of days" section of that screen to force more threads to be displayed.

Sorry, but I don't see this "number of days" option you mention?

[cyanide]

OK, answering myself here. You are talking about the "Recent Topics" tab, whereas I am referring to the View New Posts link on the "Board Index" tab. In case that matters.

Also, I tried accessing dslrusers.net via IE7 as well (which I do not normally use) and still got the "We've moved" message (not logged in). If it was a DNS issue on my end, I would have expected to be able to access the site from IE7, but perhaps my understanding of DNS caches is just too piecemeal (quite possible!).

Only posting this stuff in case it's helping. If it's useless and just annoying, please feel free to tell me to bugger off.

ETA: OK, dslrusers.net just came back up for me (on FF3). So 'll shut up now.

[gstark]

But just to note, I usually use dslrusers.com; I switched to dslrusers.net at lunch today when I read the "We've moved" message on the old site. I could access the new site via dslrusers.net just fine at that stage, but then I got the same "We've moved" message (and still do) when I checked dslrusers.net again a few hours later.

Now, that is somewhat weird.

Was that ...

- from the same PC?

- using the exact same connection to the internet? (same ISP, same location, etc ... )

If there were any changes in any of those realms, then a stale DNS cache would account for that.

Otherwise, given that many ISPs use two or three DNS hosts, it is also possible that host 2 might be more up to date than host 1 (it might get used less, and thus might have fresher data) and then when you request the IP address, it may have gone to host 2 for the first request, but host 1 for the second.

All of this is transparent to you, and perfectly normal, but it would certainly account for what you have been seeing. For now, I would not be concerned at all about it, but if it persists beyond the weekend, then we should look at it.

Right. But just use the "number of days" section of that screen to force more threads to be displayed.

Sorry, but I don't see this "number of days" option you mention?

On the Recent Topics tab, it says "Showing posts from: Today". Directly below that there are some links, with the caption "Select Mode". You can click on "Today", "Yesterday" ..... "Last 5 Days" .... click on the word "Days" in that final item.

And you can set the 5 to any value you wish.

[gstark]

If it was a DNS issue on my end, I would have expected to be able to access the site from IE7, but perhaps my understanding of DNS caches is just too piecemeal (quite possible!).

DNS happens upstream from your PC, typically at your ISP. You might have entered some default DNS addresses into your router, or into your browser, but it will usually work regardless.

From the perspective of your PC, unless you have explicitly specified a different DNS for each of your browsers, the default DNS (for the PC, which will default from your router -> gateway -> ISP) would be the same for any internet activity on your system.

Only posting this stuff in case it's helping. If it's useless and just annoying, please feel free to tell me to bugger off.

Not at all annoying.

ETA: OK, dslrusers.net just came back up for me (on FF3). So 'll shut up now.

It would be interesting to be able to find out what your in-use DNS actually is. I have no idea at all how to do that.

[gstark]

OK, answering myself here. You are talking about the "Recent Topics" tab, whereas I am referring to the View New Posts link on the "Board Index" tab. In case that matters.

Thank you for that clarification. That is very helpful.

[cyanide]

OK, more weirdness.

I said dslrusers.net was up for me on FF3, right? Just for kicks, I checked via IE7, and no go - still getting the We've Moved message.

So I came back to dslrusers.net on FF3, set the "Recent Topics" tab to 90 days and when it had loaded, tried to look at page 2. Got the 404 error again. Took a screenshot of the error. Went to get a screenshot of page 1 with cursor hovered over the 2 link etc etc, and got the "We've Moved" message again!

I'm now back on D70users.com.

[gstark]

OK, more weirdness.

Sounds like your ISP is having DNS issues.

[cyanide]

Sounds like your ISP is having DNS issues.

Yes, it does. That's Hellstra for you. I'll stick with D70users.com for a while and hopefully it will sort itself out in the meantime.

On the Recent Topics tab, I notice that if I change the time frame for display - either by upping the number of days, or by clicking the "Last Week" option, it logs me out. Is that likely to be a (cookie?) issue at my end?

[gstark]

On the Recent Topics tab, I notice that if I change the time frame for display - either by upping the number of days, or by clicking the "Last Week" option, it logs me out. Is that likely to be a (cookie?) issue at my end?

I don;t think so; I've notice some inadvertent logging out too, but I've not yet been able to isolate what I've been doing to trigger this, so that is useful information. Thank you.

[Mr Darcy]

Just noticed.
Recent Posts "Today" seems to roll over at 18:00 or thereabouts
First post showing for me is 20:03
Last post in "Yesterday" is 17:56

[gstark]

Just noticed.
Recent Posts "Today" seems to roll over at 18:00 or thereabouts
First post showing for me is 20:03
Last post in "Yesterday" is 17:56

Interesting. I'll bet it's not looking at the timezones correctly.

Thanx.

[DanielA]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned somewhere...

Do we still have the ability to subscribe to threads and get an email with new posts are added? Since the change over I haven't received any emails for "watched" threads, and I cannot see where to subscribe to a thread? It's still mentioned in the control panel defaults.

Thanks

Daniel