English Chess Forum

Is it just me, or is there a problem with the ECF website this morning? I'm seeing a message that says:

This Account Has Been Suspended
Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.

The grading database is still OK.

Ian Kingston wrote:Is it just me, or is there a problem with the ECF website this morning? I'm seeing a message that says:

This Account Has Been Suspended
Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.

The grading database is still OK.

That is not good is it!

I host and run the grading database and so that is seperate from any of the ECF offerings

Running from the chessuk.org domain which Duncan setup is a bit of a mess to be honest...

I am not keen on the current ECF website/IT setup

I agree with Carl : this is is not a good hosting solution. I'm sure that the Battle IT experts are on the case and a few more ten pences are being inserted into the slot.


Maybe the DCMS grant has been pulled already : I was expecting it to be pulled in March 2010.

I like the way they say "Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible." and then not provide any contact details. What a super ISP!

You wouldn't get this from http://www.zen.co.uk/ which I have recommended and is used by many IT professionals in the UK.

All the other ECF sites that I host and run are up. I get at least a months notice before being cut-off.

John Upham wrote:I agree with Carl : this is is not a good hosting solution. I'm sure that the Battle IT experts are on the case and a few more ten pences are being inserted into the slot.

Even the name servers point to chessuk.org giving no redunancy, it's horrid even if you have paid the bill!

Carl Hibbard wrote:

John Upham wrote:I agree with Carl : this is is not a good hosting solution. I'm sure that the Battle IT experts are on the case and a few more ten pences are being inserted into the slot.

Even the name servers point to chessuk.org giving no redunancy, it's horrid even if you have paid the bill!

Its appalling : the whole thing is on a tight rope and is hosted in the US. Try making contact with these guys during working hours.

I bet a message has been constructed for the home page saying that the site is down. I recall being asked to do that many years ago!

John Upham wrote:You wouldn't get this from http://www.zen.co.uk/ which I have recommended and is used by many IT professionals in the UK.

I prefer a finer level of control and tend to register domains, control dns and host with seperate companies - but then I run a lot of sites

Carl Hibbard wrote:

John Upham wrote:You wouldn't get this from http://www.zen.co.uk/ which I have recommended and is used by many IT professionals in the UK.

I prefer a finer level of control and tend to register domains, control dns and host with seperate companies - but then I run a lot of sites

The package I have with them allows full control, DNS, SMTP etc. I don't edit the zone files and BIND config personally but the GUI does it for me.

Its not quite as fine as admining the boxes at root level personally but I don't want to manage the hardware myself.

John Upham wrote:Its not quite as fine as admining the boxes at root level personally but I don't want to manage the hardware myself.

I need at some point to organise dns failure (ip switching...) for this site so it isn't possible for it to go down!

However that is harder than the grading site as the database is not static, so a little more planning is needed

I do not normally quote Board e-mails on the Forum, but I think that I might reasonably make an exception today for the following communication from the webmaster.

Hello from a beleagured ECF Office. Please resend anything that you've sent since 12.00 midday yesterday to this temporary webmail address ([email protected]). If all goes well, normal service will be resumed before day's end. I shall be taking steps to find a new ISP today, leaving Duncan Burbiudge's firm of choice behind at last.

John,

I take it that the service renewal invoice was not paid?

Do you think that the office is able and willing to take advice from IT Professionals who use this forum?

J.

John Philpott wrote:I do not normally quote Board e-mails on the Forum, but I think that I might reasonably make an exception today for the following communication from the webmaster.

Hello from a beleagured ECF Office. Please resend anything that you've sent since 12.00 midday yesterday to this temporary webmail address ([email protected]). If all goes well, normal service will be resumed before day's end. I shall be taking steps to find a new ISP today, leaving Duncan Burbiudge's firm of choice behind at last.

A little more planning is needed - with name servers from the same domain (and ip...) a move to alternate location is going to take quite some time to organise!

You also need access to the database holding the CMS data

I take it back, the "A" record has been dropped to 60 and so at least someone somewhere has some clue!

Not only the CMS data but an ISP who offers Joomla would be handy. I've not looked into this but I would guess they are less common.

One thing I'm not clear about was how much notice the Office received of the account suspension?

Obviously the Office Manager would have made sure that this information was well known when Duncan left the ship.

J.

John Upham wrote:Do you think that the office is able and willing to take advice from IT Professionals who use this forum?

I/we are happy to assist anyone from the ECF if they are willing to register with their full name - this will be perhaps the third time of me insisting on this rule

Yes, I always know who you are