Parker — Fri, 01 Sep 2000 04:56:40 +0000

Oh well, sorry.

Chad Simper — Wed, 30 Aug 2000 22:33:20 +0000

I do. Since I am in ultimate control of the servers, I want them to be running properly all the time. If there is a problem, I want it to be fixed. If there isn't, I don't want to be blamed for it.

Parker — Wed, 30 Aug 2000 21:30:39 +0000

Who cares if it was server related or not. I know, I don't.

Vincent Puglia — Wed, 30 Aug 2000 15:27:29 +0000

Hi Chad,

I wasn't implying I didn't believe you. I was trying to understand how it could happen and point out some possible reasons. I wasn't pointing fingers.
In fact, I can undestand how you feel.
In the days of MS-DOS 3.1, I tested for PC Magazine a new backup recovery program that did its own compressed formatting, and somehow (probably through an EPROM), it changed my 360K floppy drive to 180K for hours, holding the new configuration even after shut downs. I know it did it. I also know software isn't supposed to effect hardware. But...
Finally, the fact that it came back on its own also seems to imply that a bad address could have been involved and was reset by someone hitting some link.
At any rate, thanks for your patience and honesty.

Vinny

Ravi Pachai — Wed, 30 Aug 2000 13:51:01 +0000

ok! we're just glad it's back now .

Chad Simper — Wed, 30 Aug 2000 13:26:52 +0000

I only need to say that everything that I have said is in fact true. I wouldn't say it if it wasn't. Honesty is something that I hold very high.

In all reality, I agree that VB's code isn't just going to "take a vacation" but I do know that *a lot* is customizable via the control panel. No offense to JP but I could easily see him breaking it. Further, with all the changes that he has been working on recently, I just have to come to the conclusion that somewhere, something was done incorrectly that caused problems. Further, the fact that the site suddenly started working again with absolutely no help on my part also seems odd.

I was able to access the VB control panel and actually make changes to TWF.

The point is also that MySQL doesn't just decide to take a vacation and go un-noticed. To verify however that the Apache->MySQL connection was working properly, I created a simple PHP script from the TWF site that would access and query the database - it worked. The script accessed the database *exactly* like VB would (in terms of what the server sees - user information, who's accessing, what's accessing, etc).

I don't know what happened but I can tell you with 100% assurance that it wasn't server related and I will continue to stand behind that decision.

mjames — Wed, 30 Aug 2000 13:15:50 +0000

*gasp* that downtime was horrendus! I really missed TWF. Anyway, it's good to hear things are now working. I hope people still come back, though...

Vincent Puglia — Wed, 30 Aug 2000 06:54:21 +0000

Hi Chad,

I don't know the board's inner workings, so take the following as 'brainstorming' (or rambling).
Because the site came up, doesn't necessarily prove that the dbms was up (unless you build your pages from the same dbms, and even then, it only proves that a given table within the dbms was up).
Virus-free code doesn't simply decide to take a vacation.
In other words, if everything you say is true, there may be some passing of bad pointers, either because of an out-of-bounds array or some other bad address reference. Considering how unstructured and open VB is (in comparison to c/c++), it would be very easy to pass a bad pointer.
Vinny

Chad Simper — Wed, 30 Aug 2000 06:15:06 +0000

Justin,

Actually, none of your three "only" options are even options. None of them have to do with the problem.

The problem was that VB was not querying the database, for whatever reason. DNS was fine. You could access the site, prooving that both DNS and your ISP were fine. As far as the server goes, I assure you it wasn't overloaded. There are under 10 sites on the server - the other 9 (including one VB the same size as TWF) were working properly.

I don't know what created this problem. JP swears he didn't change anything, so the problem is beyond me. I can however say that without a doubt, the problem was not related to our server. I verified *everything* to make sure it wasn't, and I am confident that my research was thorough enough to stand behind my opinion.

Justin S — Tue, 29 Aug 2000 20:43:54 +0000

So the only other possible answers would be either 1) DNS problems, 2) your ISP's connection went down somewhere, or 3) the server was so overloaded it produced really long response times and people didn't feel like waiting. Also, there is a small problem. It says: "Thanks to Dynamic Internet Solutions and vBulletin for helping us reach registered users." The number is missing.