Downtime

Still not working very well here. Slow connecting, and sometimes get a message that there is no server when trying to open a page, but at least it is connecting somewhat now.

 

Ken posted on the Facebook page that the servers were down and he had contacted the server people, but other than that, I have no idea what caused the outage.

 

I have the credentials, but I still can't fix server problems, although I can make trouble reports now. In response to my first report, the tech responded that they didn't see any problem on their end, but I couldn't check for any issues on my software end because I couldn't even log into the Admin account due to the server error. I did have to name-drop the supervisor who finally transferred us, and I think it was fixed shortly afterward. I don't know exactly when it came back up because I didn't turn the computer on today until just a few moments ago.

This is why I wanted to let things run for a while before upgrading the software. Things could get very sticky if there were a server error in the middle of a software upgrade—neither the web host nor the XenForo installation team would accept the blame for it.

 

They didn't explain it to me, only that it was fixed.

 

As long as they gave you the credentials, you are in control of our long-term fate. I wonder what happened on their end after moving us to a "better" server. This is one reason I never pursued a career in networking. No one knows your name until something breaks.

 

Now that I have access, yes, it can, but whenever databases are moved around, there is a chance of disaster, so I'd like to give this a chance. I am currently discussing upgrading to a more expensive server on the same host. When I first created the forum, the server space I had was considerably more than was deemed necessary for an XenForo forum, but that was nine years ago, so I don't know what the demands are of the updated XenForo software. We're on a shared server, and we have the highest account available for a shared server. Still, we can add to our available resources by moving to a virtual private or dedicated server. These are more expensive, but that's not the problem. I want to ensure I can find my way around whatever I sign onto.

 

The hosting company I use for other things, including my email address, is down now (not just my stuff, but the company's website as well), and that's not a small company. Add to that the fact that the Internet Archive has been down for nearly two weeks now, I think the United States might be experiencing widespread cyberattacks.

 

Sorry about that.

This gives me some time to determine what we need for the future and the demands. By the time I'm ready to upgrade the software and add stuff, I will have figured out what I need and how to go about it.

When I first signed up for the hosting account, nearly ten years ago now, it was an unlimited shared account, but unlimited didn't really mean unlimited - it all depended on what other people on the same server were using because there are limits to everything, but it was more than we needed at the time.

Since we haven't upgraded the software since 2015, our demands shouldn't have increased considerably, but along the way, via four different hosting companies, we seem to have lost our unlimited status.

 

Awesome, Ken ! Thanks for getting the forum working again, and unlimited bandwidth sounds promising.

 

Photos should work right now, too.

 

I'm sorry about the problems we've had lately. It is discouraging, but we are on our way to fixing it. I know it's discouraging because I thought about giving up more than once, but I have no reason to believe we're not on our way to better things. On the one hand, I'd love to upgrade the software right now because I'm excited to be able to add some new stuff, but I'm less willing to jump into things today than I might have been even a few years ago. Once, learning new tech was something I looked forward to, but it's now something I worry about. By that, I don't mean the upgrade on the software but moving to a VPS or dedicated server. While I'm familiar with the backend of Cpanel on a shared server, I want to understand better what I'm jumping into with a VPS or dedicated server, and I don't want to upgrade the software only to find that a shared server won't be able to handle the extra demand on resources. I'm not concerned with how to use the new software because I can figure out the software, but I'm not familiar with VPS or dedicated servers.