Forum down for days? How to know where it went...

[laserfan]

I've been out-of-touch for some several days now as I've been unable to access forum.doom9.org. Thought it was an ISP problem but even pinging the IP address for it didn't work. Today I found on the main page this notice:

The forumserver isn't dead, it's just got a new IP and until doom9 pops up from his vacation you have to use http://85.230.118.136
Sorry for this,
Swede

And now I've found the forum again and can breathe easy, but as I look at new posts it seems I was the only one who couldn't access during this time?

Is there some "secret method" that others know, to have found out about this IP address change? Or does everyone else just have a better ISP (and DNS servers) than I do??? :confused:

[Swede]

The problem is that due to two separate power outages the forumserver got a new IP and since doom9 (who is away for a while) is the only one with the powers to change the DNS there's not much anyone of us can do but to use the current IP and wait. But fear not, the forum is fully online and will so be for the foreseeable future.

(and www.doom9.org is always a good place to check since that's a multiring and one of those servers will always be online with news and updates)

[Atak_Snajpera]

I would change forum link at doom9.org to http://85.230.118.136. You still have not working forum.doom9.org adress

[laserfan]

Well, I'm good now with the new IP, it's just that altho, when the forum was "down", I'd been checking www.doom9.org regularly, there was no notice there of the new IP until 11/27 (Swede, thanks).

So, I'm still wondering how so many others knew of the IP change for the couple days before the 11/27 post on www.doom9.org? How'd everyone find the IP address (but me)?! I did a lot of searching but only could find the old, non-working IP.

[Keiyakusha]

Well forum got new IP after second downtime. After the first one It worked as usual for some time so maybe you not noticed this and new posts appeared somewhere at this point...

[deank]

An easier thing to do (as I did) is to put a line:

85.230.118.136 forum.doom9.org

in

c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

This way you have all set.

Dean

[laserfan]

My English must be inadequate here. I am still looking for an answer to this question: how was I to have found out that the IP address had changed, and to what number? Swede's News post wasn't made until 11/27.

I know how to deal with it now, that's not the issue.

[Swede]

The first offline period was ~7 hours on the 26'th so if you couldn't connect before that the problem was in your end. After those 7 hours the forum was online, with the same IP, for about 10 hours until the next outage which lasted some 4-5 hours rendering in the new IP which I posted on www.doom9.org some hours after that.

[Guest]

Why do we need Doom9 to come back from vacation to propagate the new IP?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Swede said that only Doom9 himself can update the DNS server.

Of course the new IP can be propagated, but most people will still try to access the forum server through its well-known domain name, as that's how 99% of all hyperlinks that refer to Doom9 are made.

The same goes for the bookmarks that the Doom9 users have stored on their local systems...

[Guest]

I see. Thank you for the explanation.

[Swede]

It's Murphy's Law, it's the second time in all years I've had the forumserver here that the IP has changed and it *had* to be in the worst of times. Hopefully he'll come online soon and make things alright again.

[laserfan]

The first offline period was ~7 hours on the 26'th so if you couldn't connect before that the problem was in your end. After those 7 hours the forum was online, with the same IP, for about 10 hours until the next outage which lasted some 4-5 hours rendering in the new IP which I posted on www.doom9.org some hours after that.Ok, thanks for that. I must simply have had the bad fortune then to be trying to connect during those brief times when the forum was down.

Thank you for your efforts Swede!

[crisscross]

Swede; Why dont you change the "forum"-link on the frontpage of doom9 to the new ip? Might be some people (like me) that never reads the news on the frontpage but uses the forum-link to get to the forum.

[0xdeadbeef]

Or at least make the temporary numeric address a real link. It's annoying to need to copy and paste it every time when one click should be sufficient.

[Swede]

Duh, it's just me being stupid and in a hurry. My Linkification made a link so I never even noticed my dumb update. (And I've edited the 'Forum'-link too)

[rica]

Guys, noticed a very few visitors doom9 has as for right now?

[Ghitulescu]

That's no wonder, few people actually read the notice on www.doom9.org, myself included, I thought it would have been a simple server outtage.

[mikenadia]

It may be appropriate that all developers that have the e-mail addresses of some Doom9 members send them an e-mail telling them how to access the Doom9 forum (just in case they did not realize it yet).

And post the news in appropriate forums in which they are registered (as Gavino already did in "VideoHelp"). I was too late.

[laserfan]

It may be appropriate that all developers that have the e-mail addresses of some Doom9 members send them an e-mail telling them how to access the Doom9 forum (just in case they did not realize it yet).I started this thread because, when (finally, after several days of "can't connect to this web server") I saw Swede's announcement and was re-connected here, I was dismayed to see many posts during the time when I couldn't connect. I thought maybe there was another way to ID the new forum.doom9.org IP address that others knew but I did not. Now it appears I was simply trying to access here during those times the forum was Down, and others posted while the forum was Up.

I think that Swede's post in www.doom9.org's News page is all that should be needed, no more.

While a group email to all members might be nice, it might also overwhelm doom9's isp or otherwise be costly in some way. Regardless, I trust Swede & Doom9 to figure-out what's best for them and for us, their "satisfied customers". :)

[0xdeadbeef]

While I personally could cope with using the numeric address to access the forum for a while, this situation is still pretty annoying for a couple of reasons.
E.g. the email notifications contain the original link to the forum, so you'd really need to manipulate the hosts file which I really want to avoid.

My main problem with this though is that the forum is the home page for many tools, including mine. The BDSup2Sub online help refers to a Doom9 forum thread. Now currently, if someone downloads BDS2S from a 3rd party site as Softpedia and then uses the link in the online help to check for a new version, he'll end with a connection error and will assume that the tool is no longer supported.

It is pretty much frustrating that this situation is supposed to last for another 5 weeks or so and I can't do anything about it.

[Doom9]

Imagine how frustrating it has to be for me to not being able to do anything either. I tried about 10 different variations of passwords to get into the DNS... no joy. Then I figured I could do a password reset but before I tried that, I logged into the mail account that will get the reminder - and either I have changed the password there and cannot remember either (would surprise me but still..), or they've somehow disabled the account (I know I was getting emails from that account via pop up until the day I left) - bottom line, unless I'm back at home with the account data in hand, it's going the stay the way it is.

For the future, I'm going to use CNAMEs along with dyndns so this cannot happen again (it's already being done for some of the site servers that have dynamic IPs).
Sorry guys :(

[Guest]

On the bright side...spamming went down to zero. :)

[Dark Shikari]

No big deal--the world won't end if we have to spend a few days typing in an IP address. Thanks Doom9!

[laserfan]

...unless I'm back at home with the account data in hand, it's going the stay the way it is.No worries, now please carry-on with your holiday! See you in the new year! :p

[Doom9]

Shortly after typing the message, I managed to recall that the webmail uses a completely messed up login so with that I was able to log in and then do a password recovery on the DNS. Turns out they sent to another account anyways but the good news is that I'm able to access the DNS again and have made the update so as soon as the update propagates, we're back to normal mode of operation.
Now if only the weather improved....

[~Revolution~]

Shortly after typing the message, I managed to recall that the webmail uses a completely messed up login so with that I was able to log in and then do a password recovery on the DNS. Turns out they sent to another account anyways but the good news is that I'm able to access the DNS again and have made the update so as soon as the update propagates, we're back to normal mode of operation.
Now if only the weather improved....

Thanks Doom9. Site is working like normal now :)

[Swede]

On the bright side...spamming went down to zero. :)

That, and the fact that the fan-noise hasn't been this low for many years. :p
Anyhow, things are now back to normal so all of you that has modified your hosts-file make sure you delete that entry.