Current problems....

[Dinosaursoupman]

Hello Eddy,
I'm sure you are quite aware of it but I've been receiving a lot of #500 Internal Server Error messages over the last hour or 2. I report this not to complain but rather to assist in whatever way I can according to the recommendation of the server error message. Perhaps you can site messages like this to your server as proof of the problem.
I too would like to echo the thanks that Oldie expressed for the fine work that you do on this site. The professional quality of the site was one of the first things that attracted me to it and convinced me to join immediately.
Thanks again,
Randy the Dinosaur Soup Man

[Eddy Matthews]

Thanks Randy.....

Oh boy do I know about all the problems this evening!!

Some extremely irate messages have been sent to our host - Basically if this isn't resolved I will change to another host. After 10 days of complaining to them I'm getting nowhere fast!

It seems that their "so called" engineers are unable to resolve these issues, and we cannot continue as we are! And it's not just Paddleducks that is having a problem - EVERY website that is hosted on their Unix servers are experiencing the same issues!

The downside is that if we do change hosts, Paddleducks could be offline for 2-3 days whilst the new IP address gets circulated around the web. I consider that a minor glitch to put an end to all this sillyness - So we'll see what our current host have to say on the matter...... But the clock is ticking!

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's.... ...Eddy..I posted this a few months ago......the % of down time per unit day since the latest change to the service provider in reality is pretty LOW

We are a PD site......not NASA..if their systems shut down...then we would have a  big worry

Possibly the devil you know......... ...we all know the rest of the story  but the outsiders 

PS...what has happened to the emoticon of the Cannon?

[Dinosaursoupman]

Hey Eddy
I agree with Derek that the inconvenience concerning the website is minor. For the most part it simply requires clicking on the desired section one more time and you are there. But this is your site and I'm sure you have your expectations on how it should be working. But I think I speak for the majority of us when I say it's the best site for model boating, let alone paddlers, that we'll ever see.
Thanks,
Randy the Dinosaur Soup Man

[Harold H. Duncan]

My most sincere thanks to you Eddy, and to your co-moderators for such a magnificent site, even more so since your revamp. I have learned so much from yourself and and all the members of Paddleducks.
And I just love the humorous exchanges
Well done Eddy,
Kiwi

[Eddy Matthews]

After talking things over with Walter Snowdon and David Allinson, it has been decided to move the Paddleducks website to a new host...

The problems with constant "Internal Server Errors", emails going missing, the server running out of memory when processing data, and numerous other things, just cannot be sorted by our hosts so called engineers. For example, I checked the system logs and there have been over 2000 errors generated today alone!!

So we have decided that enough is enough, and we should move now rather than waiting any longer. The worst of these problems have been ongoing for almost three weeks now, but some issues have been going on for much longer! Out of memory errors have been plagueing us for a year!!

Moving to a new host isn't as big a deal as some people may think - It's basically just sitting in front of a keyboard for 8-10 hours moving data around - But the downside is that our new hosts IP address will take time to circulate round the web, and because of that you will almost certainly get "Page Not Found" errors whilst the changeover takes place. This can last for up to 4 days, so don't think we've gone forever - We will be back, and hopefully on a much more reliable server!

The changeover will probably begin on tuesday 18th March 2008 - And at that point you will see the forum etc will be taken offline, so you'll get a screen saying the system is offline for maintenance. After that there will be the period outlined above where you may get "Page Not Found" errors (which may last for up to 4 days for some of you), and finally everything will be back online on our new host.

So bear with us whilst this takes place - Just keep trying every now and then, until it comes back online. It shouldn't take too long! Famous last words!!

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's...Eddy....are all of the links to LINKS still  down?...certainly are here in OZ  .......

[Eddy Matthews]

Hi PD's...Eddy....are all of the links to LINKS still  down?...certainly are here in OZ  .......

There's definately a problem there Derek - I'll take a look at it later today...

[Eddy Matthews]

Hi PD's...Eddy....are all of the links to LINKS still  down?...certainly are here in OZ  .......

Hmmmm..... The problem is caused by one of the security scripts our host runs. So I need to find a new solution for the "Links" pages..... Bear with me, it may take a while - I've looked already but haven't found anything suitable. I'll probably end up writing some code to do it, but that won't be done very quickly as I have a few family problems to deal with right now

[crash93]

The main thing is Eddy the site has been fast all the time since the move, and no slow loads when logging on . it is so much faster than it was . thanks for all the work you have all put in

Peter

[derekwarner_decoy]

Well...what do I say PD's ?? ..... ....as most self respecting PD members will have an alternate backup to important links any way....so  have a & plenty of time Eddy to solve this very minor glitch........ still the only & WEB site for our passion

[kiwimodeller]

Eddie, it is of no particular consequence, especially compared with some of the other problems, but can you please explain why whenever I go to the home page or to the forum for the first time in a few days it always shows "Last visited" as todays current date and time? Also may I add my 2 cents worth to the plaudits, a few small glitches occaisionally do not detract form an enjoyable and extremely useful site. Cheers, Ian.

[Eddy Matthews]

I assume you mean the "Last Visited" bit in the left hand menu Ian?

If so, it's a minor bug in the front-end portal, and shouldn't affect anything from working as it should. The forum should still know when you REALLY last visited and show new messages etc etc...

[Eddy Matthews]

Hi PD's...Eddy....are all of the links to LINKS still  down?...certainly are here in OZ  .......

Hmmmm..... The problem is caused by one of the security scripts our host runs. So I need to find a new solution for the "Links" pages..... Bear with me, it may take a while - I've looked already but haven't found anything suitable. I'll probably end up writing some code to do it, but that won't be done very quickly as I have a few family problems to deal with right now

I've started to write a new piece of code to handle the "Links" - Hopefully I can do it in such a way as not to break our hosts security features.....

This may take a little while, but hopefully in the next 1-2 weeks we should have everything back online - Famous last words! 

[steamboatmodel]

Hi Eddy,
One thing I have noticed, when there is a list of photos in a post in thumbnail size and we enlarge them, the scroll bar is on the bottom. Is there any way to have scroll bars for each photo?
Regards,
Gerald