Site down for maintenance: 3-6pm est

We are taking the site off-line for a few hours today, so that it can be moved to its own dedicated server.

Such is necessary to correct the recent issues related to the speed and stability of the site, and as importantly, to be certain of its continued capabilities, going forward.

While we know that this will be somewhat of an inconvenience, we believe that it's worth it, as the change should result in a significant increase in both the speed and stability of the site. We expect the site to be down anywhere between 2-4 hours, and are now planning on it being unavailable from 4-8PM EST.

Once the site is back online, you may need to log back in, and to refresh your cache, as the previous IP addresses will have changed.

Thanks, in advance, both for your understanding and patience.

 

Awesome news.

Also, GBO.

 

We're back!

 

Much thanks. It runs like Chuck Webb in the Cotton Bowl now.

 

site is doing much better. thanks Tenny

 

This upgrade will help with my productivity.

 

The sites traffic is way down right now.

 

Could anyone else not access this place from 8:30ish to just now?

 

not just now, but I couldn't access it right after my game with IP, which didn't end til after 11, i believe.

 

You didn't take the hint.

 

Seems much improved. Thanks Tenny.

 

Thanks! Much better on my end!

 

I was on a plane. Didn't get this site so I watched MNF.

 

I banned you for throwing too many touchdowns. Cheese, imo.

 

By the way, the whole place runs so slick now. All we need is Gruden to wear an orange tie this coming Monday and this place will explode again.

 

New server is awesome, very speedy. Desktop and mobile browsers working great.

Only issue I've seen is with Tapatalk, tried deleting and re-adding the site and keep getting a "Failed to connect to forum, please check with the forum administrator if this problem persists" error message.

 

I can get on the mobile site fine, but when I try to log on to my desktop, I am still getting the "site is down for maintenance" message. I have tried clearing my cache and cookies and I even tried IE (I feel dirty).

I have had problems connecting with Tapatalk as well, but it forced me to try the mobile skin, which is pretty sweet.

 

While most of your DNS' have propagated to the site on its new server, there are some who continue to see the "old" site (hence, the top of each page has large red letters that read: "ALERT! Forums are currently closed!) and are concerned about the site's stability and/or their personal access.

Please know, that if you continue to see this large red message at the top of the forums, even intermittently (i.e. you don't see it on forum home, but you see it displayed across a thread that you are reading), that your DNS has not repropagated since the server move, and that such is not only beyond our (the 8th's) control, but yours as well. Instead, it is entirely dependent upon your own internet service providers (ISP) schedule of refreshing its cache of stored ("old") data. While that's the "bad" news - the "good" news is that it will not only eventually refresh and detect the new server, but such will automatically occur, and without the need for you to do anything. As explained earlier, app. 90% of your ISP's refresh their DNS every two hours, and you're now using the new server, but in the most extreme cases, it can take as long as 3 days before they choose to do so. And until such is done, you will continue to see the red-alert message, as you are accessing the inactive site on the "old" server.

What's more, this is not only true, but for any means by which you access the site - work PC, home PC, iPad, mobile, etc.

For example, if your home PC and iPad use Comcast as its ISP, they may have refreshed the DNS within two hours of the change, meaning, you will access the new server when visiting this site through those mediums. However, if your mobile and workplace ISP is is AT&T (again, this is just a random example), it may take them 2 days to refresh their DNS, meaning, that when you access the site via your phone, it goes to the "old" server and the now "inactive" site. Hence, you should expect there to be some lag time of each ISP, meaning, there will likely be a time that you may be able to access the new site from one method, but not another.

So, please be patient, and know that there is nothing that we can do to speed this process up, but that it will occur.

To aide in your understanding of what this is or entails, the following is provided:

"You’ve switched your domain to a new server, so why can’t you see the new server / site right away? What is this DNS propagation people keep telling you about?

In order to understand DNS propagation, you must first understand a little about how DNS works. When you set up your website with your hosting provider, they create a Master DNS record in their Domain Name Servers. Your domain registrar (the company you paid for the honor of owning your domain name) points to your web host’s DNS server as being the master authority of your domain.

When any outside source wants to know how to find your website, they first go to the registration database to find out who the DNS authority is for your website. Then they visit your hosting provider’s DNS servers to find out what the IP Address is for your domain name, and from there your audience can now view your website.

The problem with this whole scheme is that in order to speed up the rate at which their customers can view the internet, each Internet Server Provider caches their DNS records. This means that they make their own copy of the master records, and read from them locally instead of looking them up on the Internet each time someone wants view a website. This actually speeds up web surfing quite a bit, by (1) speeding up the return time it takes for a web browser to request a domain lookup and get an answer, and (2) actually reducing the amount of traffic on the web therefore giving it the ability to work faster.

The downside to this caching scenario and what makes it take so long for your website to be visible to everyone, is that each company or ISP that caches DNS records only updates them every few days. This is not any kind of standard, and they can set this time anywhere from a few hours to several days. The slow updating of the servers cache is called propagation, since your websites DNS information is now being propagated across all DNS servers on the web. When this is finally complete, everyone can now visit your new website. Being that the cache time is different for all servers, as mentioned above, it can take anywhere from 36 to 72 hours for DNS changes to be totally in effect."

Link: http://webhosting.devshed.com/c/a/W...DNS-propagation-and-why-does-it-take-so-long/

I hope that this helps to better explain the process that is now occurring, and assuages some of the concerns that any may have. If not, or if you believe that something remains to be amiss, by all means, please let me know by posting the issue here, in this thread. This will allow any of us to see what may be happening, and to allow any one of several people to either better explain or further investigate how best to help you.

Again, I'm sorry for any consternation this move has caused, but hopefully, the experienced speed of the site has already proven well worth it.

Tenny D

 

That's going to keep me occupied during my mid morning work poop.Thanks Tenny.

 

Thanks TD. This place is running smoother than a prom queen's thighs now.