Forum Outage Update

[Tamir A.]

Apologies for the large forum outage. My hosting company had a really crazy catastrophic scenario occur. I'm pasting a link to an explanation below for anyone who cares to read it. But I might explore finding a different place to host the site moving forward as this was pretty nuts.

https://forums.mddhosting.com/topic/1582-major-outage-092118-09222018/

[jackb]

But I might explore finding a different place to host the site moving forward as this was pretty nuts.

I will readily admit that I was freaking out a little bit inside, especially after the 2011 .com loss.

Whatever it takes to keep this site hosted, I will gladly pitch into help pay for it. I think I recall that proposal arising last time, too. I’m sure plenty of other regular users would be willing to do the same. DMCTalk has been here 24/7 (minus that .com loss/restart) for me the last 9 years as an owner, and I’ve took it for granted until this weekend. I don’t want to be ungrateful.

[novadmc]

Thanks for the update.

While we're fixing things, is it possible to also get HTTPS working correctly so that logins are better secured/protected (as well as other traffic to/from the site)?
Currently when trying to view the site via HTTPS, everything south of the top banner gets all jacked up.

[Tamir A.]

Is this https issue new since the outage? Or was this an issue you were having before as well?

T.

Thanks for the update.

While we're fixing things, is it possible to also get HTTPS working correctly so that logins are better secured/protected (as well as other traffic to/from the site)?
Currently when trying to view the site via HTTPS, everything south of the top banner gets all jacked up.

[Ron]

Is this https issue new since the outage? Or was this an issue you were having before as well?


T.

Since a long time before the outage, to get things to 'look' correct (with cookies/cache etc all cleared), I have to enter http://dmctalk.org/forum.php or dmctalk.org/forum.php (not secure). I assumed it was part of my admin/mod panel(s) problem....

This will point your guy to the problem(s):
Enter https://dmctalk.org -- It gives a page like novadmc posted (URL is https://....., secure, but all text).
From there, clicking any link on the page takes you to http://....., non secure), EXCEPT the offsite link to vBulletin at the bottom.

Once logged in, using "www" (i.e., http://www.... or https://www....) with any DMCTalk address will give a page that offers logging in. Secure or not, the user is really logged in still and clicking any (on site) link gives a page that is not secure. Using neither (i.e., www.dmctalk.org) redirects to http://www.dmctalk.org/cgi-sys/defaultwebpage.cgi which gives the "SORRY!" page.

P.S. The site is going down and up as I type this?? Hopefully fixes, propagation....

[SamHill]

My tablet still went to the jacked up page. I cleared my cookies and it was fixed.

[FABombjoy]

Is this https issue new since the outage? Or was this an issue you were having before as well?

Some of the vbulletin configs have specified absolute URLs to load certain things, like javascript & css.

There is also an issue with session data set on the non-secure being unreadable on the secure (the double-login problem).

Honestly the best solution is to force the entire site to use https and redirect all non-secure traffic to secure using rewrites. You'll get better google rankings too, if that's important

[Tamir A.]

I understand your concern, but rest assured, nothing like the 2011 .com loss will occur again. I do my own personal backups of the site independent of the hosting company, and so this outage should be a big anomaly. In the event the hosting company were ever to lose the site, I have it on multiple drives.

I appreciate your offer to help, but no need. Happy to provide the site and to continue doing so ad free.

Best,
T.

I will readily admit that I was freaking out a little bit inside, especially after the 2011 .com loss.

Whatever it takes to keep this site hosted, I will gladly pitch into help pay for it. I think I recall that proposal arising last time, too. I’m sure plenty of other regular users would be willing to do the same. DMCTalk has been here 24/7 (minus that .com loss/restart) for me the last 9 years as an owner, and I’ve took it for granted until this weekend. I don’t want to be ungrateful.

[Jonathan]

I understand your concern, but rest assured, nothing like the 2011 .com loss will occur again. I do my own personal backups of the site independent of the hosting company, and so this outage should be a big anomaly. In the event the hosting company were ever to lose the site, I have it on multiple drives.

I appreciate your offer to help, but no need. Happy to provide the site and to continue doing so ad free.

Best,
T.

And I, among others, appreciate you providing the forum to so many of us that use it. And ad free. Good grief... I try to get on the Pontiac G8 forum every so often and that thing is one big distracting advertisement. Very thankful that is not what this one is like. Thanks again, Tamir.

[Josh]

And I, among others, appreciate you providing the forum to so many of us that use it. And ad free. Good grief... I try to get on the Pontiac G8 forum every so often and that thing is one big distracting advertisement. Very thankful that is not what this one is like. Thanks again, Tamir.

X2, its something you take for granted. Ads really do clutter up any sort of website.