Huge apologies to anyone who has been put out in the last 24-36 hours by incsub server performance. In an attempt to configure backups to maximise performance the tech. people set up a system that basically crashed everything :( and then, most annoyingly, as the server was just overloaded rather than ‘down’ – didn’t stop the process to allow the system to get back up and running again.
As well as typing in lots of capitals to them at the moment I’m also investing in several more Gig of RAM to support the server straight away and looking into purchasing a dedicated SQL server to run edublogs dbases off… annoying as it’ll cost thousands to properly maintain but in the RAM doesn’t sort it I’ll do that immediately.
I found out my text message this AM and have been scrabbling with it all day on and off, in the future please SMS (DO NOT CALL) +61 405 703 923 . Two reasons not to call, first up if you get your timezone wrong I’m more likely to tell you to ‘eff off, go back to bed and ignore you for weeks afterwards… and secondly I’m more likely to get your message and do something about it if you text… can be days between me checking my voicemail.
Sorry again to anyone who’s been inconvenienced… it’s our first big stuff up in a couple of years and regardless of new jobs and commitments I’m 100% committed to providing the best possible environments to edublogs.org users and those who have domains hosted at incsub, at whatever cost. So it will be sorted, promise.
Update: Eeek, apparently we’re under a ‘huge’ DDoS attack, dunno who by or why though? DO these things have to have a reason? Any hints / tips while the tech people are working on it.
So that’s why you never write, you never ring ;-) !!!
Feel your pain dude – hang in there – you may have noticed I’ve made edublogs.org my primary blog home and of course, today is the day I chose to recruit subscribers to move to the new feed – mr Murphy certainly has our addresses.
Maybe we should try to recruit a tecchie with some spare time who can monitor server perf, DOS attacks and think about some new project stuff (like SXORE for comments and more).
Anyone out there got the skills and time to help?
Fang – Mike Seyfang
Many many thanks, James!!! The update is greatly appreciated. Keep smiling, and we’ll hang in there with you.
James, sorry to hear about the server troubles!
You might want to give Bad Behavior a shot. It protects WordPress.com (and, more importantly, my blog ;-)
It looks at things like the user agent, referrer, platform, headers, etc… to sniff out spammers (and/or DDOSers) and terminates their requests and bans them from accessing the server. It MIGHT help alleviate some load, and it’s free.
oops. here’s the URL for Bad Behavior… Note to self – command C does NOTHING if not followed shortly afterward by a command V somewhere…
http://www.homelandstupidity.us/software/bad-behavior/
I feel your pain! My hosting environment was out for 24 hours last week. The techie guys had to restore everything back onto a new server. My only advice is to hang in there. Your only protection is to spend lots of money on redundant environments just in case.
Hi James,
Not that I don’t have sympathy for you, I DO!!, but I’m glad it wasn’t me. I am so appreciative of the edublog space and wish you all the best as you fight the server demons.
: )
Thanks for all your effort.
Plu