Hi, gang.
I think I can state somewhat confidently that our message board is up, running, and stable. The move to our new web host was fairly complex and unfortunately, a couple of missteps by the tech folks doing the transfer resulted in some down time. They have been extremely responsive and we're pretty sure this is now behind us.
Timing, as always, is everything, and we learned on the very day of our migration about a dangerous vulnerability in "FlashChat", the chat program linked above. Hackers all over the Internet had found a hole in the program and were using it to access, deface, and completely destroy the websites which hosted it. At the time, I didn't know if we'd been hacked (we weren't) or if our down time was a result of a database transfer error (it was). In the meantime, I read up-to-the-minute horror stories from those who'd fallen prey. One fella, for example, had spent six years building his online business, had no backup files, and lost everything.
The folks at FlashChat said the solution was "simple": download the new version, which contained a patch. It seemed to work for everyone else and it cleaned up the security problem, but for some reason (as of last night) I believe we continued to have issues with the new product. As I understand, some members could not log on; others were kicked off when chatting; and some found their chat sessions "frozen".
Tech support emailed me this morning and they're having a hard time duplicating the problem, which makes it really difficult to trouble shoot. I don't know if it's resolved yet--perhaps those of you who enter chat today can PM me and let me know. It's very helpful.
I'll be on the road for a few days and won't be able to monitor the site as carefully, but I do want to put together a plan:
Message board access: if you wish, continue to share email addresses or other contact info via Private Message in the event of a server failure. I agree we don't want you left out in the cold if something should happen again. I do, however, believe the service we're now using is far superior to the earlier one and we shouldn't expect any more down time.
Chat: I can't be sure these issue will be resolved before I return. If you find you can't chat and are able to coordinate a session with someone else, we do have a backup solution. Our earlier EZBoard chat is still online and functional. You'll find it here. (But it requires an EZBoard account.)
We're working on hiring someone to implement a trouble-free chat--or fix this one--so we can finally put all of this behind us. (And thank you, to everyone who offered to support the message board financially. It will go a long way in providing us with the level of service we now require. We're working on a donation button and hope to install it soon.)
Again, sincere apologies to any of you who found yourselves stranded. It was terribly painful for me to know you couldn't connect with each other when you really needed to. But hopefully, with the new host behind us, it won't happen again!
RJ
I think I can state somewhat confidently that our message board is up, running, and stable. The move to our new web host was fairly complex and unfortunately, a couple of missteps by the tech folks doing the transfer resulted in some down time. They have been extremely responsive and we're pretty sure this is now behind us.
Timing, as always, is everything, and we learned on the very day of our migration about a dangerous vulnerability in "FlashChat", the chat program linked above. Hackers all over the Internet had found a hole in the program and were using it to access, deface, and completely destroy the websites which hosted it. At the time, I didn't know if we'd been hacked (we weren't) or if our down time was a result of a database transfer error (it was). In the meantime, I read up-to-the-minute horror stories from those who'd fallen prey. One fella, for example, had spent six years building his online business, had no backup files, and lost everything.
The folks at FlashChat said the solution was "simple": download the new version, which contained a patch. It seemed to work for everyone else and it cleaned up the security problem, but for some reason (as of last night) I believe we continued to have issues with the new product. As I understand, some members could not log on; others were kicked off when chatting; and some found their chat sessions "frozen".
Tech support emailed me this morning and they're having a hard time duplicating the problem, which makes it really difficult to trouble shoot. I don't know if it's resolved yet--perhaps those of you who enter chat today can PM me and let me know. It's very helpful.
I'll be on the road for a few days and won't be able to monitor the site as carefully, but I do want to put together a plan:
Message board access: if you wish, continue to share email addresses or other contact info via Private Message in the event of a server failure. I agree we don't want you left out in the cold if something should happen again. I do, however, believe the service we're now using is far superior to the earlier one and we shouldn't expect any more down time.
Chat: I can't be sure these issue will be resolved before I return. If you find you can't chat and are able to coordinate a session with someone else, we do have a backup solution. Our earlier EZBoard chat is still online and functional. You'll find it here. (But it requires an EZBoard account.)
We're working on hiring someone to implement a trouble-free chat--or fix this one--so we can finally put all of this behind us. (And thank you, to everyone who offered to support the message board financially. It will go a long way in providing us with the level of service we now require. We're working on a donation button and hope to install it soon.)
Again, sincere apologies to any of you who found yourselves stranded. It was terribly painful for me to know you couldn't connect with each other when you really needed to. But hopefully, with the new host behind us, it won't happen again!
RJ