Recent Downtime

[don]

We apologize for the recent downtime. As you may have read in the Letter from the Editor for April, we just moved to a dedicated server. Performance was smokin' for every day traffic, but we were concerned about performance on high traffic days such as those when one of our articles hits the digg.com front page.

Well the digg effect still got us. So we made some adjustments to our server settings and tried again. We were lucky enough to get another article hit digg's front page. Slightly better results but no where near acceptable.

We strongly feel that these efforts to get more exposure for both CSP Mag and EH-Net are essential (and free). So, as we intend to grow and have continued success with digg.com, del.icio.us, other marketing efforts and of course the upcoming Skillz H@ck1ng Challenges starting May 1, we decided to bite the bullet and upgrade one more time. This time we are jumping to the top of our hosting provider's offerings. Hopefully this will stem the tide.

Why use a hosting provider? Due to this being a small operation (at least for the moment ), it is best for us to try to concentrate on content and marketing and pay someone else to handle hardware maint., backups, upgrades, etc.

As we make additional changes in preparation for May 1, there will be more downtime. We will try to make this as short as possible as we are trying to make the best experience possible for our members and visitors.

Rest assured, we are not going anywhere! We are in this for the long haul.

We thank you for your patience as we try our best to handle our growing pains.

Sincerely,
Don

[Oyle]

That's what I figured; I was having a hard time trying to connect last night to answer Dengar's posts, and all I was getting was server timeouts. Argh, I was  starting to have withdrawl pains. So in the meantime, I ran ad-aware on my machine (which I realized I hadn't done in a long time) and I ran a virus-scan, which I also hadn't done in a long time. The virus scan detected my install of Cain and Abel, and removed it. Argh. Oh well, I can always re-install it later if I have to, if I need it.

In the future, can you try and schedule down-time during the night, when we usually sleep? For those of us that sleep, that is.

I'm all for this growing thing. Growing pains, yeah. I'm here for the long run, too.
 

Thanks, Don.

[Dengar13]

That's what I figured; I was having a hard time trying to connect last night to answer Dengar's posts, and all I was getting was server timeouts. Argh, I was  starting to have withdrawl pains. So in the meantime, I ran ad-aware on my machine (which I realized I hadn't done in a long time) and I ran a virus-scan, which I also hadn't done in a long time. The virus scan detected my install of Cain and Abel, and removed it. Argh. Oh well, I can always re-install it later if I have to, if I need it.

In the future, can you try and schedule down-time during the night, when we usually sleep? For those of us that sleep, that is.

I'm all for this growing thing. Growing pains, yeah. I'm here for the long run, too.
 

Thanks, Don.

I was working 2359-1200 and was trying to check the site out.  It was a bummer but understand it needs done to accomodate the site's growth.  Do they monitor the site 24x7 for you, Don?

[Oyle]

I imagine they would monitor it for them 24x7, but that would depend on the package Don purchased. I ran the domain by www.dnsreport.com Friday night when I was having trouble getting on, and I see he's using 1and1.com for his hosting. This the company that runs 4 or 5 page ads in magazines like eWeek. I looked into using them one time, but it seems they outsource their ISP duties to a German company, so I decided not to use them. It's a pain when you need them to do somethng, and they talk to you with the thick accent. I even have problems watching the new Dr. Who because of the thick British accent.
Oh well, if it doesn't bother Don, I guess it's OK. It's just me, I suppose.

[don]

OK. We're on to the next phase. We are moved over to the faster dedicated server. Seems to blaze with normal traffic. In addition, I made some changes to the configurations, and I'm looking into other ways to optimize the site. Then it's time to try getting another article on digg.com's front page to see how it handles.

Onwards and upwards...

Thanks,
Don

PS - It never hurts to put in a plug to help support these new efforts. So be sure to vote for EH-Net using the 4 links on the bottom of the right hand column. And, of course, clicking on some Google Ads never hurt.