WebSite & Forum Glitches - Aug 18

Radical Brad

Garage Hacker!
Staff member
Joined
Mar 13, 1999
Messages
6,078
Location
Kakabeka Falls, Ontario, Canada
Sorry folks, there have been some serious issues today and yesterday.

Looks like the hosting server ran out of RAM (so they say), and I am awaiting a response from tech support so I can upgrade to the next level.

I had to finally ditch the old forum as well, as it was putting a 70% load on the entire site!

There may be a few more sparks under the hood for a day or two, but I am working to resolve it.
I have a new set of grinder discs and a big hammer sitting right next to me.

Cheers,
Brad
 

SirJoey

Super Moderator
Joined
Feb 8, 2008
Messages
4,781
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My cozy little nook in the corner!
Yeah, I was wondering what the heck was going on yesterday. Tried & tried, but couldn't log in.
At one point I thought maybe it was my browser, but restarting it didn't help, so I finally gave up for the day.
Glad to see it's up & running again!

***
 

Radical Brad

Garage Hacker!
Staff member
Joined
Mar 13, 1999
Messages
6,078
Location
Kakabeka Falls, Ontario, Canada
I imagine some room full of servers and one of them has smoke pouring out of the back.... that would be this one, of course!

I am not sure what fixed it, I am waiting to hear back.
I did have to yank the old forum off the server though as it was loading things up to 70%
Seems you can't put a model-t transmission in a modern race car after all!

3590

As soon as I know what the deal was, I am going to up this hosting to a higher level again.

Thanks for standing by everyone.
Brad
 
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Radical Brad

Garage Hacker!
Staff member
Joined
Mar 13, 1999
Messages
6,078
Location
Kakabeka Falls, Ontario, Canada
Yes, that was it all right!
Seems the resistor had a thermal runaway, which lead to a spiral carbon formation that in turn acted like an inductor. Soon after, a high frequency oscillation began to take place as the self-formed inductor created a flyback circuit with the 3 phase hard disc motor driver. Top scientists are still unsure as to how gamma rays were generated, but the theory of a heat induced self tuning wave-guide is being looked at. Once I get my computer back from the military weapons division, I will look into this myself.

Brad

Had a good look among the flames. It seems like a resistor in the far right corner of the motherboard may have been to blam. It looks a little scorched.
 
Joined
Feb 20, 2013
Messages
869
Location
Axedale, Victoria, Australia
Website
axerail.coffeecup.com
Isn't Forensic Science wonderful? Absolutely amazing that you were able to deduce that all those things had taken place once the flames had gone and everything had cooled down. Some truly amazing forces at work here on this site.
 

Radical Brad

Garage Hacker!
Staff member
Joined
Mar 13, 1999
Messages
6,078
Location
Kakabeka Falls, Ontario, Canada
Ok, I sorted out more of the downtime tonight.
Seems AZ was being hit by a massive amount of traffic from China to strange links (mostly ancient forum posts long deleted).
I found a complete list of China IP's and banned ' em all!

Hopefully the site won't go down again like it has every night around 9:00pm.

Looking at something called CloudFlare as well to make this old joint a bit faster.

Brad
 
Joined
Feb 5, 2008
Messages
563
Location
Fernley, NV
Website
miscdotgeek.com
Oh no, more issues; How frustrating for you! I've been in web hosting for 20 years and would be glad to help you get this resolved however I can. I'm currently the trainer at a mid sized hosting company.

CloudFlare can't hurt usually, and blocking China isn't a terrible idea! There may be other .htaccess rules that will help. I have a list of bad bots that can be blocked, and there may be things to do that would help the server weather the storm better. CloudFlare is one of those things. It's a caching CDN that "fronts" for your server and handles lots of the traffic, while keeping content fresh. It works well for most applications, but is by no means a panacea.

Feel free to PM me if there's any way I can help :)
 

Radical Brad

Garage Hacker!
Staff member
Joined
Mar 13, 1999
Messages
6,078
Location
Kakabeka Falls, Ontario, Canada
Thanks for your "Nerd" help!
I emailed Cloudflare, but only bots answered so far. My question was if the "Pro" version would handle my free SSL, and if there would be any issues regarding Woo Commerce and Email. I don't want to make the jump until I know for sure. I can afford the Pro, but the next level up would cost way too much.

I have blocked the most common China IPs in my htaccces now, based on an up to date IP generator.
Also added the IPs directly that were hitting the site. Will see what happens at 9:00pm tonight!

Anything we can do to get some traffic.... I am all ears. Seems we just can't muster the magic.
I know... start posting kitten videos instead, and forget this DIY stuff!

Brad
 
Joined
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Messages
563
Location
Fernley, NV
Website
miscdotgeek.com
Sure thing! As far as I know, CloudFlare will indeed handle your free SSL. Your host should be able to help you get that set up correctly in DNS. Heck even their free tier can handle that. No need to spend $$ needlessly :)

As for getting more traffic, I'd see if you can mine your old forum for blog post fodder, even if you can't put the forum itself back online. Make it a "protected directory" in cPanel so it's only accessible via a username/password of your choosing. I know there were some sticky threads in it that were really good, and could be summarized into blog posts, which could then be sticky'd in the current forum. Free content! You could name them "Archive Treasures" or something and make it a regular feature on your blog and newsletter. You could also SEO optimize it a bit for keywords to draw in more organic traffic. I really think doing more youtube stuff will help too, but I'm far from an experienced youtuber :p

Edit: totally include kitty videos at random spots in your videos strictly for entertainment value LOL
 

Radical Brad

Garage Hacker!
Staff member
Joined
Mar 13, 1999
Messages
6,078
Location
Kakabeka Falls, Ontario, Canada
Looks like my China blacklist held out last night!
The main site and forum did not go down between 9:00 pm and 10:00 pm as usual.
Take that Baidu, your wire has been cut!

Oh, almost forgot my random kitten picture.
Have to keep up with what the world wants these days!

3672

Not my lathe, of course!

Brad
 
Joined
Mar 3, 2013
Messages
1
Location
Australia
Hi Brad,
I've been gone a lone time, life got in the way etc.
So the old forum is gone for good?
There was sooo much awesome info, i used to spend hours searching though to get hints and tips for my build.
The local stuff was really helpful for me here in Australia and the conversions etc were a god send
Sorry if this is a dumb question
Cheers
BAD
 

Radical Brad

Garage Hacker!
Staff member
Joined
Mar 13, 1999
Messages
6,078
Location
Kakabeka Falls, Ontario, Canada
Yup, it had to go.
I could not afford the time or bandwidth to keep the old system running.
The new forum is coming along nicely, buy the reality is that every decade I will most likely have to dump and restart.
That is just the way tech is.... disposable like everything that we don't make ourselves.
The only thing permanent in this life is our desire to.... DIY!

Brad



Hi Brad,
I've been gone a lone time, life got in the way etc.
So the old forum is gone for good?
There was sooo much awesome info, i used to spend hours searching though to get hints and tips for my build.
The local stuff was really helpful for me here in Australia and the conversions etc were a god send
Sorry if this is a dumb question
Cheers
BAD
 
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