The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: sellickbhoy on September 26, 2011, 12:32:38 pm

Title: Forum availability issues?
Post by: sellickbhoy on September 26, 2011, 12:32:38 pm
is it just me, or does the forum tend to go down each evening?

(sorry, this has probably been answered loads of times!!)



Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: Dan on September 26, 2011, 12:55:25 pm
The forum itself isn't going down - it's been online 24/7 since being relaunched.

There are still lingering DNS issues for TalkTalk users though - are you a TalkTalk customer by any chance?  ???

Are you seeing the old forum with maintenance message?
Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: sellickbhoy on September 26, 2011, 01:00:14 pm
thats it Dan, I am a talktalk customer.

I just get the "forum being upgraded" message

Only seems to happen later on in the evening.

cheers
Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: white-blazes on September 26, 2011, 07:33:29 pm
thats it Dan, I am a talktalk customer.

I just get the "forum being upgraded" message

Only seems to happen later on in the evening.

cheers

same here  :)
Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: bazzais on September 26, 2011, 08:12:10 pm
I dont know why these major ISPs still hang onto old dns records to save their bandwidth - the whole point of having a time to live setting - is to force DNS's to re-apply to a more authoritative source at the suggested period.

Baz
Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: bazzais on September 26, 2011, 08:13:24 pm
CTRL - F5 normally sorts it as its a local issue more often.

Baz
Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: doganjo on September 26, 2011, 08:16:52 pm
CTRL - F5 normally sorts it as its a local issue more often.

Baz
I did that, but i ma with O2 - and even then I had to do it three times before it finally worked! ::)
Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: bazzais on September 26, 2011, 08:30:28 pm
Its crazy isnt it - the biggest troubles of a website owner - cached (old information)  - the biggest bain for a 'webmaster'.  Its why thing just cant be 'changed' - but only introduced and 'rolled' out.


The majority of problems in this sense are ones caused but not taking into consideration the standards applied becasue of a short term problem encountered by your connectivity/technology.

Baz
Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: bazzais on September 26, 2011, 08:33:16 pm
You can incidentally not use your isp's DNS for requests and use a more authoritative one - but it would need a page to explain :)

baz
Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: mab on September 26, 2011, 09:06:35 pm
Quote
Only seems to happen later on in the evening.

That's interesting - I can only get on to TAS in the evening.

I've tried emptying the cashe, I've tried Mozilla firefox, IE and Safari (on the macbook), and it still won't work.  >:(

I had an extended discussion with Talktalk which ended with their "we'll look into it over the
 next few days"

I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed  ::)

mab
Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: HappyHippy on September 27, 2011, 09:00:31 am
I've been having the same problems - and yup, I'm a talktalk customer too  ::)
I say "am", after 14 days of emails, phonecalls and terrible customer service (never mind the broadband issue) I'm switching back to BT  :-\
Karen  :wave:
Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: waterhouse on September 27, 2011, 09:23:26 am
Surely nothing can be as bad as BT.   The hours I've spent on the god awful system while they "experience unusual volumes of call".  I moved to O2 who have been brilliant so far. 
Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: Snapper on September 27, 2011, 09:50:58 am
Our ISP is Plusnet , we've been with them for over 3 years and had no problems at all. They are also very competative on price.
I'd recommend giving them a try.
Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: Dan on September 27, 2011, 05:06:08 pm
There are two ways of overcoming this permanently yourself, neither is terribly straighforward but neither is terribly technical either.

1. Use DNS other than that provided by your ISP. Google Public DNS (http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/) is probably the best option here, and there are full instructions if you follow the link.

2. Edit your local hosts file so you force your computer to pick-up the right IP address for accidentalsmallholder.net and www.accidentalsmallholder.net (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net). Here are a few resources:

Windows 7 & Windows Vista (http://www.windowsreference.com/windows-7/edit-hosts-file-in-windows-7-windows-vista/)
Windows XP and Mac (http://practice.chatserve.com/hosts.html)

The IP address for TAS is 94.236.110.161

If anyone wants to do this and needs any help please PM me.
Title: Re: Forum availability issues?
Post by: bazzais on September 27, 2011, 10:18:32 pm
In high volume periods of traffic, you'll find that you isp will start using its contingency measures to try and smooth the customer experience.

Unless a cable network - BT still own all the technology - which is why they are the only way forward.

The networking of the UK should be (re) nationalised, but thats another thread.

Thanks Dan, never looked into the Google Public DNS - although I dont like google - I love them. . . so efficient, so right, . . .

:)

Baz