I just wanted to give you all an update on where we stand after those difficult past few weeks.
As I reported earlier, the arrangement I'd had for several years with our prior internet service provider ended in April and I had to find a new solution. I actually had three dedicated servers running there, one for Dimensions, one for Dimensions Streaming chat, and a small mail server.
The initial move to a commercial host did not work as, despite their initial assessment that it would be no problem, our DImensions community generated far too much traffic. I moved us again, to a new dedicated machine. The nightmare continued as we overwhelmed that machine as well. I had no choice to transfer us once again, this time to a much more powerful machine.
That machine seems powerful enough to handle our processing load, but we instantly ran into another problem when access to the server was erratic. After endless hours of researching and troubleshooting I found that when the ISP set up the new machine, they did it so the requests were for dimensionmagazine.com, and not dimensionsmagazine.com. Some requests went through, others timed out. It took several days to fix that seemingly minor problem (it was like the phone company assigning you a number where the area code was one digit off in some of their records, and so some people could call you and others always got the wrong number even if they dialed the right one).
Finally, there was chat, and I really wanted to get that back up. That was a bit of a task as the software is quite sophisticated and also required an authorization code. I tracked down the original software owner and he was kind enough to give me a new code and some help. So chat is back as well, and now runs on the same machine as Dimensions.
So there. For now all seems well. Thanks all for hanging in there through some trying times and downtime. Every time some problem happens I commit that to experience and try to guard against future problems, but every time something entirely new and unexpected happens. This burns up a lot of time, but it's also always a learning experience.
Thank you for your patience, and a very special thanks to those who signed up for monthly server cost contributions. That really helps.
As I reported earlier, the arrangement I'd had for several years with our prior internet service provider ended in April and I had to find a new solution. I actually had three dedicated servers running there, one for Dimensions, one for Dimensions Streaming chat, and a small mail server.
The initial move to a commercial host did not work as, despite their initial assessment that it would be no problem, our DImensions community generated far too much traffic. I moved us again, to a new dedicated machine. The nightmare continued as we overwhelmed that machine as well. I had no choice to transfer us once again, this time to a much more powerful machine.
That machine seems powerful enough to handle our processing load, but we instantly ran into another problem when access to the server was erratic. After endless hours of researching and troubleshooting I found that when the ISP set up the new machine, they did it so the requests were for dimensionmagazine.com, and not dimensionsmagazine.com. Some requests went through, others timed out. It took several days to fix that seemingly minor problem (it was like the phone company assigning you a number where the area code was one digit off in some of their records, and so some people could call you and others always got the wrong number even if they dialed the right one).
Finally, there was chat, and I really wanted to get that back up. That was a bit of a task as the software is quite sophisticated and also required an authorization code. I tracked down the original software owner and he was kind enough to give me a new code and some help. So chat is back as well, and now runs on the same machine as Dimensions.
So there. For now all seems well. Thanks all for hanging in there through some trying times and downtime. Every time some problem happens I commit that to experience and try to guard against future problems, but every time something entirely new and unexpected happens. This burns up a lot of time, but it's also always a learning experience.
Thank you for your patience, and a very special thanks to those who signed up for monthly server cost contributions. That really helps.
