OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

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Mothman

OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by Mothman »

There have obviously been a few problems with the forum of late.

Before i say anything more, i thank you all involved with the BXC. Its something i rely on for info, help and perhaps the best comeraderie i have ever exprienced online.[there's beer in me now so appoligies if i go wrong].

I cannot think of any other forum that has been so good at helping or offering such good advice on a motor to which i am so gripped, dedicated and love.

Perhaps this is the time that the forum admin should admit that perhaps this is the time that we should spend a little money on sorting the forum servers and getting it right by spending a little money by helping the forum administrators.

Ime sure that to continue such a good forum, i know no better than that members wouldnt mind contributing a small amount to help this.

I think that a proper discussion should ensue and i hope with the right outcome.

Andy
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Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by Dollywobbler »

I also heap many thanks on the people who make BXC and FCF happen, but do also wonder if we need to move to a managed server. We have people willing to chuck money in a pot, and it would remove some stress from those who battle to keep things running. I accept that even managed servers can experience downtime, but it shouldn't cost us the earth.
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Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by Defender110 »

:wink: We have a forum admin fund that many of us contribute to:

http://www.bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9826" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This didn't become the best forum on the planet by accident, I'm sure our recent problems will be sorted soon as always and any changes required will be forthcoming as usual.
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Mothman

Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by Mothman »

Defender110 wrote::wink: We have a forum admin fund that many of us contribute to:

http://www.bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9826" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This didn't become the best forum on the planet by accident, I'm sure our recent problems will be sorted soon as always and any changes required will be forthcoming as usual.

I hope so bud as its my fave forum.

Real great guys run it and contribute to it.

Andy
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Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by Defender110 »

I would imagine a couple more admin fund volunteer contributors would be very welcome :wink:
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Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by Vanny »

With a theoretical £600+ in the bank, i don't think money has anything to do with the current problems.
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Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by Mothman »

Well, it they need more dosh, ime more than happy to oblige.

Andy
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Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by kiwi »

This weekend another forum/game I am involved with based on a server in the Netherlands is also offline. The internet is only as good as the servers which I think people tend to forget.
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Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by citsncycles »

I agree that if there's money needed for an upgrade etc. that may not be covered by the funds, there's enough of us willing to pitch in and help! Although the majority of us probably wouldn't understand the answer (myself included) it may be useful to know if the recent issues have been down to hardware, software or something outside or our control.
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Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by kiwi »

Dont rush into things fellas I dont think this is an isolated problem to do with money. Couple of places I frequent are having sever issues this weekend.

Was watching an article on the news about the increased cyber warfare going on so it may well be some interferance with our servers fom one these major hacking sessions. Stuff I dont think many of us would understand as we just see the inconvieniance.
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Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by bx petrol auto saloon »

Dear All,
Firstly, I too would like very very much thank " ALL " of the very kind folks " behind the scenes " administrating the forum ^^bx> =D> They work extremely hard, all the time 24-7 :wink:
Secondly, personally I didn,t read this " thread " asking for people to contribute to the forum, so my apologies for that :oops:
Thirdly, I am more than ever, pleased to put my name " into the pot " so to speak :D
I am unsure how to do myself, however Shari assures me that she would be able to do this for me :wink: :D
Lastly, we can pay, but it would have to be on Wednesday next week :wink:
Many Thanks indeed,
Vince.
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Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by mat_fenwick »

I've been away for the last week, with limited internet access so have only been vaguely aware of the problems this week. I don't think anyone would claim that the situation is ideal, but it's not a case of money shortage. The only thing I know at this stage is that following the recent upgrade by O2 (which in itself caused downtime) is the following from Jim "It seems since the upgrade the IP address changes so often that his Dynamic DNS provider can't keep up with it"

Whether the best solution is to resolve these problems and continue as we are but more reliably, or look at hosting elsewhere; I don't know. I'll point Xac in the direction of this thread and get his thoughts.
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xac
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Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by xac »

Hi guys,
Firstly, thank you all so much for your words of support.
The issue isn't with our equipment.
Since the upgrade the external IP (address of the server's internet connection) has been changing too frequently at times, ie less than 5 minutes.
Now, when it changes, the software on the server informs the Domain Name Servers that look after converting http://www.bxclub.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; to the IP address updating them with the new address so you can still find it.
In order to stop malicious attacks on the DNS, if there isn't 5 minutes between updates then a block is put on the update software which has to be manually cleared, something which can't be done remotely because I've no way of knowing what the server's external IP has changed to.
I've tried several setting changes with O2's "assistance" (hence the outage on Friday), bought a new router to exclude that from the equation, and this morning requested a static IP (again, apologies for the outage this morning as O2's static IP wasn't being sent to the router).
I will be contacting their network team tomorrow, if they aren't able to fill me with confidence then I'll be taking my business elsewhere, however up until now O2 have been briliant when it comes to support, going as far as contacting me on behalf of other users who've had problems connecting as O2 customers themselves, and of course they give us that all important 1Mbps upstream.
As we host the server ourselves, we have direct access to it, we have the resources to run a test server so that any updates applied don't break the forums.
Compare that with Web Fusion where I believe we were paying £45 a month, they updated their system causing the forums to falter regularly (SQL timeouts etc), denied they'd made any changes, then when I proved they had and told them what they needed to do to resolve the issue they refused point blank to do anything about it.
In fact I can't think of any web hosting company that I've had to deal with that hasn't been an absolute PITA, and that's even where the customer is paying thousands a year!
This is a glitch, we'll get past it one way or another :)
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Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by mds141 »

Cheers Xac. Carry on with the good work. =D>
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Re: OK, maybe a hard topic to consider!

Post by Dollywobbler »

Thanks Xac. I think my personal frustration just came because I could really have done with the forum's help on the one day it broke! I guess that's just sod's law. Thanks for your efforts.
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